Ted promised to do so and with that the conversation came to an end. The farmer and his wife had listened openly to the conversation on Ted’s part, and they quite frankly let him see it in their subsequent words.
“Sho, you boys havin’ a little trouble down to your camp, ain’t you?” the farmer said, as Ted joined Buck in the kitchen of the house.
“Yes, but we’ll get at the bottom of it pretty soon,” affirmed Ted. “By the way, if you should hear from any one around that they know anything about it, you might let me know.”
“I’ll sure do that,” promised the farmer. “Anybody ought to be ashamed to go botherin’ you while you ain’t doing nothing but enjoyin’ yourself campin’.”
“I’d be scared to death to stay down there at night,” the farmer’s wife shook her head.
The next move on Ted’s part was strange even to Buck. They went to Montvery and there Ted bought ten cheap flashlights.
“What is the idea?” Buck demanded. “We have lanterns in the camp and we don’t really need flashlights. A few of us have them already and there is plenty of oil for the lamps.”
“I know, but I want every boy to have a flashlight. It is part of the plan which I will unfold when we get back to camp.”
When they arrived at the camp they found the boys in swimming, with their clothing piled in plain sight on the bank of Bear Creek. “We didn’t trust this place,” Drummer confided. “We were afraid if we left the clothes in the tent somebody would walk off with ’em or make them vanish or something!”
When they were all out and dressed Ted called them in a knot around him. They stood away from the tents and the tress, out in the open space.