H. Irving Hancock

“ Neither do I care to take too many chances of having our vacation changed into a tragedy. I've never had hydrophobia, but I've a strong notion that it wouldn't be pleasant. I know just how you fellows feel. You hate to lose your fun."
"We do hate to lose our fun," agreed Darry.
"And yet you don't want to have an encounter with a dog that has hydrophobia."
"We don't," approved Tom Reade. "Dick, you have a truly wonderful intellect when it comes to successful guessing."
"There's a cloud of dust up the road to the west," discovered
Greg Holmes. ”

“ In a jiffy Tom and Greg were also in hot pursuit, though young Prescott managed to keep somewhat in the lead.
But the object of their pursuit took alarm, too, and gaining the road, flew like the wind.
"Hold on there, you!" challenged Dick. "We want a little conversation with you at once."
At that vocal warning the fugitive put on an even better burst of speed.
"It must be a man!" exclaimed Dick. "He evidently understood me."
"No use for you to try to get away!" shouted Reade. "We intend to get you if we have to chase you all the way to the seaboard." ”

“ Leaving the lantern in the tent, Dick & Co. gathered in the darkness in the open air.
"What do you make of it, Dick?" Dave asked.
"Just as much as you fellows do—-no more," came the reply.
"If it isn't anything that carries danger to us," proposed Darrin, "we may as well go back and to bed."
"All who are sleepy enough may go back and turn in," Prescott suggested. "I'll stay up and watch for a while."
"So will I," promised Reade.
But it turned out that none of the party wanted to sleep. Even Darrin said he was interested enough in this newest mystery to stay up and try to fathom it. ”

“ How could the frightened, dazed fugitives know that it was Dick Prescott, pursuing, and dropping lighted strings of fire crackers as he ran?
"It's a running fight, and coming right our way!" gasped Bert.
"Let's drop down and crawl to safety!" almost screamed Bayliss.
"No, you don't!" retorted Dodge angrily. "Our only safety lies in getting into that car and throwing the engine wide open. I don't care if we wreck the car if only we can cover a couple of miles of ground first. Run! Hustle!" ”

“ Bert, however, was soon quick to discover this. He moderated the savagery of his own attack somewhat, sparring cleverly for a chance to feint and then land a face blow.
Dick gave ground readily when it served his purpose, though he did not run.
"Keep back, fellows!" called Tom Reade. "Don't get near enough to interfere with either man."
"Don't interfere with either the man or the thing, you mean," interposed Danny Grin.
"Shut up, Dalzell!" ordered Reade with generous roughness. "Remember that you're not fighting Dodge, and that it's unfair to say anything to anger him. Be fair!" ”

“ If there's another explosion like that last one, then some of us ought to travel straight in the direction of the noise."
"And run straight into the hard, swift punch that is behind that noise!" muttered Danny Grin, with one of those facial contortions that had earned him his nickname.
"Whoever starts to playing with a boy's curiosity must be ready to abide by the consequences," chuckled Prescott. "Now, if anyone has started something against us, then we'll run the rascal to the earth."
"You don't suppose it's Dodge's work?" whispered Greg. ”

“ Tom asserted at last. "Even if we do, it will be a drowned man."
"I guess we may as well get back to camp," Danny agreed. "Yet it is going to be an awfully creepy night for all of us, with this weird mystery of the lake on our minds."
"Don't paddle yet," begged Tom. "I'll give a hail, and see if that brings any answer."
Raising his voice, Reade shouted lustily:
"Hello, there, friend? Are you safe? Want any help?"
"Anything we can do for you, friend?" bawled Dan Dalzell, in his most resonant tone. ”

“ By the time that Tom had his tackle in shape Dick and Dave pronounced the canoe wholly water tight. Dan Dalzell, equipped with one of the paddles, took a kneeling position just back of the bow seat. Tom got in next, squatting with his face to the stern of the canoe. None of the others were to go. At a pinch this ten-foot canoe might hold three, but fishermen as a rule do not care to have extra passengers in their boats.
"Give 'em a cheer, boys!" cried Darry, as Danny Grin, with a few deft strokes of the paddle, propelled the craft away from the shore. ”

“ Dick smiled.
"Let me have the sneak!" begged Dave, stepping forward, but Dick pushed his churn back. Tom Reade took tight hold of Dave's right arm.
With the prospects of an encounter vanishing, Bert Dodge's valor went up tenfold.
"Get up your guard!" he roared. "I've been taking boxing lessons and I want to teach you one or two things."
"I haven't been taking any boxing lessons lately," Dick remarked with composure.
"Oh, that's why you're afraid to act at all like a man, is it?" scoffed Bert in his harshest voice. ”

“ Dick went on, "as we're to travel light."
"As we don't take a horse along," suggested Tom, "then I take it that we are not going to carry any planking for a tent floor."
"We can't very well do that," Dick answered him. "Fellows, the real thing for us to do, on this trip, is to learn how to move fast and light. We must learn how to do without many things and yet have just as good a time."
"I think that's good sense," murmured Dave. "At the same time, I'll admit, at first blush, that I don't care particularly for the motion of the push cart. ”

