It was presently made evident to our friends that the persons ahead were Ham Spink, Carl Dudder and a lad named Dick Bush, who had in former years been a close personal friend to Ham.

“Wonder where they are going?” asked Snap.

“Down to the lake,” answered the doctor’s son.  “Most likely to where they left their boat.”

“Let us keep behind them and out of sight,” suggested Giant.  “If they see us they may follow us up and damage our boat after we are gone.”

So, although they kept the Spink crowd well in sight, they took good care not to show themselves.

Reaching the lake shore, Ham Spink and his friends came to a halt behind a clump of willows overhanging the water.  Close by the others saw a rowboat tied up.

“That must be their boat,” whispered Snap.  “Most likely they came for the same purpose that we did—–­to get supplies.”

“Listen!” whispered the doctor’s son.  “I just heard somebody mention my name.”

“Their boat must be somewhere along here,” they heard Ham Spink exclaim.  “And if it is—–­We’ll fix it, all right,” finished Carl Dudder.  “Well, that’s all right,” expostulated Dick Bush.

“But we don’t want to do anything unlawful.  They might have us arrested.”

“They won’t know who did it,” answered Ham.

“What do you think of doing if you locate their boat?” asked Dick.

“We’ll take out the supplies and hide ’em, and then fill the boat with rocks and sink her,” answered Ham.

“That will be doing ’em up brown!” chuckled Carl.

“Well, I don’t know about this,” answered Dick Bush doubtfully.  He was not quite so lawless in his ideas as were the others.

“Oh, it will be all right; we won’t hurt the boat any,” answered Ham.  “Come on; the quicker we locate the boat the better.  As soon as we’ve fixed their boat we can come back here and get our things and hurry back to camp.”  And then the three boys moved along down the lake shore.

“Well, wouldn’t that jar you?” cried Snap, when the other crowd was gone.  “Hide our supplies and sink our boat!  Well, I guess not!”

“They haven’t turned in the right direction to find our boat,” returned the doctor’s son.  “We can get it out of the way before they come back.”

“We ought to pay them for this,” murmured Giant.  “Let us take their boat and row it up the lake.  It will give ’em something to do to find it.”

“That’s the talk!” cried Snap.  “As the old saying goes, ’what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.’  Jump in and we’ll take the boat to where we left our own.”

They soon had the Spink rowboat untied, and leaping aboard they shoved the craft out into the lake.  Then Snap and Shep took the oars, and they were soon moving up Firefly Lake.  They kept close to the overhanging trees and bushes, so that the other crowd might not discover what was taking place.