“Thank goodness!” breathed Dray, fervently. “I really couldn’t stand any more nerve-racking experiences.”
“We look intact,” said Walter. “I wonder if my dress suit is still unwrinkled.”
“Your overalls?” asked Jack, mimicking Walter’s tone of voice. “Oh, I am sure they are perfectly all right, for I saw them in the wood box just before we left.”
“Brute!” responded Walter. “But I say! What’s that? We are inhabited!”
Sounds of voices issued from inside the tent. Jack dashed ahead and raised the flap.
“Robbers! Thieves! Police!” he yelled, then he had to dodge something.
“We are here for our rights,” sang out a strong voice. “We demand our insurance!”
“Seems to me the demand is rather violent,” replied Ed, as the Couldn’ts saw what was going on. The entire tent was filled with boys from the wrecked camps, and they were making away with practically everything in the line of eatables they could lay their hands on.
“Clear out!” ordered Dray, “or we will call the police. What sort of way is this to keep law and order?”
“The only way,” replied Hal, a boy from the “Mist.” “We couldn’t even keep up in starvation, but with something to sustain us we might be able to keep the law. As a matter of fact, it was civic pride that compelled us to come in here and eat.”