Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [Illustration: HAVING SECURED A GOOD SUPPLY OF BAIT, THEY STARTED FOR THE CANOE] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Mountain Boys Series PHIL BRADLEY'S MOUNTAIN BOYS Or The Birch Bark Lodge By SILAS K. BOONE The New York Book Company New York ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright, 1915, by The New York Book Company ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Bound for Lake Surprise 11 II Lub and the Mother Bobcat 21 III A Mystery, to Start with 33 IV The Figure in the Moonlight 46 V The Sudden Awakening 59 VI Getting Rid of an Intruder 72 VII On the Border of the Lake 84 VIII The Mountain Boys in Camp 97 IX The 'Coon Photographer 112 X Finding a Sunbeam 121 XI An Encounter in the Pine Woods 134 XII When Two Played the Game 143 XIII How "Daddy" Came Back 156 XIV The Puzzle of It All 169 XV After the Storm 181 XVI Peace After Strife--Conclusion 194 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PHIL BRADLEY'S MOUNTAIN BOYS CHAPTER I BOUND FOR LAKE SURPRISE "Phil, _please_ tell me we're nearly there!" "I'd like to, Lub, for your sake; but the fact of the matter is we've got about another hour of climbing before us, as near as I can reckon." "Oh! dear, that means sixty long minutes of this everlasting scrambling over logs, and crashing through tangled underbrush. Why, I reckon I'll have the map of Ireland in red streaks on my face before I'm done with it." At that the other three boys laughed. They were not at all unfeeling, and could appreciate the misery of their fat companion; but then Lub had such a comical way of expressing himself, and made so many ludicrous faces, that they could never take him seriously. They were making their way through one of the loneliest parts of the great Adirondack regions. There might not be a living soul within miles of them, unless possibly some guide were wandering in search of new fields. The regular fishermen and tourists never came this way for many reasons; and the only thing that had brought these four well-grown boys in the region of Surprise Lake was the fact that one of them, Phil Bradley, owned a large mountain estate of wild land that abutted on the western shore of the lake.