"What sort of—horse play d'ye call that—I'd like to know?" he sputtered, trying to wipe his streaming face with a handkerchief that looked far too small for the task. "Can't a feller—just stroll around camp—without some silly putting out a foot, and tripping him up? Tell me that, now?"
"I'm beginning to think we must have some sort of a hoodoo along with us," remarked Smithy, anxiously. "All sorts of things seem to be happening, and in the most mysterious way possible. We all know that there wasn't a single fellow anywhere near Bumpus when he pitched forward. Yet he says somebody put out a foot, and he tripped over it. I think it a remarkable phenomenon, for a fact, and worth investigating."
"Well, somethin' did trip me, and that's sure," grumbled the other, possibly thinking that he had been too sweeping in his accusation.
"Suppose you look in that bunch of grass, and find out if the little evil spirit that's playing all these pranks on you is lying there?" suggested Thad, with a twinkle in his eye, as though he could give a pretty shrewd guess what the result of the said exploration would turn out to be.
So Bumpus, always willing to oblige, especially since his own curiosity must have been aroused, proceeded forthwith to get down on his hands and knees, and begin an examination of the tangle in question.
Half a minute later he gave a loud cry. At the same time he was seen to hold up some strange black object.
"Look! Bumpus has caught his little evil genius!" cried Giraffe. "And ain't it a hard lookin' subject though. Caught him right by the ankle, and threw him straight into our spring. Lucky we'd had all the drink we wanted before he started to wash there!"
"Why, blessed if it ain't my kodak!" ejaculated Step Hen faintly, as though it shocked him to think how his lost camera should have been lying there in all that tangle of grass, where it had undoubtedly fallen as he prepared to take his turn bending over the water hole.
Of course everybody laughed, for they could guess what had happened. Step Hen's little failings were an everyday occurrence. As Giraffe had often declared, the careless one would have long since lost his head had not a kind Nature secured it to his body.
The march was resumed, with Thad lecturing Step Hen on his prevailing sin; and as usual Step Hen solemnly promising to be more careful the next time. But he had a very slippery mind, and the chances were that before nightfall he would be up to his old tricks again, accusing the rest of playing a prank by hiding some of his possessions.