Page:Dave Porter on Cave Island.djvu/28

16 them for the time being. The boys might have gone after the pair, but they had an important hockey game to play, and when they administered a stinging defeat to Oak Hall's ancient rival, Rockville Academy, Dave, for the time being, forgot that he had an enemy in the world.

"Two weeks more of the grind, boys!" cried Dave, on the following Monday. "And then home for the holidays."

"Right you are," answered Phil. "But, oh, those two weeks!"

On Wednesday one of Dave's chums celebrated his birthday, and among the presents received was a very fine double-barreled shotgun. This lad immediately wanted to go hunting; and the result was that the boys applied to Doctor Clay for permission to go to Squirrel Island, up the river, on a hunting expedition, the following Saturday. There was just sufficient snow on the ground to make rabbit and squirrel tracking good, and the boys were told that they might remain away all day. Six of them had guns and two had revolvers, and they carried in addition a good-sized hamper of provisions for lunch.

"Now, boys, be careful and don't shoot yourselves or anybody else," said Doctor Clay, with a smile, when Dave, Roger, and Phil left the school building. "Don't fire at anything until you are certain of what it is. Every hunting season