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THE OUTDOOR CHUMS

Bluff threw his blanket around his shoulders and strutted about with the air of a conqueror.

"They have to get up early in the morning if they expect to beat us," he said, proudly.

"Talk about your hot times, that was a scorcher!" cried Jerry.

"But I'm beginning to shiver now all right; and I advise every one to crawl into his clothes in a hurry. Then we can talk it over. It's a mighty suspicious thing, that's what," remarked Frank.

They were only too glad to take his advice, and shortly after the four gathered around the revived campfire to exchange opinions.

They were a pretty smutty-looking crowd; but Jerry declared that those marks were medals of honor.

"Now, if we had all been like Will here, and each rushed for his possessions, the camp would have been a-goner," he remarked, with a reproachful look.

"That's all right, fellows, and under any other conditions I would have been one of the first to assist; but I'm the official photographer of the expedition, and the guardian of those splendid films that must perpetuate our camping trig for posterity," he explained.

"Hear! hear!" cried Frank.