Out with Gun and Camera | Page 2

nobody can say somebody else was told first."
"I see. Well, you go down to the dock and meet Snap, and I'll hustle around and stir up Giant," went on Frank Dawson.
"I was going to have you all over to my house to-night, to tell you," explained Sheppard. "But I might as well speak of it when we are together on the river."
"Say, you must have something wonderful on your mind!" cried Whopper. "I'm dying by inches to know what it is. I'll find Giant somehow, and have him at the dock inside of a quarter of an hour sure." And away he ran on his errand, while the youth who had the important announcement to make turned in the direction of the water-front.
To those who have read the former volumes in this "Boy Hunters Series" the lads who have been speaking will need no further introduction. For the benefit of others let me state that Sheppard Reed was the son of a doctor who had a large practice in and around the town of Fairview. Shep, as he was usually called, was a bright and manly youth, and one who loved life out of doors.
Frank Dawson was a lad who had moved to the town some years before, and by his winning manner had made himself many friends. The boy had a habit of exaggerating when telling anything, and this had earned for him the nickname of Whopper---even though Frank never told anything in the shape of a deliberate falsehood. As some of his friends said, "you could tell Frank's whoppers a mile off," which was a pretty stiff "whopper" in itself.
These two boys had two close chums, Charley Dodge, usually called Snap---why nobody could tell---and Will Caslette, known as Giant, because of his small stature. Charley, or Snap, as I shall call him, was the son of one of the richest men of the district, his father owning a part interest in a sawmill and a large summer hotel, besides many acres of valuable forest and farm lands. Giant was the son of a widow who had once been poor but was now in comfortable circumstances. Though small for his age, the lad was as manly as any of his chums, and they thought the world of the little fellow.
The town of Fairview was a small but prosperous community, located on the Rocky River, ten miles above a sheet of water known as Lake Cameron. The place boasted of a score of stores, several churches, a volunteer fire department, and a railroad station---the latter a spot of considerable activity during the summer months.
All of the boys loved to camp out, and about a year before this tale opens had organized an outing or gun club, as related in detail in the volume called "Four Boy Hunters." They journeyed to the shores of Lake Cameron and then to another body of water called Firefly Lake, and had plenty of fun and not a few adventures. During their outing they had considerable trouble with a dudish sport---from town named Hamilton Spink, and his cronies, and were in great peril from a disastrous forest fire.
When school opened the young hunters returned to their studies, but with the approach of the winter holidays their thoughts turned again to the woods and water, and once more they sallied forth, as related in full in "Guns and Snowshoes." They found game in plenty, and also ran the perils of a great blizzard, and got lost in the snow.
"Shall we go out again?" was the question asked when the next summer vacation was at hand, and all answered in the affirmative. This time, as related in the volume called "Young Hunters of the Lake," they ventured considerably farther from home---to the shore of a lake said to be visited by a much-dreaded ghost. There they again went hunting and fishing to their hearts' content, and once more had trouble with Ham Spink and his cronies. They saw the "ghost," and were at first badly scared, but in the end solved the awful mystery by proving that the "ghost" was nothing but a man---a relative of Giant, who had lost his mind and disappeared some time before. The man was restored to reason, and through his testimony Giant's mother obtained some money which had been tied up in the courts.
The finding of the man had brought the boy hunters back to Fairview before their summer vacation was half finished. What to do next was the question.
"We ought to go somewhere---staying at home is dead slow," was the way one of the lads expressed himself; but for a week or more nothing was done.
Whistling gaily to himself, Shep Reed hurried down to the lake front. As he came out on one of the docks he caught sight of