"Well?" questioned Jack.

"That's all," replied Rand.

"Now I wonder," mused Jack, when the story of the encounter with Monkey Rae and his companions had been gone over in detail for his benefit, "what Monkey Rae has to do with these things," jingling the coins in his hand.

"Not as much as you or I have," announced Donald. "I can no see any connection between the two."

"Of course you can't, old wisdom," returned Jack. "You lack imagination, but I think it is there just the same. Whose horse and wagon was it?"

"That's another strange part of it," replied Rand. "I never saw them before. I was wondering whose they were, and where he got them."

"That's so," agreed Pepper. "I never thought of that; the truth is, I was so busy with Monkey that I didn't look at them."

"Well," broke in Don, "if you ask my opinion I think it would be more to the purpose if we went on our own business instead of wasting time in speculating on what is no concern of ours."

"All right, Solomon-Donald," said Rand; "it sounds wise."

"Even if it is mostly sound," growled Jack.

CHAPTER IV

UP THE RIVER

"Are you all ready?" called Rand, who was stroke. "Pull!"

The boys bent to their work in earnest, and but few words were spoken while they sent the boat along, mile after mile, until they had gone some half dozen miles up the river.

"Phew!" exclaimed Pepper at length, "what is the matter with stopping here?"

"Tired?" asked Donald.

"Well, I feel as if I had been doing something," replied Pepper, resting on his oar.

"I suppose there isn't much choice in the matter," remarked Rand; "one place is probably as good as another."

"Only some of them are better," put in Jack.

"And this is one of them," a.s.serted Pepper, "and there is a nice green place over there on the sh.o.r.e where we can put in and cook some fish for dinner."

"If we have any to cook," suggested Donald. "You know you have first to catch your fish before you can cook them."

"We'll do that, too, old Solomon the Second," returned Jack, who was in the bow. "That's what we came out for. Shall I let go the anchor, Rand?"

"All right, let it go," ordered Rand. "Easy now, if you don't want to scare all the fish away. What are you trying to do?" as Jack gave the anchor a swing and, failing to let go of the painter, promptly went overboard with it.

"I just went down to see if the anchor got to the bottom," explained Jack a moment later, as he scrambled over the side.

"We thought you were going to dive for the fish," said Pepper, "like the hawks do."

"Maybe I will try that later," replied Jack, shaking himself like a dog to get rid of some of the water. "Now, then, who is going to get the first bite."

For the next few moments the boys were busy getting their tackle in order and into the water, after which they settled down to await results.

"I had almost forgotten," broke in Jack after a pause, as the fish did not seem eager to be caught. "I met Colonel Snow this morning--"

"Indeed," said Rand sarcastically, "that's news."

"Now you needn't go off at half-c.o.c.k," retorted Jack, "wait until I get through."

"Well, what about it?" asked Donald.

"Why, he said--Hurrah, I've got a bite!" cried Jack, pulling in his line.

"He did!" exclaimed Rand. "That was a queer thing for him to say."

"No, the colonel didn't say that," explained Jack, as he landed a good-sized perch in the bottom of the boat, "there's one for luck.

That was a comment of my own. Wait until I put a fresh bait on and I will tell you what he did say. He said--"

"Hurrah, I've got one!" interjected Pepper, pulling in his line and landing another fish.

"Why, that's the same thing he didn't say before," commented Donald, referring to the colonel.

"He said--" began Jack again, but the fish were now biting freely and the boys were so busy pulling them in that, for a time, they quite forgot the colonel and what it was that he said.

"If you haven't forgotten," began Donald, a little later, when there came a lull in the biting, "I would like to know just what it was that the colonel did say."

"Why, he said," resumed Jack, "that he wanted us to form a patrol."

"A patrol!" repeated Donald. "For what? Ain't there enough police?"

"This isn't a police patrol," laughed Jack, "this is a patrol in the Boy Scouts. It's a company of from six to eight boys. Two or more patrols form a troop under a scoutmaster who teaches them a lot of things."

"What kind of things?" asked Pepper.

"All kinds of things about woodcraft and how to hunt and fish and follow trails and camp out and--and--all the rest of it."

"That's a pretty comprehensive programme," said Rand. "We were talking about that very thing this morning."

"Gee!" cried Pepper. "T-t-that would be fine. Let's do it--"

"There's quite a lot of things we have to do first," went on Jack.

"Maybe Rand can tell you more about that part than I can."

"For the first thing," said Rand, "we have to get at least six boys to start with."