"And every one of us has a clear title to turning our badges right-side up, after working so hard for our enemies," Chatz declared, as they "knocked off."
"Well, how about that dinner, camp style?" demanded Toby, drawing out the waistband of his khaki trousers to show what a quantity of room he had for a supply of cooked food.
"It's long after noon, so we might as well get busy with dinner," Elmer replied.
After stowing all the sacks away in the bushes, where they were not likely to be discovered, should any outsider wander on the scene while they were employed elsewhere, the scouts busied themselves in making preparations for the camp meal which all of them had so long been anxiously looking forward to.
First of all a fire was started in the most approved manner, some flat stones being built up in two parallel ridges. Long ago these lads had found that there was nothing so splendidly adapted for camp cooking as a gridiron of some sort, made after the pattern of the shelf in the kitchen oven at home, with grill bars. This could be easily placed on stones, or even mounds of earth if the first were not available, and there was no danger of anything upsetting; while the flames, or the heat of the red coals had a chance to accomplish the work. So they never went forth, when there was a possibility of cooking being done, without carrying this contrivance along with them.
They had been thoughtful enough to also fetch along a coffee-pot, an extra large frying-pan made of sheetiron, and the necessary tin platters, cups, knives, forks and spoons.
Soon the delicious odor of dinner began to steal forth, causing Toby to sniff the air with rapture, and loudly declare:
"Fried onions, coffee, ham, potatoes, and plenty of fresh bread and butter; that's the bill of fare, is it? Gee! whiz! you couldn't beat it if you tried all day. And every minute's going to seem like a whole hour to me till I hear the welcome call to the feast."
"We're a lucky lot to be sitting around here like this, and a bully dinner coming on, when we think of that bunch of soreheads hustling for home, not even half a dozen nuts in their pockets, and even their gunny sacks lost," Chatz remarked.
"Yes, provided somebody don't get too gay, and upset all that coffee into the fire," grumbled George, who evidently would not feel sure of his dinner until he had devoured it, because, as he was fond of repeating, "there's many a slip 'tween the cup and the lip," and Toby was so apt to be so clumsy in moving around.