“Gee!” exclaimed “Brownie.”  “A thousand dollars!  He’s fooling, isn’t he?  Why, I thought we’d get maybe three hundred!”

“A thousand isn’t a cent too much,” said Perry.  “Come to think of it, fellows, I earned that much myself!”

“Just a minute, fellows,” said Steve, interrupting the jeers that greeted Perry’s statement.  “What are we going to do with the money when we get it?”

There was a moment of silence.  Then Tom Corwin inquired:  “Do with it?  How do you mean, do with it, Steve?  I thought it would be divided up pro rata.”

“Of course,” agreed Cas and Ossie in unison.

“Wait a minute,” said Phil.  “Steve’s got something on his mind.  Let’s hear it.”

Steve swung himself to the porch rail and faced the half-circle of boys.  “It’s just an idea,” he began, “and if you don’t like it you’ve only got to say so.  As I look at it, fellows, this club has been a good deal of a success.  If we haven’t had any whopping big adventures, we’ve had some mild ones—­”

“Great Jumping Jehoshaphat!” muttered Han.  “What do you call adventures?”

Steve smiled and went on, “At any rate, we’ve had a whole lot of fun.  At least, I have.”  He looked about him inquiringly.

“You bet we have!” answered Joe heartily, and the rest echoed him.

“Of course, we got the club up just for this Summer, I suppose, but I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t make it a—­a permanent affair.”

“Bully!” exclaimed Perry.  “Second the motion!”

“Sit down!” growled Wink.

“There’s next Summer coming, fellows.  We could do something like this again if we wanted to.  We needn’t make a trip in motor-boats, but we could do something just as good.  Well, now, why not take this money when we get it and stow it away in the Club treasury instead of spending it?  Then we’d have enough to do almost anything we liked next year.  If we each got our seventy-seven dollars, or whatever the shares might be, we’d have it spent in a month and never know where it got to.  But if we put it in the bank at interest we’d—­we’d have something.  If you don’t like the scheme, just say so.  I’m willing to do whatever the rest of you say, only I thought—­”

“It’s a corking idea,” declared Harry Corwin enthusiastically.  “You’re dead right, Steve, too.  Seventy-seven dollars would last about two weeks with me.  Why hang it, I’ve had it spent ten times already, and each time for some fool thing I didn’t really want!  I say, let’s keep the Club going, fellows, and put the money in the treasury.  And let Phil deposit it in a bank.  At four per cent, or whatever it is banks pay you, it would come to nearly—­nearly thirty dollars by next Summer.  And thirty dollars would buy us gasoline for a month!”

“Right you are,” agreed Wink.  “We’ll make a real club of it.”

“How about the rest of you?” asked Steve.