“I shouldn’t be surprised,” replied the Professor dryly.
“Perhaps,” agreed Tad, “the Indian was after another ham and thought he had hold of one when he got Chunky.”
“You keep on and I’ll say something!” snorted the fat boy.
“I have been looking at that red mark on my ankle,” continued Ned. “It was a rope that did the business. How do you suppose they 114ever managed to tie it to our ankles without waking us up?”
“I thought you did wake up,” answered Tad with twinkling eyes.
“We did afterwards, but I don’t understand it at all. Didn’t you hear anything, Tad?”
“If I remember rightly I heard two boys yelling like frightened babies.”
Once again Chunky snorted, but held his peace. Matters were rapidly nearing a crisis. Chunky knew that he had played a mean trick on Tad by tying a string to the provision line and giving it a jerk to wake his companion up, thus making him believe someone was at the provisions. He suspected that the trick had been turned on him, but he wasn’t quite sure. Stacy was covertly watching every expression on the face of Tad Butler, every word that was uttered, Tad in the meantime continuing to worry his fat companion. The latter stood it as long as possible. Then he arose rather hastily and strode around to the rear of the tent, returning a moment later with a rope in his hand.
Tad recognized it instantly.
“Here, if you want to know what got hold of us last night. Look at this!” exclaimed Chunky.