"It's the rest of the patrol," said Roly. "Do you see those two canoes coming around the bend? We'll have a meeting of the general staff and decide what to do." "Whatever we do, we'll do something, hey?" said Pee-wee. "More than that," said Roly. "Anyway, we'll start a patrol or something, hey?" "Oh, we'll start something, leave it to us," said Roly Poly. CHAPTER X THE OTHERS ARRIVE The arrival of the five North Bridgeboro scouts was the occasion of much merriment and banter. These boys from the small village up the river had formed themselves into a patrol but they were two members short of the required number and they had no scoutmaster. Whether they took scouting seriously it would be hard to say; if so it must have been a great comfort to them to have wished upon their budding organization such an instructor and propagandist as the diminutive genius whom they were now about to meet. Whatever material they had among them for progress in the scouting field, they gave every indication of possessing that quality of unholy mirth which distinguished the notorious Silver Foxes. Perhaps their silver was not quite so bright, but they gave promise. "Hey, where are you going with the apple tree?" one of them called from the nearest canoe. "What are you trying to do? Swipe a chunk of property? That's a part of North Bridgeboro you've got there." "Why didn't you take the whole village?" another called. "Hey, Roly, where are you going with the real estate?" another called. "I knew you were too heavy for that neck of land," shouted another. "Why didn't you take the whole orchard with you?" a third wanted to know. "_For the love of----_," another ejaculated. "Look at the sign, will you! The place is discovered already!" Pee-wee did not wait for formal introductions. "We're going to start the Combination Scouts of Bridgeboro!" he shouted. "We're going to be sea scouts and land scouts all rolled into one! We took possession and it's all right! Old Trimmer can't say that he owned an island, can he? We're going to have our pictures in _Boys' Life_ and everything and we're going to have all the apples when they're ripe and maybe we're going to call ourselves the Crab-apple Patrol! Maybe there's treasure buried here, how do we know? And we're going to get one of those things--a saxophone or whatever you call it--to take our latitude and longitude with! We're going to be better than the Ravens and the Elks and the Silver Foxes and I know how to make apple-sauce! We're going to be a new kind of a patrol!" "In the name of goodness, what's that, a phonograph?" one of the approaching canoeists called. "That's the discoverer," Roly called back. "He took possession of the island in the name of the King of Bridgeboro." "I thought it was an earthquake," laughed a tall boy who was stepping ashore.