“Wait! My goodness, we could hardly wait to get through supper!” exclaimed Billy.
While they were talking the Captain brought in another case which he had wheeled up from the launch. This case must have been consigned to a hardware merchant or some poultry man as it was filled with wire nests for chickens.
“This sure is a lottery,” laughed Fred.
“Yes, and we lost out on this draw!” chuckled Captain Ed.
“Well, these can’t be used anyway, ’cause we never keep chickens on the Island,” said Billy, regretfully.
“You might take them over to your Uncle Tom,” ventured Paul.
“He won’t need more than three or four—and look at all of these,” replied Fred.
“How many do you s’pose there are,” wondered Dudley, and Billy began to unwire one bundle. As he took out one after another of the closely packed wire frames the boys counted until they found there were twenty-five in a pack.
“Say, for pity’s sake don’t unwire any more—there’s twenty bundles of them in all,” laughed the Captain.
“That’s five hundred wire baskets! Gee! We’d be swamped all right!” added Billy.