"I'll confess that I should be lonesome without you," agreed the guide with a nod.

"There, I'm glad someone in this outfit has the sense to recognize a good thing when he sees it. How about a fire for cooking?"

"I will build the fire," cried Tad, proceeding at once to heap the sticks into a little pyramid under the crane that Cale had arranged. Butler eyed the contrivance critically. "It is plain to be seen that someone has been camping before. That is an excellent idea."

Tad soon had a blazing fire going. In the meantime, Stacy had hastened to fill the kettle, while Vaughn got out the edibles, the others busying themselves in setting the table, which in this instance was a blanket stretched over four stakes driven into the ground, with saplings for stringers, and over which the blanket was stretched taut.

None of these arrangements escaped the keen eyes of Tad Butler. Soon the odor of boiling coffee and frying ba. . . Read More