"You wouldn't stop," Frank answered, laughing. "I kept on winking for the first five minutes, and then somehow he gathered me in too. He's smart at his business."
"I guess we'd better not say anything about the thing," decided Harry thoughtfully. "Anyway, not until we know whether you are right."
They went ashore soon afterward; and a few days later Mr. Webster called at the ranch.
"Have you Barclay's address?" he asked Mr. Oliver. "I want to write him."
Mr. Oliver gave it to him, and Mr. Webster continued:
"They're getting up a supper at the settlement, and the stewards would like to have you and the boys come. They're asking everybody between here and Carthew."
"What do they want to get up a supper for?"
Mr. Webster hesitated.
"Well," he said, "among other things, the new man is opening his big fruit ranch, and we've just heard that there's a steamboat wharf to be built and a new wagon trail made. Things are looking up, and the boys feel that they ought to have a celebration."
"All right," assented Mr. Oliver, "the boys and I will be on hand."