“I don’t doubt it!” returned the fat boy.
Buck appeared in the doorway of the tent with something in his hand. He drew back his arm and launched the tennis ball at the bear. The white ball went straight and true, hitting the bear on the nose with a whack.
The little bear gave a grunt of surprise, shook his head in evident perplexity, and turned and ran at a lumbering trot away from the camp, pursued by the laughter of the boys. He disappeared at top speed in the undergrowth and avoided the camp from that day onward.
Breakfast was eaten cheerfully, the bear incident having put them all in good spirits, and afterward Ted addressed them as they sat around the fire. He talked without heat, but earnestly.
“I want to lay down the law to you fellows, not in any nasty way, but so that there will be no mistake,” he said. “From the events which have gone on around here we know that someone doesn’t want us in this camp, because if anyone will go to the trouble to blow a conch shell and hang up a skeleton, they aren’t fooling. But we’re not going to run away like a bunch of babies. I’m responsible for this camp, and if I went back and said that I couldn’t hold you here, I would be falling down on a trust which was committed to me. We’ll show this prowler, whoever he is, that we have more right to be here than he has and that we won’t pack up and move!”
He glanced briefly at Plum. “If any of you boys have any complaint to make, make it to Buck or to me. We are the leaders and we’ll try and do what is right. We’re not going to run away from this camp just because someone wants us to, and we’re not going home one single day before Labor Day! So get that straight, and also the fact that all orders must be obeyed without argument. If there are several bosses around any organization things jar, and while I don’t want to appear to be overbearing, Buck and I must have your full support. We’ll be fair with you, I promise you that. That will be all for now.”
The group broke up, scattering to the affairs at hand. Tom Clayton spoke to the morose Plum.
“Ted is quite a leader, isn’t he?”
“He’s too much leader!” was the growled response.