"About that peace racket, even if you have to fight to get it, eh?" laughed Nat. "Wait and see," replied the scout leader, nodding his head, and giving the other a significant, look that made Nat's heart glad; for, like Red Huggins, Nat had always had something of a reputation as a fighter, and found it most difficult to repress this pugnacious spirit after he joined the scouts. "Lay out the programme, Elmer, won't you, please?" begged Lil Artha. "Yes, tell us just what each fellow must do," added Toby. "Well, I've been thinking it over as we came along," remarked the one to whom these appeals were addressed; "and this is the plan I settled on as promising the best results. In the first place, as these chaps want darkness before they show their hand, so that Lil Artha won't be apt to recognize them, the chances are they've gone several miles farther on before running the car in among the trees at a likely spot. Do you agree on that, boys?" "Sounds good to me, Elmer; please go on and roll your hoop," said Nat. "Beats all how you can hit things so close," remarked Toby; "because, now that you've mentioned it, I c'n see how they'd be apt to do just that very thing." "I'm agreein' with the rest, so keep moving, Elmer," Lil Artha observed, deeply interested in the results, as he had a right to be. "Well, then, suppose now we ride on behind Lil Artha for another mile. Then he can hold up when I give a little whistle, or he hears the faint howl of a wolf in the distance. The three of us will then proceed to hide our motorcycles somewhere in the woods, marking the place at the roadside so we can find 'em again easy later on to-night. After that we'll haul upon our chum, and keep a little distance behind him as he tramps on toward Little Falls." "Bully idea!" declared the object of all this attention, shaking the hand of the one who had suggested it. "And a feller don't have to have more'n two eyes, with a mite of common sense back of 'em, to know what's goin' to happen when the Fairfield bullies jump out on me." "Whack! whack! that's two down; one with the right, and t'other with the left duke, leaving only two for you three boys," declared Nat, making a violent lunge in either direction, as though getting in trim after these months of idleness, when following the mild paths of peace. Toby laughed. "Say, what d'ye suppose we'll be doing all that while?" he demanded. "Don't be so greedy, Nathan. It's one apiece all around. Nothin' could be fairer than that, and I put it up to Elmer here. Who wants to get cheated out of his share, tell me that!"