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172 tent, the boys saw Boswell and his chum helping the girls out. Then Boswell walked alongside Ruth, seeming to be in earnest conversation with her.

"Say, would you look at that!" cried Sid. "The girls were out with those chaps!"

"And after refusing to come with us!" went on Frank.

"I like their nerve!" declared Phil.

Tom said nothing, but there came a queer look in his eyes.

"Well, I suppose we're not the only fellows on the Island," spoke Frank, philosophically. "We couldn't expect them to stay in, waiting for us to come back, on such a fine day as this."

"But they said they were going to be busy," objected Sid.

"Oh, well, I guess what they had to do could be dropped and picked up again, when there was a launch ride in the offing," went on the Big Californian. "We'll call around after supper and take 'em out. There's going to be a glorious moon."

"Fine!" cried Sid. But when evening came, and the others attired themselves more or less gaily, ready for a call, Tom did not doff his old garments.

"What's the matter, sport; aren't you coming?" asked Sid.