"Talk to me about your mysteries! Who ever ran up against a worse one than this?" gasped Jerry, scratching his head, as he shivered in the cool air.
"What time is it, anyhow?" demanded Will, who had now found his camera, and was feeling satisfied, because it did not appear to have sustained any injury.
"Time? I declare if that isn't dawn in the east, fellows! Time we were up, I guess," remarked Frank, stooping over again, determined to learn the secret of the sudden and violent collapse of the tent, accompanied by such strange whispering voices that seemed to die away in the distance.
"Well, all I can say is that if dawn comes with such a swoop down in this blessed country, it's me back to my native heath again," grumbled Jerry, who had received a few bruises in the mix-up. Up to now he had paid no attention to them, but they were beginning to make themselves manifest.
"What's this?"
Frank uttered the cry as he bent over and stared at something which he had discovered under the canvas.
"Hold on! I've got my gun handy!" exclaimed Bluff, thinking that if it were a wild animal his time had come to distinguish himself.
"Oh! What is it?" echoed Will, crowding near.
The fire was now leaping madly up as the tinder-like dried palmetto leaves and stalks caught, so that every one could easily see.
"Why, it's a bag!—a big bean bag!" exclaimed Will, in amazement. "Where, in the name of goodness, did that come from, fellows?"