When the tomato patch had been weeded and the dirt hoed into small hills around the roots of each plant, Teddy and his chums were free to go deer hunting. “First,” decided Teddy as he led his friends from the garden, “we ought to wash up and then get something to eat.” “I’m in favor of that last, anyhow,” Dick said. “Lead the way to the pantry, Teddy.” Removing some of the grime and the stains of weeds from their hands, the boys sat on Teddy’s back stoop, disposing of several glasses of milk and some cookies which Teddy got from the kitchen. “Now I feel strong enough to play with any deer!” declared Dick. “Even one with big horns?” asked Joe. “Bring on the deer--horns and all!” Dick challenged. But though the boys spent the remainder of the afternoon scouting around for traces of the deer, they saw none and when night came they decided to give up the chase for the time being. Tired from the day’s work in the garden and from following a deer trail that led nowhere, Teddy was reading in his room that evening when he heard a rattle of gravel against the window. At the same time he heard what seemed to be a tree-toad trilling. Casting aside his book, Teddy jumped to the window, the lower sash of which was open since it was a warm night. The gravel had rattled against the upper panes. Teddy whistled back the tree-toad signal and called down: “Is that you, Joe?” “It’s Dick,” was the answer. “What’s the matter?” Teddy wanted to know. “This isn’t secret club night, is it?” “No,” answered Dick. “But I thought maybe you couldn’t get out to go with me and Joe, so I gave the secret signal.” “Go where?” demanded Teddy. “After the deer. Joe saw him. He’s keeping him in sight and I came for you. Hurry!” “I’ll be right down,” Teddy answered. Besides the Mystery Club, the boys had a Secret Society. Instead of leaving by the front or back doors to attend sessions, it was one of the rules they should slide down a rope from their bedroom windows. And the boys took turns going quietly after dark, signalling to one another by tossing gravel against a window and giving the tree-toad whistle. There was no reason why Teddy and his chums could not have gone out the front or back doors to the meetings of the Secret Club. Their parents would probably have made no objections, since the existence of the club was known to them. But, somehow, it seemed much more fun to go to a meeting of the Secret Club after a summons by thrown gravel, a strange whistle and after sliding down a rope. So Teddy got his rope out of a closet where he kept it hidden, fastened one end firmly to his bed and tossed the other end out of the window. It was no trick at all to go down it hand-over-hand to the ground where Dick was waiting in the shadow of some bushes. “So you sighted the deer, did you?” asked Teddy as he and Dick made their way down through the back yard and across lots.