trout or white fish for supper!" remarked Giraffe, with what he meant to
be satire in his speech.

"Huh! I ain't that green about fishing, and you know it," remarked the
other, as he gave the tall scout a look of scorn. "Anyhow, I can beat
you a mile fishing any day in the week, Giraffe, and I don't care who
hears me say it"

"Is that a challenge, Bumpus?" demanded Thad, seeing a chance for some
fun to enliven their cruise.

"If he chooses to take me up, you can call it that," responded the fat
boy, with a belligerent look at his rival.

"Oh! I'm ready to meet you half way, Bumpus; anything to oblige,"
Giraffe went on to say, sturdily. "I'd just like a good chance to show
you up for a fish fakir. We've heard a heap about how you used to haul
'em in; now's your chance to prove that you're the big gun of this
trip."

"All right, just as you say, and we'll leave it to Thad to lay down the
terms of the contest, the loser to treat the crowd to a dinner when we
get back home," Bumpus went on to say, with the took of one who would
die sooner than give up.

"No need of that last," Allan asserted, with a shake of his head. "We
expect to have a spread anyhow when we arrive back in Cranford, because
there's plenty of money in the treasury of the Silver Fox Patrol; but
the loser must do the drudgery that always goes with a dinner, and be
the waiter for the other seven fellows. Do you both agree to that?"