“And actually grabbed up their stuff under your eyes? Then you can tell us what he looked like. Was it really a man, or an animal, Frank?” questioned Bluff, excitedly.
Frank shook his head, as he replied:
“There you’ve got me, for just on the spur of the moment I couldn’t say positively. He walked on two legs, and seemed like a man; but looked like a great big chimpanzee, or an ape, I’ve seen do tricks at the circus. Anyway, he was a terrible object, and sent a shiver over me.”
“Gracious goodness! and he stole their provisions, you said?” exclaimed Will, involuntarily looking around as if he half expected the dreadful wild man to rush into view right then and there.
“Everything they had, I imagine. One good thing, it will make them get out in the morning, and for that we’re obliged to the wild man. If only Jerry were here, now, I’d be feeling first-class,” resumed Frank, with a sigh.
“But I don’t understand why he’d enter their camp when he could have gotten a lot of much better grub right here in ours,” said Bluff, shaking his head.
“Well, you see, he’s evidently afraid of our guns; and, perhaps, he happened to know that they had none over yonder,” explained Frank.
“But is that reasonable? Would a crazy man stop for such a little thing as that? It strikes me this raid on their eating department looks like a set-up job.”
“There now, Bluff, you’ve set me to thinking again. I neglected to tell you all that happened. When the hairy monster was making off with the basket, one of the boys started after him; and then and there a shower of stones and dirt came down from above, and fell all around him. After that there was a quick scattering,” remarked Frank.
“Evidently the wild man had a friend close by; he wasn’t alone then. Say, perhaps he’s formed a league with those ugly hoboes. They’re all a hungry lot, and ready to steal anything that comes along in the way of grub.”