In Camp on the Big Sunflower | Page 5

us what the p-p-p-p"--whistle--"prospects are, won't you?"
Max and his cousin exchanged a quick look, after which the former placed a finger on his lips.
"Wait a little, Toby," he said, cautiously. "When we gather around the festive board, and get our heads close together, I've got some bully good news to tell the bunch of you."
"H-h-hear that, will you, boys?" remarked Toby, in more or less excitement.
"Say no more now, please. How about that coffee?" Max continued.
"S-s-she's cooked to a turn, and I h-h-hope the rest of the g-g-grub is ready, too."
"All right here," announced Bandy-legs, seizing the frying pan, which was filled with potatoes, seasoned with a few onions, and hurrying over to where the low table had been arranged.
Inside of five minutes they were busily engaged disposing of the savory mess.
Five hungry lads can make away with considerable food, given the chance; but all due allowance had been made for even the astonishing appetites of Toby and Bandy-legs, when making preparations for the feast.
Once the edge was taken off their appetites, and the boys remembered the promise made by Max.
"Now tell us what luck you had, Max," Steve asked, as he broke open a fresh paper package of crackers, and appropriated a generous portion of cheese.
"Y-y-yes, that's the t-t-ticket!" exclaimed Toby.
"I did promise, didn't I?" Max started out to say; "and it's time I kept my word. You know the idea wasn't mine at all, but came from Owen here, who had been reading up on the subject. We wanted to discover some way of earning a nice little sum of money this summer, in order to carry out certain plans we've got in our minds; and among all the schemes hatched up, his one struck us as the smartest."
"Besides, it gave us just the jolliest chance to come up here and pitch camp," asserted Steve.
"Something we'd been talking of doing for ever so long, fellows," Bandy-legs put in.
"All of which is true," Max went on to say. "Well, what was this bright little idea Owen sprung on us! Nothing more nor less than a treasure- hunting expedition. Only, instead of trying to unearth the gold and jewels some Captain Kidd of these Northern woods has hidden away, we expect to find something in the way of gems that no mortal eye has ever looked on up to now."
Apparently these words of Max gave the others quite a thrill, for they exchanged looks, and their faces betrayed evidence of intense interest.
"Owen had taken a great deal of stock in this new industry of finding pearls in mussels, or fresh-water clams," Max went on. "He managed to learn that long ago our river had been pretty well stocked with these shellfish, though the town people had eaten them up clean. But Owen believed, and I agreed with him, that some miles up-stream the chances were we might find a good lot of mussels, big fellows that had never been disturbed except by some hungry 'coon or fox."
"And so we just made up our minds to start out on what seemed to be an innocent camping trip," broke in Steve, chuckling. "That would give us all the chance we wanted to see whether there was anything in this pearl- fishing business along fresh-water streams."
"And we're here, all right, ready for work," remarked Bandy-legs. "Would you mind passing me that frying pan, Owen? It's a shame to waste such a lot of tasty grub."
"Huh! n-n-no danger," grunted Toby, enviously.
"We had to hurry for all we were worth to get up here before dark," Steve remarked; "for Owen said the best place would be at the junction of the two little streams that go to make the Evergreen. And so we didn't have any chance to make a hunt on the way up."
"But we saw lots of empty shells, you know," broke in Bandy-legs.
"Yes, looked as if muskrats, or something like that, had been living off mussels right along," Steve admitted.
"And so, while we made camp, our two learned leaders strolled up the river known as the Big Sunflower to see what the chances were for a crop," Bandy-legs went on.
"Now, please make your report, Max, because, you see, we're just burning up with anxiety to know. A whole lot depends on whether we've come up here on a fool's errand or not. Did you find what you expected? Are the full shells here a-plenty?"
And, smiling at the eagerness of Steve, Max drew out several large mussels from his pockets, which he clapped upon the rude table.
"They're here, all right, boys," he said, earnestly, "but as to whether we'll find any pearls in the same, that remains to be proven."
CHAPTER III.
WHAT OWEN KNEW.
"Well, I declare, is that the kind of mussel they've been finding pearls in?" demanded Steve Dowdy, as he took one