“Chopped-up onions!” cried the former of the twins. “What do you know about that! They are carrying pockets full of chopped-up onions! Wow!”
“I’ll bet I know what they were going to do with those!” declared Randy. “They were going to doctor up our grub with ’em!”
“Well, what if we were?” said Gabe Werner boldly. “Didn’t you fellows doctor up our mess kits?”
“Did they have a chance to get at the stuff in the knapsacks?” questioned Jack anxiously.
The girls were now coming up in a bunch, wondering what the disturbance meant. A swift examination proved that Werner and those with him had had no opportunity to disturb the things to eat, nor had they done any harm to the girls’ wraps outside of mussing them up a trifle.
“Say, we ought to give those fellows the licking of their lives,” declared Fred emphatically. “The idea of wanting to play a joke like that with the girls around!”
“No, we want no fighting to-day,” declared Jack. “This affair can wait.” He turned to the unworthy ones. “You clear out of here, and be mighty quick about it! We’ll settle with you another time.”
“Come on—I’m going back to camp!” cried Codfish timidly, and without waiting for a reply he struck off through the woods.
“You needn’t think you can boss everything, Jack Rover, even if you are a captain,” growled Werner. “On account of the girls, we won’t say anything more about it just now. Come on, Bill.” And a few seconds later he and his crony followed Codfish, and soon all were out of sight.
For the time being the encounter with the Werner crowd put a damper on the others. But they were young in hearts and spirits, and soon they forgot what had taken place and went back to the front of the cliffs. Here they presently opened up the knapsacks, and the boys allowed the girls to fix the spread for them while they built a small fire in a hollow between the rocks where they made a large pot of chocolate. It is needless to say that all enjoyed the outing very much, and were sorry when it was time to bring it to an end.