The High School Boys in Summer Camp | Page 8

Colquitt.
"I'm vanquished," confessed Alonzo Hibbert, with a sigh. "I'm no good

at anything. I wouldn't even make a detective."
"I must leave you now," suggested Mr. Colquitt, rising. "I must wire
to---er---to my client. Poor man, he will be greatly disappointed."
As the detective rose and passed outside Hazelton leaned over to
murmur to young Holmes:
"Don't you wish it had turned out that you were the million-dollar kid?"
"Not if I had to give up my father and mother," Greg replied, with great
promptness.
"I seem to be a fool at everything," sighed Alonzo Hibbert in disgust.
"No; I would say, sir," suggested Tom Reade, "that you made the
mistake of proceeding on one sign, instead of looking for all three."
"Have another ice!" urged Mr. Hibbert, brightening at once. "You have
set me straight. I wasn't a fool, after all---merely too swift"
But the boys shook their heads as they murmured their thanks.
So they were about to rise when a voice called cheerily behind them:
"Stay where you are, fellows. We'll have an ice cream all around."
"Dick!" cried five eager voices at once, as Prescott came smilingly to
join them. Then their eyes all framed the same question, which their
lips refused to utter.
"Did you sell the canoe?"
As Dick glanced inquiringly at young Mr. Hibbert, Dave Darrin
presented him. Dick also learned that Hibbert had been a willing host to
five of the chums.
"Now, you'll turn about and eat an ice cream with us, won't you, Mr.
Hibbert?" urged young Prescott.

This the young man consented to do, though, as soon as the dainty had
been disposed of, he begged to be excused that he might go and have
further talk with Tom Colquitt.
"You sold the canoe, I think, Dick?" said Tom, as soon as their late host
had left them.
"Yes," beamed their leader.
"You might tell us what you got for it," urged Danny Grin.
"Guess," hinted Dick.
"Fifty," said Dave promptly.
"He said he wouldn't take less than ninety," retorted Hazelton.
"Ninety dollars," guessed Tom.
"Fellows," laughed Dick, "at one time on the train I was so
downhearted and glum over the chances of a trade that I believe I
would have jumped at fifty dollars. Then I remembered my promise not
to take less than ninety dollars. With that I soared to a hundred dollars,
then down, by degrees, to seventy. But my promise pulled me back to
ninety."
"It wasn't exactly a promise," Dave broke in. "Anyway, Dick, it wasn't
the kind of promise that had to be kept."
"Half the time I felt that the promise had to be kept, and the other half
of the time I felt that it might better be broken," Prescott went on,
laughingly. "Just as I reached Porthampton, however, and saw all the
fine summer homes there, my figures began to rise. I realized, of course,
that a birch bark canoe is a good deal of a rarity in these days; that such
a boat hasn't anything like a hard-and-fast, staple value. A birch bark
canoe, in other words, is worth what it will bring."
"And no more," nodded Dave Darrin. "So you were wise to take the
fifty dollars."

"Who said that I took fifty dollars for the canoe?" Dick smiled back.
"What did you get?" insisted Harry Hazelton, his impatience increasing
with every minute.
"Do you really want to know what I got?" teased Dick.
"Of course I do," snorted Harry. "We all do!"
"Then I'll tell you," nodded Dick. Instead, however, he began feeling in
his pockets.
"Tell us, then!" ordered Hazelton gruffly.
"I got a check," smiled Dick.
"For how much?" pressed Hazelton.
"Well, let me explain," said Dick, still laughing. "You see, I didn't have
to do any describing or praising of the canoe, for Mr. Eades, who
bought the canoe for his crowd, was here three days ago, as you know,
and looked the canoe over, in water and out. It was just a question of
settling the price of the canoe. So, when I reached Mr. Eades, we
started in to bargain. He asked me how much I wanted for the canoe. I
guess, fellows, my nerve must have gone to my head, for I told him two
hundred dollars."
"You didn't get it?" gasped Hazelton.
"I didn't," Dick answered soberly.
"How much-----"
"Mr. Eades told me he represented himself and associates, who wanted
the canoe to put on the little lake down at their country club. I told him
it seemed to me that a canoe like ours was an expensive sort of thing to
put in a pond. Then he offered me seventy-five dollars."
"That's a good, round sum, and will help us out a lot this summer,"

nodded Dave Darrin. "I'm glad you