That missing article was found about halfway between the two camps. Tom and Harry picked it up, carrying it back to where it had been taken from. "Going after the guns, now?" Hazelton inquired.
"First of all," Tom suggested, "I think we had better start a roaring good campfire."
"What do we want such a thing as that for?" Harry protested.
"The day is warm enough."
"The fire will be just the thing," laughed Tom quietly. "Come on and gather the wood with me. Alf! Oh, you Alf Drew!"
But the cigarette fiend was not in evidence If he heard, he did not answer.
"We might as well pay that imitation boy for his time and let him go," muttered Harry.
"Oh, I hardly think so," dissented Reade. "It's worth some time and expense to see if we can't make something more nearly resembling a man out of him."
The fire was soon crackling merrily. Tom led the way to a thicket an eighth of a mile from camp. Here he produced from hiding three repeating rifles and several boxes of ammunition.
"We'll hold on to these," Hazelton said.
"For what reason?"