WHAT THE RIVALS DID
The other lads lost no time in following Fred and Randy into the
bungalow. They too gazed around in astonishment which readily turned to
dismay and anger.
And the lads had good cause to be angry. Someone had crawled through a
window and “rough-housed” the bungalow thoroughly. Hardly a thing had
been left untouched. All the bedding was scattered around on the floor,
some in the living room and some in the kitchen, and on top of this had
been piled the furniture and all the cooking utensils. To add to the
mess, books and papers were scattered in every direction, along with
all their canned goods and such fruit and vegetables as they happened
to have on hand. A side of bacon rested on one of the bunks and a ham
was in the woodbox under some kindlings. At one end of the center
table, which had been shoved into a corner, rested in a heap their
supply of coffee and at the other end in another heap their supply of
sugar. All of their plates, cups and saucers were missing, as were
also the knives, forks and spoons. All their extra underwear had been
tied together and in knots.
[Illustration: THE LADS HAD GOOD CAUSE TO BE ANGRY.]
“The Longley bunch did this――that’s as sure as sure!” cried Jack, as he
surveyed the scene.
“I think so myself,” returned Gif. “Some muss, and no mistake.”
“They ought to be hammered good if they really did it,” cried Spouter.
“I’d like to take a horsewhip over them,” came from Fred. “Look at that
sugar, will you? And look at the coffee!”
“Well, anyhow, they didn’t dare scatter it on the floor,” put in Randy.
“That proves one thing to me,” came quickly from Jack. “Tommy Flanders
and his bunch didn’t do this alone. If it was the Flanders crowd alone
they wouldn’t hesitate to make all our grub worthless to us. They would
have scattered everything on the floor or thrown it into the brook, or
something like that.”
“I believe you there, Jack,” answered Randy quickly. “Some of the
better class of fellows must have been in this. They did it just to be
funny.”
It was all the boys could do to make their way from one room to another
of the bungalow since each of the doorways had been cluttered up by
chairs and benches.
“Nothing to do but to straighten things out,” remarked Gif. “Some job,
I’ll say.”
“Do you suppose they took the boats away?” questioned Spouter.
“I hardly think so, Spouter,” answered Jack. “The fellows who did this
acted half decently about it; otherwise a lot of the stuff would have
been actually ruined. And that being so, I don’t believe they really
took the boats away. Probably they’re only hidden.”
“We ought to look around for the boats before it gets too dark,”
suggested Gif. “We can fix up things indoors any time.”
“Suppose we divide the work,” suggested Jack. “I and some of the others
can fix up the house while you and the rest look for the boats.”
This plan was carried out, and Jack and the twins remained indoors to
do what they could toward straightening out the bungalow while the
others went outside to hunt for the missing rowboats.
To rearrange the interior of the bungalow was no mean matter, for a
large part of the furniture was heavy and they had to be careful first
of all that they did not damage some of the canned goods which were
scattered in all directions.
“We’ll pick up the apples and potatoes and onions first,” ordered Jack.
“And then we can go at the canned stuff and the meat and things like
that.”
“We’ll have to find the lamps first,” said Andy. “It’s getting dark.”
The hunt for the three lamps took some time. They were finally located,
minus the chimneys, in the oven of the stove. The chimneys they
discovered on the back of a pantry shelf.
“Fine thing to put those lamps in the oven!” snorted Randy. “Suppose we
had built a fire there! That kerosene might have exploded.”
“Yes. And anyway we’ll have to clean that oven out. Otherwise it may
have a kerosene smell to it when we try to bake something,” added his
brother.
Lighting the lamps and placing them where they might not be knocked
over, the three boys set to work with a will and inside of half an hour
had salvaged all of the eatables. Then they commenced to place the
furniture in shape and picked up the bedding and their clothing.
“We’ll have to air the blankets out and dust them off,” said Jack.
“They got rather dirty on the floor, I’m afraid. And the underwear will
have to be washed――that is after we untie the knots.”
“It’s queer what became of all the tableware and knives and that
truck,” remarked Andy.
“Did you look in the woodbox?” questioned Jack.
“I did,” came from Randy. “That’s where I found the ham.”
The boys took the bedding out on the bungalow porch and shook it
vigorously. Then they left it on chairs to air while they made another
search around the building for the missing table stuff.
They were still on the hunt when they heard a shout from outside.
Running to the rear of the bungalow they heard voices up the little
brook that at this point flowed into Big Bear Lake, the same
watercourse they had followed when they had encountered the wildcat.
“Hello!” shouted Jack. “Have you found the boats?”
“Yes!” came from Gif.
“They’re tied up in the trees!” explained Spouter.
Jack and the twins ran in the direction of the voices and presently
came upon the other lads standing at the foot of a tall tree. Swinging
from one of the branches of this tree were the two missing rowboats.
“Some job they must have had, to tie them up there,” remarked Andy.
