However, something in the shape of the four wrapped objects taken from the bundle, and laid on the ground, did not exactly correspond with their idea of what hard tack looked like.
The boys rose full of curiosity.
"Wha—what——" gasped Ned.
"It's—guns!" fairly shouted Tad Butler.
Sure enough, it was.
Undoing the other three packages, the guide laid before their astonished eyes four handsome thirty-eight calibre repeating rifles.
The boys looked at each other questioningly.
At first they could scarcely believe it to be true.
"Are—are they for us—for us to use?" stammered Tad.
"That's what they're for, young gentlemen," smiled the guide. "You surely didn't expect to go hunting without guns, did you? At the Professor's suggestion I have been keeping them as a sort of surprise for you."