"Worth getting up early for, that's sure," announced Fred, becoming more content. "Won't Pee Wee be sore because he's not in this?"
They marched away with shovels and sleds. Overnight the smaller boys had made a lot of snowballs and they had been packed in boxes and put on the sleds. But before the early procession started, Barry examined all the boxes, and finding that somebody had made "soakers," he dumped them out.
"Let me catch any of you boys icing the ammunition, and I'll tend to you," he promised, angrily.
"Aw, those Bedlamites busted Frankie Doane's head open with a soaker last winter," complained Sparrow Bangs.
"We won't be mean just because they've been," declared Captain Gray. "You see that you're not guilty, Sparrow."
"Gosh!" muttered Fred, in Sparrow's ear, "don't that sound just like Bobby?"
"You bet! They're a pair. Guess Bobby's a copy-cat. He's following in Barry's 'feet-prints.'"
"Don't you say that!" flamed up Ginger, at once. "Bobby has always been like that. He's the fairest chap that ever was. If anybody's the copy-cat, it's old Captain Gray!"
Neither of the boys in question beard this, and it was just as well perhaps that they didn't.
It was scarcely daylight when the party reached the island. They did not see a Belden boy stirring on the farther bank of the lake. After setting the tasks to be done by these guards, Barry went back to the school, leaving Max Bender in charge of the fortress.