"The girls may have my share," gallantly offered Tom Reade, though he groaned under his breath.
"There's pudding enough for a lot more people than we have here," returned Jim. "I don't bother making small puddings."
The boys were all called in quickly to greet the girls and Dr. and Mrs. Bentley. Of course, the girls had to see the interior of the tent, and all the arrangements of the camp.
"I wish I were a boy," sighed Laura Bentley enviously.
"I'm glad you're not," spoke Dick gallantly. "You're ever so much nicer as a girl."
Honk! honk! sounded over by the road. The noise continued.
"Greg," said Dick, "that's Miss Sharp's father's man. Evidently he wants something. You'd better run over."
In less than five minutes back came Greg with three other men, all of them unexpected. Mr. Alonzo Hibbert, minus his four-quart hat, and wearing a flat straw hat instead, as well as light clothes and silk negligee shirt, came in advance of Tom Colquitt, the man from Blinders' detective agency. Still to the rear of them was a third man, slightly bent and looking somewhat old, though there were no gray streaks in his light brown hair.
"How do you do, boys?" called Mr. Hibbert airily, as he came swiftly forward. "We saw a big smoke over this way, and so we stopped to find out what was the matter. Young Holmes has asked us to stop for your barbecue, but it looks to me like a terrible imposition on you, and so——-"
Here Mr. Hibbert paused, looking highly embarrassed as he caught sight of Mrs. Bentley and the girls coming out of the tent.