"I wish I could send this fish home to my mother," said the small youth. "Wouldn't it make her eyes stick out, though!"
"It certainly would, and some other folks would wonder, too," answered Shep. "But I don't see how you can do it."
Besides the maskalonge, the boys had caught several pike of fair size, so they were assured of enough to eat for several days.
"The best thing we can do to-morrow is to find a suitable camping spot and build a shelter," said Snap. "We don't want to be caught out in the open again."
The canvas at the tree-top was secured, and that night they slept between some bushes with this over them to keep off the night air. Each of the young hunters took his turn at watching, but nothing came to disturb them, although Whopper declared that he heard several foxes not far off.
"I thought they were going to pay us a visit, but when they were about two hundred feet away they took a turn and that was the last I heard of them."
On the following morning the young hunters were in the act of embarking in their rowboat, for a tour around the shore of Firefly Lake, when Shep pointed out a small canoe coming swiftly toward them. In the craft sat a man of middle age, with thick hair and a heavy beard.
"Who can it be?" questioned Whopper.
"Perhaps it is one of the Felps crowd—-to warn us away," spoke up
Giant. "If it is, I'm rather for giving him a piece of our mind."
"It is Jed Sanborn!" cried Shep. "He must be out to do a little hunting or fishing on his own account."