The children turned around, and, sure enough, there was a something coming down the road, though what it was the children couldn’t determine till it came a little closer. They waited and waited, but it scarcely seemed to move at all, and, at last, Dick, whose curiosity was greatly aroused, proposed going to meet it.
“Let’s go and fetch the clothes the Walrus gave us first,” suggested Marjorie, wisely, and so they ran off to the rock behind which they had hidden them.
"The snowshoes seemed to puzzle them somewhat."
To their great surprise, they found a party of apes and monkeys calmly trying the things on, and apparently enjoying themselves very much indeed. The snowshoes seemed to puzzle them considerably, however, and they were undecided whether to regard them as musical instruments or a novel form of headgear.
“Hi! Just you put those clothes down at once!” shouted Dick. “How dare you interfere with our things!”
“They’re not yours,” said one of the monkeys. “Findings keepings. We found them, and so they are ours.”
“Indeed they are not. Give them back at once!” demanded Dick.
“Shan’t!” screamed the monkeys, impudently, and, scampering up into the trees beyond the children’s reach, they made grimaces at them, and openly defied them. Indeed, one of them went so far as to climb up into a cocoanut palm and began pelting the children with the nuts.