"Yes; they are loading everything in their boat." This announcement produced a mild sensation, and after a consultation, Snap and his chums decided to row across the lake and watch proceedings. Ham Spink and his cronies were indeed leaving, and in far from a good humor. None of them was a good shot and they did not possess the patience necessary to become good hunters or fishermen. As a consequence they had brought down very little game and caught only a few fish. Their stock of provisions brought from home was running low, and each boy in the camp had voted the outing a failure. "Going to leave us?" called out Snap, as he and his friends rested on their oars a short distance from the rival camp. "Yes," was Ham Spink's surly response. "What's the matter? Don't you like the hunting here?" asked Whopper. "Oh, don't be so inquisitive!" came from Dick Bush. "I guess you are glad enough to see us go." "Not at all," said Giant. "You are welcome to stay, so long as you don't interfere with our doings." "We don't think much of this place," grunted Ham Spink. "It may be good enough in the middle of summer, but not now, when winter is coming on." "Are you going right home, Ham?" asked Snap. "What business is that of yours?" "I thought if you were, you might sell us what stores you have left over." "We have nothing to sell to you," was the cold reply. "We might make a trade," put in Shep. "We have got some plump partridge and rabbits to spare." "Humph! Are you saying that just to tease us?" "Not at all. Here are the rabbits and the partridge, too," and the doctor's son held them up. Now, as it happened, Ham Spink and his cronies were very anxious to take some game home, but had nothing but one rabbit and a little squirrel. They gazed longingly at the plump game Shep exhibited. "Let us take them," whispered Dick Bush. "Nobody will know how we got them." At this Ham Spink's eyes brightened. He was not above telling an untruth when he felt like it. "What will you take for what you have?" he called out. "What have you got?" The rival campers looked over such provisions as they had left, and enumerated the articles---sugar, cocoa, flour, some canned goods, and some preserves. Snap and his chums went ashore and investigated. "We'll trade even," said Snap at last, after talking with his chums. "But on one condition." "What is that?" "That you take some letters home for us and deliver them as soon as you arrive." "All right, we'll do that," said Carl Dudder. The trade was made on the spot, and the letters written; and on the following morning Ham Spink and his cronies left the vicinity of Firefly Lake. It was the last our friends saw of the dudish youth and his friends for some time to come. "I think he feels sick all over," remarked Shep, after the other crowd had departed. "He certainly isn't in high spirits," commented Snap.