the camp. I got the next shortest twig, so my job is boat-tender."

Dave and Dan stepped ashore. Heaving a sigh, Harry paddled out
on the lake some hundred and fifty feet from land.

"Now, how are we going to beat up the country on this fine July
morning?" Tom wanted to know.

Dick stood looking at the surrounding ground.

"I think I know as good a plan as any," he announced, after a
pause. "Dave, you and I will walk down the lake, using our eyes
and ears. Tom and Dan will go in the opposite direction. Each
pair will keep along until our watches show that we've been going
ten minutes. Then we will walk up the slope a hundred steps and
turn toward the centre, meeting probably about the end of the
second ten minutes. After that, if we decide to do so, we can
go further inland from the lake. If there's a house or hut, or
any fellow camping out in this neighborhood we ought to find him
without much trouble. What do you fellows say to my plan?"

"It's about as systematic as anything could be," Dave agreed.
"But what if one pair of us find something?"

"We'll try our best to communicate with the other pair," Dick
rejoined. "Suppose, Dave, that you and I run into something interesting
and don't want to leave it? Tom and Dan, not meeting us at the
appointed place, will know enough to keep right on over our course
until they find us."