



Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
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                                  THE
                             RIVAL CAMPERS
                                  Or,
                     THE ADVENTURES OF HENRY BURNS


                                   By
                             Ruel P. Smith

                             ILLUSTRATED BY
                              A. B. SHUTE

                                 BOSTON
                          L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
                                  1905


                          _Copyright_, _1905_
                        By L. C. Page & Company
                             (INCORPORATED)

                         _All rights reserved_


                          Published July, 1905


                          _Second Impression_
                     _Third Impression, July, 1906_


                            _COLONIAL PRESS
            Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
                           Boston. U. S. A._


                              WITH LOVE TO
                         _Ruel Stevenson Smith_




                                CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
  I. The Camp                                                          1
  II. To the Rescue                                                   17
  III. A Surprise                                                     32
  IV. A Night with Henry Burns                                        51
  V. A Hidden Cave                                                    72
  VI. Jack Harvey Investigates                                        90
  VII. Squire Brackett's Dog                                         109
  VIII. The Haunted House                                            125
  IX. Setting a Trap                                                 142
  X. A Midnight Adventure                                            160
  XI. An Unpleasant Discovery                                        181
  XII. A Cruise Around the Island                                    199
  XIII. Storm Driven                                                 220
  XIV. The Man in the Boat                                           238
  XV. Good for Evil                                                  259
  XVI. A Treaty of Friendship                                        278
  XVII. The Fire                                                     290
  XVIII. The Flight                                                  306
  XIX. The Pursuit                                                   324
  XX. Among the Islands                                              343
  XXI. The Trial                                                     364




                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                    PAGE
  "'Look, Bob! Look!' he cried. 'What have we done?'"
          (_Frontispiece_)                                            86
  "'What's the matter with you?' roared the Colonel"                  67
  "'You're the worst one of all, Jack Harvey'"                       114
  "Craigie reeled under the blow and staggered back against the
          wall"                                                      173
  "Boys and lobster-pot slumped into the sea"                        211
  "'Will you shake hands with me?' he asked"                         279




                           THE RIVAL CAMPERS




                               CHAPTER I.
                                THE CAMP


On a certain afternoon in the latter part of the month of June, the
little fishing village of Southport, on Grand Island in Samoset Bay, was
awakened from its customary nap by the familiar whistle of the steamboat
from up the river. Southport, opening a sleepy eye at the sound, made
deliberate preparation to receive its daily visitor, knowing that the
steamer was as yet some distance up the island, and not even in sight,
for behind the bluff around which the steamer must eventually come the
town lay straggling irregularly along the shore of a deeply indented
cove.

A few loungers about the village grocery-store seemed roused to a renewed
interest in life, removed their pipes, and, with evident satisfaction at
this relief from island monotony, sauntered lazily down to the wharf. The
storekeeper and the freight-agent, as became men burdened with the
present responsibility of seeing that the steamer was offered all
possible assistance in making its landing, bustled about with importance.

Soon a wagon or two from down the island came rattling into the village,
while from the hotel, a quarter of a mile distant, a number of guests
appeared on the veranda, curious to scrutinize such new arrivals as might
appear. From the summer cottages here and there flags were hastily run
up, and from one a salute was fired; all of which might be taken to
indicate that the coming of the steamer was the event of the day at
Southport--as, indeed, it was.

Now another whistle sounded shrilly from just behind the bluff, and the
next moment the little steamer shoved its bow from out a jagged screen of
rock, while the chorused exclamation, "Thar she is!" from the assembled
villagers announced that they were fully awake to the situation.

Among the crowd gathered on the wharf, three boys, between whom there
existed sufficient family resemblance to indicate that they were
brothers, scanned eagerly the faces of the passengers as the steamer came
slowly to the landing. The eldest of the three, a boy of about sixteen
years, turned at length to the other two, and remarked, in a tone of
disappointment:

"They are not aboard. I can't see a sign of them. Something must have
kept them."

"Unless," said one of the others, "they are hiding somewhere to surprise
us."

"It's impossible," said the first boy, "for any one to hide away when he
gets in sight of this island. No, if they were aboard we should have seen
them the minute the steamer turned the bluff, waving to us and yelling at
the top of their lungs. There's something in the air here that makes one
feel like tearing around and making a noise."

"Especially at night, when the cottagers are asleep," said the third boy.

"Besides," continued the eldest, "their canoe is not aboard, and you
would not catch Tom Harris and Bob White coming down here for the summer
without it, when they spend half their time in it on the river at home
and are as expert at handling it as Indians,--and yet, they wrote that
they would be here to-day."

It