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but surely Snap got closer to the campfire, which was built in a little hollow and screened from the lake by a wall of rocks.

"They built the fire there so that we couldn't see it from across the lake," reasoned the young hunter, and he was right.

Presently he was near enough to make out six forms around the fire. Then he recognized Ham Spink, Carl Dudder, Jack Voss, and some other of the lads of the town who usually went with Ham and Carl. One boy, named Ike Akley, was a ne'er-do-well, who had once set a barn on fire and burned up two cows. For this he had been locked up, but his father had procured his release by paying heavy damages.

The crowd around the campfire were eating supper and talking in such low tones that Snap could not make out what was said. They seemed to be in the best of spirits, as if something had happened to please them greatly.

Between the campfire and the lake a large tent Rh