"Whereabouts, Phil? Oh! I hope now, you're not joshing us?" Lub demanded. "Stop just where you are, everybody," the pilot of the expedition told them, "and watch where I'm pointing. If you follow my finger you can see if I've made a mistake or not. How about it, X-Ray? You've got the best eyes of the crowd, I guess." "It's water, all right, Phil," replied the other, glad that he could be accounted as best in something. "And that means Lake Surprise, doesn't it?" questioned Ethan Allan. "Yes, because it's the only body of water for miles around here," Phil continued. "That's one reason they let it alone so much. Other lakes lie in bunches, and a canoe can be taken over a carry from one to another in the chain; but Surprise is an awful lonely sheet of water." "And that's how it must have got its name," added Ethan. "All the while nobody dreamed there was any such lake up here; and then all at once a wandering guide must have run headlong on the same, to his surprise." "Wish we were there on the bank right now," grunted Lub. "Another mile, perhaps half of that, ought to take us to the water," he was assured by Phil; "and you see we are coming in from the west, which is all right, too, because my land lies on the western shore; and that cabin must be somewhere just ahead of us." "Hurrah!" shouted Ethan, unable to keep from giving expression to his delight any longer. The others felt pretty much the same way, and joined in a series of joyous whoops. "Now, everybody put his best foot forward, and we'll soon be there," urged Phil; "the worst is behind us, you know." "That's a heap better than having it yet to come!" declared X-Ray, feeling that with the goal in sight he should be able to hold out. They plodded along for some eight minutes or more, frequently catching glimpses of the lake beyond, and knowing that they were rapidly approaching its border. All at once X-Ray gave a cry. "Tell me, what is that I can see over there, Phil; looks for all the world like a shack made of silver birches! See how the sun shines on its side, will you? Is that your cabin, do you think, Phil?" "Just what it must be, X-Ray," the other told him; "they've nailed birch bark all over the sides of the log hut, you see, just to make it look rustic." "Then we'll have to call it Birch Bark Lodge!" burst out Lub, who had a little vein of the romantic in his disposition. "That sounds good to me!" declared Ethan. "It goes, then, does it?" asked the delighted Lub, beginning to believe he must be waking up, to have any suggestion of his so quickly and favorably seized upon. "Sure thing," said X-Ray Tyson. "Hurrah for Birch Bark Lodge, the home in the wilderness of the Mountain Boys." "Don't be too quick to settle that sort of thing," advised the more cautious Phil. "For all we know there may be somebody ahead of us in the shack; and you know we couldn't well chase 'em out."