“I think the best we can do is to say nothing at all about it,” said Jack. “Don’t let on that anything unusual has happened. That will keep them guessing.”
In the morning the lads took their usual plunge in the lake and then Spouter and Fred prepared breakfast, it being their turn for so doing. While they were at this the others went outside, first to indulge in a little horseplay in the way of boxing and wrestling, and then to throw themselves into the hammocks which were handy.
Jack was resting in one of the hammocks and gazing upward when suddenly his eyes rested upon a couple of potato sacks swinging from ropes tied to the tree limbs above him. At once he set up a shout.
“Hi, boys! Here is some more of the stuff, I guess!”
“Maybe the dishes are in those sacks!” exclaimed Gif, as he came to view the suspended bags.
“We’ll soon find out,” was the reply, and Jack began to climb the tree while the other boys gathered underneath. Soon he was at the sacks and felt of them carefully.
“The tableware, all right enough,” he announced. “I guess the knives and forks and spoons are here too,” he added, after feeling around some more.
A long boat-line was procured and with this the sacks were lowered carefully to the ground. As Jack had surmised, they contained all the crockeryware, as well as the knives, forks and spoons. Not a single thing seemed to be missing.
“Quite a stunt, I must admit,” said Spouter, “to hang those things and the boats up in the trees. We might have hunted around a long while if Jack hadn’t spotted those sacks.”
Directly after breakfast the boys made their way to where the boats had been suspended, and inside of an hour had the craft safe once more at the lake front.