“I don’t count much on that,” said Mouser. “They’ll be on their guard and won’t want to give themselves away.”
To a certain extent this proved true. There was no attempt on the part of the bullies to gloat over the victims of their trick. But the boys surprised furtive grins and winks that passed between the three when they thought no one was looking, and this confirmed their suspicions that now were almost certainties.
“They did it all right,” pronounced Fred. “I’m sure of it from the way I saw them grinning at each other. But they’ll laugh on the other side of their mouths before long.”
As soon as the boys were free from their duties, they went with all speed to the scene of their misadventure. And again they lamented, when they saw by daylight how thoroughly the hill was spoiled for coasting.
“There must be bushels and bushels of ashes!” exclaimed Mouser, as his eyes roamed over the lower half of the hill.
“It beats me how they managed to get it all here,” observed Skeets.
“It must have been brought a long way,” commented Sparrow. “There’s no place round here they could have got them from.”
“They couldn’t have carried all that stuff themselves,” said Bobby thoughtfully.
“It would have been an awful job,” added Howell, “and those fellows don’t like work well enough for that.”
“They might have hired a man with a horse and wagon,” suggested Skeets.