"I can prove it," said Purt haughtily. "That's all right," said Chet thoughtfully. "You may have shot them--and on Cavern Island. But whose rabbits were they before you bought them?" "What? I--Oh!" Bobby and Jess began to giggle. Chet grinned as he added: "Those are Belgian hares, not rabbits, Pretty. Somebody has put something over on you. Belgian hares don't run wild in the woods of Cavern Island--that is sure." "Bet he shot them hanging up on a fence," snapped Short and Long, who thus far had said never a word to Prettyman Sweet. "And I know the market to-day is full of Belgian hares," chuckled Chet. "Oh, Purt! you never could pull off anything like that on us in a hundred years." "I don't care--I--I--" The angry Purt snatched up his game bag and marched away. "That he's been caught in the trick puts a crimp in him," chuckled Chet Belding. "And that isn't all that ought to happen to him," muttered Short and Long, who seemed to have become suddenly very bitter against the dandified Sweet. "Can it, Billy, can it," advised Lance. "Give a calf rope enough and he will hang himself." "And maybe that fellow ought to be hung," was Short and Long's further comment. "Why, Billy!" exclaimed Laura, "what ever do you mean?" "Yes, Short and Long," said Jess. "Why the 'orrid hobservation about poor Purt?" Perhaps Billy Long would have blurted out something, had not another incident taken place which so excited all the young people that they forgot Purt Sweet and his foibles. The group had reached Lakeside Avenue, which overlooked many shore estates and some private docks. This was the residential end of Centerport, and the vicinity in summer was lovely. Now the outlook on Lake Luna's sparkling surface--frozen in a sheen of ice to the shore of Cavern Island in the middle of the lake--was wonderfully attractive. At the foot of Nugent Street, which they now reached, the girls and boys from Central High heard suddenly a great shouting and peals of laughter from up the hill. Some snow still lay on the side of Nugent Street; and the hill was a glare of ice. Down the steep descent were coming three or four heavy sleds loaded with young folks. Many of them were girls and boys of Central High. "Some coasting!" exclaimed Chet. "I had no idea it was so good. We ought to get our bob out, Lance." "Oh, see, Laura!" murmured Jess. "There comes Janet Steele. She must have been canvassing for Red Cross members away over here. I wish we had time to do some of that work." The Red Cross girl appeared from around a turn in the avenue, and the instant she spied her new friends she waved her gloved hand. "Is that the girl who gave first-aid to the man on Market Street Saturday night?" asked Chet. "Some little queen, isn't she?" rejoined Lance, with twinkling eyes. "Oh," said Laura placidly, "you needn't think that you can get us girls jealous about Janet Steele. She is an awfully sweet girl."