“But you’re not for taking up with him?”
“Not on your life!” said Tom curtly. “We’ll beat him yet, and we’ll beat him without any low-down deals.”
Sam nodded. “That’s my notion, too. Clever as he is, he’ll make some false step, or a break’ll come somewhere. You can’t beat the truth in the long run.”
“You’ve said it!” Orkney agreed with conviction.
Sam laughed. “But Lon said it first,” he remarked.
For all the boys it was a relief to turn from plots and intrigues to the good sport of planning and building the camp. Possibly the plans were more entertaining than their execution. Poke and Step left details to the others, who put their heads together and discussed the rival merits of a tent and a shack, and finally sought Lon’s advice.
Lon, as it proved, favored a tent.
“You see, boys, you’re more or less transients,” he explained. “Now, there’ll be some things that’ll be like the mumps—you can’t tell how much they’ll bother till you’ve had a go with ’em. Take the ’skeeters, for instance. The old pond used to have a sight of ’em, and you don’t know whether they’ve moved out jest because it’s been turned into a lake. Then there’s the fishin’. It used to be prime off the big rock, but fish are notional as folks, and as freaky. Then, too, there’s the permission to use the land—who owns that shore, anyway?”
None of the club could answer the question.
“Well, you’d better find out,” Lon counseled. “Course, in the old days, if you wanted to put in a week or so in the woods, it was a case of move in and welcome, so long’s you behaved and didn’t cut growin’ timber, and didn’t start forest fires——By the way, boys, that’s a thing you’ll have to be careful about; it’s gettin’ powerful tindery in the woods this dry spell. But nowadays we’re gettin’ fashionable, and they’re cuttin’ up lots along the lake shore, and owners may be fussy. So, seems to me I wouldn’t be making many permanent improvements anywhere till I found out whether I was goin’ to be allowed to enjoy the use and usufruct o’ the same.... Two dollars, please!”