“No,” returned Rand, “I thought maybe he was using them to dredge for clams.  But, speaking of clams, which would you sooner do or go a-fishing?”

“Go a-fishing!” cried Donald and Pepper, starting off on a run down the hill to the boat-house.

“Well,” began Pepper as soon as they were fairly inside the house, “didn’t I hear somebody say breakfast?” at the same time starting to get out of the locker the various utensils that the boys kept at the house to cook with on their fishing trips.

“Hold on there, Pepper,” remonstrated Donald, as Pepper continued to pull out one pan after another.  “We don’t need ail that stuff.  What do you think you are going to do, get up a banquet?  If you are going to use ail those pots and pans, son, you will have to wash them by your lonesome.”

“Huh!” replied Pepper, “there wouldn’t be any novelty about that.  The dish-washing seems to gravitate my way anyhow.”

“That’s because you use so many more of them than the rest of us,” explained Donald.

“Why, I don’t use any more of them than you do,” expostulated Pepper.  “Well, maybe you don’t use any more,” admitted Don with a judicial air, “but you use them more.”

Pepper was about to retort in kind when there was a quick step outside the door and an alert-looking, brown-haired, brown-eyed boy, with his cap perched upon the back of his head, dashed into the room.

“Hello, fellows!” he cried, “I thought I wasn’t going to get here in time, but I see I struck it at the psychological moment.  I am as hungry as a bull pup.”

“Hello, Jack!” responded Rand, “we began to think you weren’t coming.  What’s the latest in Creston?”

“Oh, there is something worth while to-day,” replied Jack, drawing a box up to the plank that served as a table.  “Pass me some of those biscuits, Pepper, if you don’t mind sparing a few, so I can eat while I talk.”

“Better not try it, Jack,” cautioned Rand, “for if you eat as fast as you talk or talk as fast as you eat you will either starve yourself or choke.”

“All right,” laughed Jack, “if that is the case I’ll eat first and talk afterwards,” and this he would do, notwithstanding the pleadings of the others, anxious to share in any exciting news.

CHAPTER III

TWO AND TWO

While the boys are finishing their breakfast it may be well to introduce them to the reader.  The four, who were known among their acquaintances as the “inseparables,” had been classmates for several terms at School No.  I, of Creston, from which they had graduated the previous year and were now students of the Hilltop Academy, where they were preparing for college.

Rand—­Randolph in full, surname Peyton—­who was slightly the eldest of the four, was the nephew of Mr. Scott, president of the Creston National Bank.  He was a native of Virginia, having come to Creston after the death of his father some two years before this time, with his mother and sister.  He was bright, but inclined to be indolent, except when aroused, when his energy knew no limit.  He was slow in speech, having the soft Southern drawl with a tendency to slur his r’s, and was a natural leader among his companions, both in their sports and their studies.