“Yes. And we’re going to have a job to get ’em down,” answered Gif.
“I think we’d better let it go over until to-morrow.”
“I’m willing,” said Jack.
“Now you’ve found the boats perhaps you can find the dishes and knives
and forks and spoons,” said Andy. “We can’t get a trace of ’em.”
All of the lads returned to the bungalow feeling that the boats would
be safe where they were for the night. They straightened out the rest
of the furniture and made up the beds and then started to get supper
ready.
“I don’t know what we’re going to eat off of,” remarked Gif. “We’ll
have to use tin pans and basins and kettle tops and whatever is handy.”
“And we’ll have to eat with our pocketknives and the kitchen fork,”
added Randy, with a grin.
“Well, anyway, I’m glad the grub isn’t missing,” broke in Spouter. “I’m
hungry enough to eat a meal with my fingers.”
They soon had some potatoes on to boil. Then they cleaned some of the
fish and started to fry them and also made themselves a large pot of
coffee. To the hungry lads the aroma from the coffee and the smell of
frying fish were exceedingly appetizing.
“Makes a fellow feel like home――a smell like that,” was Fred’s comment.
He was slicing some bread which had been brought from Rocky Run on the
last visit to the store.
It was a comical sight to see the boys try to eat their supper without
any of the tableware. One used a pie plate, another a saucepan and
still another an old frying pan. Andy used an overturned teakettle
cover and his twin had to get along with the glazed bottom of a
jardiniere which someone had once left at the bungalow. All used their
pocketknives but Gif and Spouter, who managed to get possession of the
bread knife and the smaller article used for peeling potatoes.
“This must be like life in the trenches,” remarked Randy, while they
were eating.
“I guess we’re better off than that,” responded Jack quickly. “Lots of
times those poor fellows had to eat out of their bare hands.”
In spite of the trick that had been played upon them all of the boys
slept soundly that night. They felt that they would be perfectly safe
in retiring without leaving a guard.
“Those fellows won’t dare show themselves around here for a while,”
remarked Gif. “They’d be too afraid we’d pitch into ’em.”
“They wouldn’t hang around very long, anyway, if they saw us with our
guns,” added Fred.
“We’ll have to pay ’em back for this little joke, Fred,” said Andy.
“Of course. Just give me the chance and I’ll show ’em what we’ll do!”
“I think the best we can do is to say nothing at all about it,” said
Jack. “Don’t let on that anything unusual has happened. That will keep
them guessing.”
In the morning the lads took their usual plunge in the lake and then
Spouter and Fred prepared breakfast, it being their turn for so doing.
While they were at this the others went outside, first to indulge in a
little horseplay in the way of boxing and wrestling, and then to throw
themselves into the hammocks which were handy.
Jack was resting in one of the hammocks and gazing upward when suddenly
his eyes rested upon a couple of potato sacks swinging from ropes tied
to the tree limbs above him. At once he set up a shout.
“Hi, boys! Here is some more of the stuff, I guess!”
“Maybe the dishes are in those sacks!” exclaimed Gif, as he came to
view the suspended bags.
“We’ll soon find out,” was the reply, and Jack began to climb the tree
while the other boys gathered underneath. Soon he was at the sacks and
felt of them carefully.
“The tableware, all right enough,” he announced. “I guess the knives
and forks and spoons are here too,” he added, after feeling around some
more.
A long boat-line was procured and with this the sacks were lowered
carefully to the ground. As Jack had surmised, they contained all the
crockeryware, as well as the knives, forks and spoons. Not a single
thing seemed to be missing.
“Quite a stunt, I must admit,” said Spouter, “to hang those things and
the boats up in the trees. We might have hunted around a long while if
Jack hadn’t spotted those sacks.”
Directly after breakfast the boys made their way to where the boats had
been suspended, and inside of an hour had the craft safe once more at
the lake front.
“Now I guess we’re all fixed,” announced Gif. “I’m glad it was no
worse,” he added, with a sigh of relief.
“They certainly gave us enough work to do,” grumbled Fred.
“But not as much as it might have been,” answered Jack. “If Flanders,
Sands and Halliday were in this they must certainly have been held back
by some of the other Longley boys. Otherwise they would have smashed up
stuff and scattered it in all directions.”
“Maybe Jeff came over with ’em!” cried Andy suddenly.
“Possibly. But I think this is only the boys’ trick.”
The six lads were taking it easy that day after supper when they
discerned a motor-boat coming up the lake in their direction. As the
craft came closer several persons in the boat stood up and waved their
hands frantically.
“Hello! who can that be?” cried Jack, leaping to his feet. And then he
ran down to the dock, followed by the others.
As the motor-boat came closer there was a cry from across the water.
“Colby Hall, ahoy!”
“Why, it’s Dan and his crowd!” ejaculated Fred. “What do you know about
that!”