What may be called a mystery was settled within a few minutes after Alvin, Chester and Mike came out of the wood and sat down for a brief while on the porch. Most of the other Boy had gone inside for the night, though the of voices showed the majority were awake. The laugh of Master Hall was heard in response to some jest, he being, as has been said, as much of a youngster as the most youthful of the troop.  
A tall form to view in the starlight, and coming up the steps sat down beside Mike with a greeting to all three. He was recognized as Hoke Butler, a member of the Stag Patrol.
 
“If you had run a little faster,” he remarked with a loud laugh, “you surely would have overtaken me, Mike.”
 
“Why didn’t ye slack up and give me the chance? Me legs ain’t as long as yours.”
 
“I did put on the brakes, but you turned back.”
 
“I’d come to the belaif that if ye didn’t want me company, I shouldn’t force mine upon ye, so I quit. What were ye doing in the wood behind us?”
 
“I was strolling behind the when I heard voices and was stealing up to learn who you were when you heard me, and for the fun of it I off as if I was scared half to death.”
 
“What did ye think of the views of mesilf and Alvin and Chester as regards the nixt Prisident?”
 
It was a shrewd question and brought the desired answer.
 
“You talked so low I couldn’t catch a word. Don’t you know that when Americans talk politics they yell and generally end in a fight?”
 
“We hadn’t got that fur; ye oughter kept still a little while longer and ye might hev took part in the shindy.”
 
So the amounted to nothing, and so far no one besides the three knew of the plan which they had formed. A half hour later every Boy Scout in the bungalow, including Crandall, was asleep.
 
The morning dawned clear, bright and sunny. Jack would not permit any one to stay with him, so his chair was wheeled out on the front porch, where he became absorbed in a work on , while his friends broke into small groups and wandered into the woods as fancy prompted them. Scout Master Hall strolled off with several members of his Patrol, the understanding being that it was to be another day in which each should do as he pleased.
 
Let twenty men, boys or girls be thrown together in close companionship for weeks, and likes and dislikes are sure to develop. There may be nothing in the nature of , nor even an impatient word uttered. Naturally spring up, while others avoid one another, without suspecting there is a cause for the mild repulsion.
 
Alvin Landon, Chester Haynes and Mike Murphy were chums from the first and were nearly always together. Mike was popular with all because of his many fine qualities, aside from the marvelous treats he occasionally gave in singing. One boy formed so marked a fancy for him that Mike did not like it because he could not respond. This was Hoke Butler,—he who had tried to play the the night before. Something about him which could not be defined Mike, and caused him to avoid or at least to try to avoid his company. Perhaps it was Butler’s habit of laughter when no one else saw any cause for mirth, his to slap the knee or shoulder of the boy nearest him, and his greediness at meals. Be that as it may, Mike did not like him, though too considerate to hurt his feelings by showing his sentiments.
 
Alvin and Chester were pleased, when they supposed all the boys had left the bungalow, to see Butler come up the steps, take his place beside Mike and give his knee a slap.
 
“Hello, old chap! what are you going to do to-day?” he asked in his boisterous manner.
 
“I’m thinking of doing as the ither byes do,—stroll through the woods on the 115lookout fur , kangaroos, monkeys or anything that turns up.”
 
“Good! that’s me; I’ll go with you!”
 
“Who said ye would?” asked the disgusted Mike, as Alvin at Chester.
 
“I did; didn’t you hear me?”
 
“But ye don’t know where I’m going.”
 
“That makes no difference; I’m with you straight through.”
 
The chance was too good for Alvin and Chester to let slip. The face of the former brightened with hypocritical comradeship.
 
“Now isn’t that fine? Mike, you’re in luck.”
 
“As Larry Bergen remarked whin he found he had one finger lift after the pistol in his hand.”
 
“How nice it will be to have Butler with you the whole day!” Chester was mean enough to add.
 
“Aren’t you three going together?” asked the surprised interloper.
 
“We are particular as to our company,” said Alvin; “Chester and I travel together while Mike goes alone,—that is to say he would do so if you had not come along in time.”
 
“That’s me! I’m always glad to oblige.”
 
“Thim chaps,” said Mike, who was too game to though none the less resolved to baffle his chums, “are two babes in the wood; it will be kind of ye, Butler, to go along and kaap an eye on ’em.”
 
“Now, don’t you see there are two of them, and it will be the same with you and me, which is the right way to divide up? Just the idea, old chap!” And Butler the knee of Mike, who made a at the grinning Alvin and Chester. “Tell you what, Mike, I took a shine to you from the first; we must be .”
 
“You’ve hit it, Butler; we shall be glad to loan you Mike whenever you want him.”
 
“That will be all the time,” roared the interloper, “won’t it, Mike?”
 
“It begins to look that way,” was the response of the victim.
 
Alvin and Chester rose to their feet, the former remarking:
 
“We’ll see you at supper. Take good care of Mike, who is so innocent that he is sure to run into trouble unless you hold him back. Mike, be sure to obey him just as you do us.”
 
And the two stepped from the porch and set off in the direction of the cabin of Uncle , looking back in time to see their friend shake his fist at them.
 
“It looks as if I was catched,” Mike, “as the man said whin he stepped into a bear trap, but I’ll aven up matters wid thim before they’re much older.”
 
“Isn’t it time we started?” asked Butler, after the others had disappeared.
 
“Yis,” replied Mike up, “but I can’t depart widout me buckthorn . here till I go into the house and git the same.”
 
“I know where you left it leaning against the wall; I’ll fetch it.”
 
And before he could be anticipated, Butler darted through the open door and brought out the heavy stick.
 
“Always ready to do what I can for you, Mike; anything else?”
 
“Yis; I’ll be obleeged if ye’ll chase after thim spalpeens and ask Alvin Landon to send me that five dollars he borrered yesterday.”
 
“Of course; they haven’t got far and I’ll be back in a jiffy.”
 
“Don’t let him out of it, but hang on till he coughs up.”
 
&ldq............