“Yes,” agreed Will, “that’s the way at a fire, they say; throw the pictures out of the window, and carry a mattress carefully downstairs.” “Well, we wouldn’t want the guns to get soaked, or lost; would we?” demanded the proud owner of the new-fangled six-shot firearm; “wouldn’t matter so much with us, because we could swim; and if we saved our clothes we’d have a dry outfit to put on later. But I wonder what next that Ossie Fredericks will try? Isn’t he the limit, though, Frank?” “Well, I don’t exactly know,” replied the other. “I’ve tried to study that fellow for a whole year. Sometimes I think he’s got a halfway streak of decency in him, and that it’s only because he keeps such bad company that he chokes it right along.” “Huh! mighty funny way of showing decency,” grunted Jerry; “to try and smash our boat, when we didn’t bother them any. But I know that Ellis lad is a bad egg, and wouldn’t be surprised if Fletcher’s just as tough a nut. They know Ossie’s got a fistful of money, always, and they just hang around, telling him what a great boy he is, and how mean Frank Langdon talks about him. Oh! rats! Don’t I know that crowd, though?” Will was once more in the sulks, lamenting the fact that he hadn’t thought to run into the cabin, and bring out his rapid-action camera, so that he might have taken a snapshot of the power-boat heading straight for the _Pot Luck_. “It would have been all the evidence we needed in court, if ever we sued to collect damages,” he declared, sadly; “and to think how I so seldom see these chances till it’s all over but the shouting.” The other boat was rapidly leaving them, and every one of the four chums hoped they might never see the _Lounger_ again—during that cruise, at least. It seemed that they must meet with some sort of trouble every time the two boats came close together, all through the bad tempers and ugly dispositions of those on board the _Lounger_. An hour later, and they could barely make her out miles away; and only with the aid of the glasses could they recognize the craft. So they determined to put Ossie Fredericks and his cronies out of their minds, for the time being at least. There were other things much more pleasant demanding their constant attention on every hand; boats that passed, or which they overtook, moored to the bank; change of scenery that gave them more or less pleasure, and with Bluff and Jerry consulting as to what the evening meal should consist of. “I move we camp ashore to-night, if there seems to be a decent chance,” proposed Bluff, as they began to look for a good spot to tie up to, with the sun hanging low in a bed of yellow clouds that Frank did not fancy any too much. “We might have a camp fire, and do our cooking there,” he said in reply; “but if you cast your eyes over yonder, you’ll see why we ought to sleep aboard to-night.” “It does look as if we’d get something before morning,” Jerry admitted. “Think my foot don’t know?” remarked Will, with a grin and a nod.