“Well, what of it?” returned Whopper.  “Our time is our own.  I hope we get at least one deer.”

The young hunters soon passed out of sight of the shore, and a moment later another rowboat appeared, containing Ham Spink and his particular crony, Dick Bush.

“Say, Ham, did you hear what they said?” asked Dick Bush, eagerly.

“I certainly did, Dick,” drawled Spink.

“They expect to be gone all day.”

“Exactly.”

“This will give us the chance we have been looking for.”

“By jove! that’s so!”

“We can go over to their camp and do just as we please, and they will never know who did it.”

“Not unless they come back sooner than we expect.”

“We can stop them from coming back in a hurry.”

“I don’t see how.”

“Over yonder is their boat.  We can tow that along.  When they find the boat gone they’ll have to walk around the end of the lake, and that will take a long time.”

“So it will.  Do you think it is safe to take the boat now?”

“We can wait a little while.”

They waited, and at last, thinking the coast clear, pulled the other craft from the bushes and tied it to the stern of their own boat.  Then they wound up their lines, for they had been fishing, and lost no time in rowing to their camp, where they had left their cronies lolling in the sun, smoking cigarettes and playing cards.

“Hullo! where did you pick up the boat?” asked one of the other boys.

“It belongs to the Snap Dodge crowd,” answered Ham Spink.  “Boys, we have got the chance of our lives to get square with that crowd now,” he added.

Matters were speedily explained, and all of the dudish boys present voted it would be just the thing to go over to the other camp and “make a mix of it,” as they expressed it.

No time was lost in getting away from their own camp, and it did not take them long to get to the opposite shore of the lake.  Here they took the second rowboat and hid it under some overhanging bushes.

“We’ll make it look as if it drifted here,” said Ham Spink, and this was done, a broken line dragging in the water over the bow.

Arriving at the other camp, the dudish boys proceeded to make themselves at home.  Feeling certain Snap’s crowd would not return for some time, they rekindled the fire and cut themselves some meat and took whatever of the stores they wanted.  Inside of an hour a good dinner was ready and they sat down to this with gusto.

“Nothing like living on the fat of the land,” observed Ham Spink.  “Must say, their coffee is all right.”

“That’s because you made it good and strong,” said another of the boys.

“Here’s a fine can of condensed milk,” said another, helping himself liberally.

“I found some fine sardines,” put in still another.  “And here is a tin of fancy crackers.”