“You forget that we don’t know where the Ritter crowd is located.”
“Gracious, that’s so! Well, we will have to find out. If he’s got any of my mail, I want it.”
When the boys got back to camp the others listened with interest to what they had to tell.
“It will be fun to go after those tramps and clean them out,” said Dale. “And if the fellow is there who attacked Andy I hope we catch him and get back the stolen things.”
“Home-made pies!” murmured Stuffer, referring to what the boys said about the Ford girls. “Yum! yum! That’s the best ever!”
“I knew that would make a bull’s-eye hit with you!” said Pepper, with a merry laugh.
“I hope they bring enough to go around. Did you tell them how many there were of us?” asked the boy who loved to eat, anxiously.
“I told them there were over half a dozen of us,” answered Pepper, with a wink at the others.
“Oh, Pepper! Half a dozen! Then they’ll only bring two or three pies, and we won’t get more than a mouthful apiece!” And Stuffer’s face took on a mournful look.
“Well, you know, Master Singleton,” said The Imp, imitating Pluxton Cuddle’s tone of voice. “Too much eating is bad for a youth. It makes him stupid and incapable of studying properly. If one ate less——”
“Oh, stop your tommy-rot about eating less!” roared Stuffer. “I guess you must really believe in it—or you wouldn’t let those Ford girls bring only two or three pies.” And he turned to walk away.
“Stop, Stuffer, Pep was only fooling,” cried Andy. “They’ll bring enough pies, don’t you worry.” And then the youth who loved to eat felt relieved.
A campfire was kept going during the evening, and around this the runaway cadets gathered, to tell stories, sing songs and speculate upon how the whole affair was to end. A few were nervous, but others felt certain that Captain Putnam would not blame them for what they had done.
“If he does, he is not the man I take him to be,” said Dale.
“If he sides with Crabtree and Cuddle I shall ask my father to send me to another school,” said another.
“If we stick together he is bound to side with us,” added Fred.
“Now, don’t make such a mistake as that,” said Jack, to the last speaker. “Captain Putnam will not be influenced by our sticking together, even if it breaks up his school. He will decide this case solely on its merits. But I hope he will see that we were in the right—at least, that we were not as much in the wrong as Josiah Crabtree and Pluxton Cuddle.”