It was soon seen, however, that the guardian of the camp had a good reason for his excitement. His face bore a troubled expression, it struck Tom, when he drew near the camp.
“Anything gone wrong here Billy?” he asked.
“I should say there had, Tom!” he burst out with. “Why, would you believe it, some miserable tramps raided the camp, and got away with most of our stuff!”
CHAPTER XXI
SCOUT GRIT
“Tell us how it happened, Billy!” said the patrol leader, when the clamor of excited voices partly died away, giving him a chance to make himself heard.
“Yes, what did they do to you, Billy?” demanded Josh, noticing that the other did not seem to be limping, or showing any other signs of having met with rough treatment at the hands of the camp raiders.
“Why, it was this way,” Billy hastened to explain. “You see I was down by the water cleaning all those fish at the time. Guess I must have been pretty much a whole hour at the job. And I’d just about finished when I thought I heard somebody give a sneeze, which made me get up off my knees and look around.”