CHAPTER I.

HOW THE DARE WAS GIVEN.


"And so Herb Benson dared you, Max, you say?"

"That's what he did, Steve."

"To camp on Catamount Island?"

"And stay there a full week. He said that even if we did have nerve
enough to make the _try_, he'd give us just one solitary night to hang
out there!"

"Huh! just because Herb and his old club got scared nearly to death a
while ago by some silly noise they thought was a ghost, they reckon
every fellow is built on the same plan, don't they, Max?"

"I guess that's what they do, Steve."

"So they challenge us to make a camp, and stick it out, do they? What
did you tell Herb? Oh, I hope you just took him up on the spot!"

"Well, I said I'd put it up to the rest of the chums, my cousin, Owen
Hastings, Toby Jucklin, Bandy-legs Griffin, and yourself."