"Huh! As if you didn't know why!" replied Roger, with something like a chuckle. "Don't they both know that Jessie is the very apple of your eye, and that anything that brings trouble to her will cut you to the heart? Of course they know that, Dave, and you can rest assured that they will try to hurt you quite as much through Jessie as they'll try to hurt you direct."
"Perhaps, Roger. If I was sure"
"Low bridge!" shouted Phil at that instant, as a bend of the river was gained, and then the whole crowd of students swept under the low-hanging branches of a number of trees. Those ahead had to go slowly and pick the way with care.
"How much farther have we to go?" called out Sam Day.
"Only a couple of miles," replied Dave. He turned to Phil and Roger. "That's about all," he whispered. "Keep it to yourselves."
"We will," they replied.
"Somebody else going to carry this hamper?" cried Chip Macklin. "It's getting rather heavy."
"I'll carry one end," said Ben Basswood.
"And I'll take the other," added Phil. "Dave, you and Roger go ahead and bring down a couple of deer, and a bear, and one or two tigers, or something like that," he continued, with a grin,
