from Andy.

"You horrid boy!" cried Martha. "Jack, you ought to box his ears for
that."

The girls were shown over the camp, and even taken down to the rifle
ranges, in the meantime being told about the very excellent scores
Jack and Fred had made.

It had been arranged that the girls were to be away from Clearwater
Hall for two days. They were to spend one day with the boys at Camp
Barlight and the following day near Camp Huxwell, where Alice Strobell
had an aunt living who had promised to take them all in for the night.

"We'll come over here early in the morning for you boys," said Martha,
"and then all of us can visit Camp Huxwell together. I've already sent
word to dad, and Mary has sent word to Uncle Sam, so they will be on
the lookout for us."

"That will be fine!" cried Jack. "I've been wanting to see that camp
ever since we got here, but, somehow, I couldn't get away to do it."

"And I want to see my dad, too," added Fred enthusiastically.

The twins were likewise eager to see the government camp and their
uncles, but they were somewhat depressed, and could not help but show
it.

"I know what's the matter," whispered Martha to her brother. "They are
thinking about their father. Poor Uncle Tom! What a shame it is that
he couldn't join father and Uncle Sam."

"Well, you know how they arranged it," answered the young captain.
"Somebody had to stay at home to manage the business."

While the Rovers and their chums were showing the girls around the
camp, Gabe Werner and Bill Glutts eyed them enviously.

"I don't see why they are permitted to have girls come here and visit
them," growled the ex-lieutenant.

"Girls are all out of place in a camp like this," added the wholesale
butcher's son. "You can't have the same amount of freedom with those
skirts around."

"I just heard something," put in Codfish, who had come up a moment
before. "The Rovers and those other fellows are going to take the
girls out into the woods for a picnic."

"Where did you get that news?" asked Glutts quickly.

"I heard the cook telling one of his helpers. They are fixing up a
great big bunch of grub for them."

"Huh! some folks have nerve," grumbled Werner. "I suppose he'll let
'em have all the best things there are in camp and we can take what's
left."

"Chopped-up onions, for instance," and Glutts grinned.

"I'll onion them, you see if I don't!" cried Gabe Werner. And then he
suddenly caught his crony by the arm. "Say