“ In this conclusion, however, it was wholly probable that Darry was wrong. He would have been sure of it, himself, had he been privileged to hear the talk of Bert Dodge and his companion as the enraged and humiliated pair drove swiftly over the rough road on their way back to Gridley.
"I can't think of anything bad enough to call Dick Prescott," growled Bert, who sat at the steering wheel.
"Don't try to," grumbled Bayliss. "It would poison your mind."
"The mucker!"
"The sneak!"
"The coward! He fights only when he has his gang with him." ”

“ So back to camp they went, going by the open road as much of the way as served their purpose.
"There's the camp," muttered Tom, as they caught sight of a light between the trees. "Why the fellows have started a campfire."
"What do you say if we slip up on them and give them something to jump about?" laughed Greg.
"That might work with some people," negatived Dick, "but Darry is there, and he's impulsive. He might half kill us before he discovered his mistake. O-o-o-h, Dave!"
"Hello!" answered Darrin, coming away from the campfire. ”

“ Exercise brings hunger, and hunger is the best sauce that food can have—-as we all ought to know."
"Exercise?" repeated Tom, with a laugh. "Yes; I've had that this afternoon, all right. You had me guessing when you told me you had such an important job for me. I didn't know, then, that you wanted me to boss the raft building and transporting the camp over here. It was exercise, all right. We ought to have taken an entire day to it."
Dick rose with the frying pan, dropping hot trout on four plates in turn, omitting only Holmes. ”

“ The situation was growing too warm for Dave Darrin, though Dick was still smiling.
Darry jumped to his feet, advancing upon Bert Dodge, who retreated a couple of steps.
"Dodge," Dave began, "you want to put a halter on your tongue. You can't come here to this camp and call too many names. You don't amount to much, of course, and nothing that you know how to say should be treated very seriously. It would be hard for a rascal like yourself to be really insulting to anyone possessed of the average degree of honor. ”

“ Hazelton remained to watch the camp.
"Now, let's hustle!" urged Dick, as the car rolled out of sight.
"When we get back to camp we have many long hours of work to do."
"Work of what kind?" inquired Tom.
"First of all," replied Prescott, with his most mysterious air, "we are going to build, close to camp, a make-believe ice-box. Then we're going to fill the box with ice." ”

“ For answer Greg held up a crotched stick with not a single trout dangling therefrom.
"There's more knack to this game than I can catch," muttered Darry disconsolately, "but I'd give a good deal to get the knack of it."
"No man save the first trout fisherman of all ever learned without a teacher," Dick assured his chum. "Greg, you take a place farther down the stream, and I'll stay with Dave and try to show him some of the tricks. You may have my pole and line, Greg, for I shall be busy watching Dave." ”

“ If we come to a bad stretch of road, then two fellows can manage the cart at a time. The scheme saves us a lot of expense, fellows."
"Will all the food go on the cart, tool" asked Dave.
"Each one of us can carry some of the food," Dick replied.
Then his eye, roving from face to face, took in the fact that his chums were not impressed with the proposed method of transportation.
"Cheer up, fellows," he begged. "You'll find that it will be pretty easy, after all."
"I'd rather believe you, Dick, than have it proved to me," was Tom Reade's dejected answer. ”

“ He wanted, with all his heart, to see some of the rare sport that Dick had described, but he didn't want to be unfair to anyone.
"I won't be lonesome," protested Hazelton. "We have some good books along, and I can read one of them."
"But what if the camp should be molested?" asked Greg. "You know, there is at least the Man with the Haunting Face, and there may be others."
"Whoever tries to molest this camp will be molested in his turn, I promise you," laughed Harry. "I'm no weakling, so run right along, Holmesy. ”

“ Dick answered, "yet how would last night's rascals expect us to connect the bang concert with Tom and Dan's canoe trip and discovery yesterday afternoon?"
"There's something in that idea," Reade admitted. "The unknowns might hardly expect us to show as much human reasoning power as all that. Yet I'm of the opinion that we'll continue to rest badly at night as long as we continue to feel any unhealthy curiosity about the lake mystery. In other words, my belief is that our interest in the affairs of perfect strangers is regarded by the unknowns as rudeness that must be rebuked." ”

“ Before Dick could answer Darrin broke in with an emphatic:
"Not much! The lake mystery affair is one of too large calibre for Bert Dodge's poor, anaemic brain. There's something bigger and smarter than a mere Dodge behind the doings of this night."
"It's one o'clock, fellows," said Dick, after walking over to the lantern for a glimpse at his watch. "Tom, Greg and I will stay up until three o'clock and be ready to jump out together at the first sign of anything happening. The rest of you turn in and get some sleep. We'll call you at three o'clock and then take our turn at the pillow." ”

“ It was about ten o'clock the next forenoon when this man, accompanied by another man with the same kind of boottops, strode into the camp of Dick & Co.
"Are you a constable from the village, sir?" inquired young Prescott.
"No; we haven't any constable in the village," replied the farmer, chewing at a straw. "I'm the Overseer of the Poor."
"We'll take you to where we think the man is hiding," Dick replied. "Tom and Dave, suppose you two hurry ahead of us, around the woods, and stand where you can head our man of mystery off in case he tries to run the other way. Dave knows where the place is." ”