but they are a tough looking pair, I tell you."

Alec looked, and sniffed disdainfully.

"Here's where we're up against it good and hard, fellows," he remarked,
softly. "The question is, do we want to stand for that couple of
greasy hoboes keeping us company while we camp out here in the deserted
castle? Everybody say his mind, and majority rules, you know."

"Excuse me, if you please," muttered Arthur, with a shudder. "I'd
sooner sleep in a pigpen than alongside such human animals as those
unclean hoboes."

"Why," remarked Billy, aghast at the thought, "they might rob us of
our blankets; or worse, of our precious grub, which would be what I'd
call a calamity without equal."

"We've just got to bounce them, that's plain," said Monkey Stallings.
"Hugh, you remember what you the same as promised me?"

"Oh! if you think you can start something that will rid us of the
pair," the scout master told him, "go to it right away. If you want
us to help, say the word, Monkey."

Already the other was feverishly attacking his pack, which he had
tossed upon the ground. He soon found what he was looking for, to
judge from the satisfied exclamation that passed his lips.

"Tell us what you've got there, Monkey," urged Alec.