Having secured the rowboat, Randy and Jack rowed up to the fishing hole, and Randy scrambled up the rocks to secure their two strings of fish. He soon reached the shallow pool among the rocks in which they had been placed and drew up the two strings. "Well, I declare!" he ejaculated, as he looked the fish over. Then he counted them carefully. "What can this mean?" His string had held twelve fish and Jack's eight fish. Now three of the largest fish from each string were gone. He looked around with care, but could see nothing of the missing fish. "Hullo! What's keeping you?" shouted Jack, from the boat. "Come up here!" called back Randy. "Anything wrong?" "Yes." "Landy! I hope the fish aren't gone!" burst out Jack, as he scrambled up the rocks and ran to where Randy was continuing the search. The situation was soon explained and both boys hunted around in the neighborhood of the pool, thinking the fish might have gotten away in some manner. Then of a sudden Jack uttered a cry: "Look at this, Randy!" "What is it?" "A key ring, with two keys on it." "Where did you find it?" "Here, right beside the pool." "Then somebody has been here and taken our fish!" "Exactly what I believe." Jack began to examine the key ring and then he uttered another exclamation: "Here are some initials on the ring." "What are they?" "I can't make out very well--they are so worn. I think the first is R." "Let me see." Jack passed the find over and Randy examined it. "I can make it out," said Randy. "R. A. B." "Robert A. Bangs!" shouted Jack. "Bob Bangs!" murmured Randy. "Could he have been mean enough to come here and take some of our fish?" "It certainly looks that way." "Let us go after him and find out." "All right. Anyway, we can make him explain how his key ring got here." Taking what was left of the fish, the two boys hurried back to the rowboat and soon each was seated at an oar and pulling a good stroke in the direction of the town. "He must have been watching us fish," observed Jack. "And he must have seen us place our catch in the pool." "And took our best fish because he couldn't catch any of his own," concluded Randy. "Well, if he has my fish he has got to give them up," he added, with determination. Rowing at a good rate of speed, it did not take the boys long to reach the town. As they moved past one dock after another they looked for Bob Bangs, but the big youth was nowhere in sight. "I reckon he was afraid of being followed," said Jack. "There is his boat," answered Randy, and pointed to the craft, which was tied up near an old boathouse and not at the regular Bangs dock. While the two boys rested on their oars an old man who was lame, and who rented out boats for a living, came from the old boathouse. "Hullo, Isaac!" called out Jack. "Have you seen Bob Bangs around here?" "Why, yes; he just went ashore," answered Isaac Martin. "Did he have any fish?" "Yes, a nice string--some pretty big ones, too." "How many?"