“I’m going to light up and see what that confounded thing in my cot is,” growled Bill Glutts.
Something had stuck him in several places on his back, and he felt anything but comfortable. Werner was rubbing himself and saying things under his breath that were far from complimentary. The lantern was lit, and both made an inspection of their cots. Each found a bundle tied up in a thin, dirty towel.
“Rocks and sticks!” cried Gabe Werner, in deep disgust. “Hang the luck, anyway!” He took up the bundle and gazed at it closer. “Well, what do you know about this?”
“What is it?” questioned his crony.
“Here is a card! What do you know about this?” and he looked at a bit of pasteboard on which had been scrawled:
“Returned with the compliments of the Rovers.”
“You might know they’d try to get back at us,” remarked Glutts.
“I’ll fix ’em—you see if I don’t!” and, in a rage, Gabe took up the bundle which had been placed on his cot and threw it with all his force to the back of the tent It struck a pole, and from inside came a crash.
“Hello, you’ve broken something!” cried Glutts. “Maybe it’s a bottle. I wouldn’t put it past ’em to put one in there, thinking you might get cut with it.”
To this Werner did not reply. A sudden thought had come to his mind, and hastily he picked up the bundle, now somewhat torn, and opened it. In the midst of the sticks and stones lay his flashlight, bent and with the glass broken.