Suddenly Fred exclaimed: "Crickey! Let's see if those potatoes are done. I'm as hungry as a hound right now."
This set them all on a run. It does not take much to put an edge on a boy's appetite. Just the suggestion of the potatoes was enough.
"First at the fire!" yelled Howell Purdy, as he hurried down through the grove, and over the rocks.
"Bet you I make it first!" declared Shiner, vigorously following the leader.
It was a stampede. With whoops and shouts the seventeen scrambled down the descent to the shore.
Suddenly they halted. Shiner and Howell, who had been wrestling to put each other behind, looked, too. There was a crowd of boys around their campfire on the shore.
"Who are they?" demanded Bobby, in amazement.
"Say! they're raking out our potatoes!" gasped Fred Martin.
"They're Beldenites!" declared Pee Wee, panting, and on the high ground behind. "There's their boats. And there's half as many more of them as there are of us."
"I don't care if they're two to one!" cried Fred in anger. "Those are our potatoes."