I get through."

"Well, what about it?" asked Donald.

"Why, he said--Hurrah, I've got a bite!" cried Jack, pulling in
his line.

"He did!" exclaimed Rand. "That was a queer thing for him to say."

"No, the colonel didn't say that," explained Jack, as he landed a
good-sized perch in the bottom of the boat, "there's one for luck.
That was a comment of my own. Wait until I put a fresh bait on and
I will tell you what he did say. He said--"

"Hurrah, I've got one!" interjected Pepper, pulling in his line
and landing another fish.

"Why, that's the same thing he didn't say before," commented Donald,
referring to the colonel.

"He said--" began Jack again, but the fish were now biting freely
and the boys were so busy pulling them in that, for a time, they
quite forgot the colonel and what it was that he said.

"If you haven't forgotten," began Donald, a little later, when there
came a lull in the biting, "I would like to know just what it was
that the colonel did say."

"Why, he said," resumed Jack, "that he wanted us to form a patrol."