"A blessing to the Pony Rider Boys community, you mean. h.e.l.lo!"
"What is it?" cried Stacy.
Tad was staring fixedly at a rope suspended between two small cedars near the tents. It was on this that some of the provisions had been hung the previous evening.
"Where is that ham?" he demanded, apparently not having heard his companion"s question.
"What ham?"
"The one I hung up there last night?"
"I--I don"t know. I didn"t eat it."
Tad got up and hastened to the "stores-line," as they called the rope that held their meats and other provisions. He discovered that several other articles besides the ham were missing. Even the pieces of twine with which the provisions had been fastened to the line were missing.
"Well, if this doesn"t beat everything!" wondered Butler.
"It does," agreed Chunky, who had made bold to approach. "I hope the fellows won"t blame me, but I reckon they will. They lay everything to me."
Tad did not reply. He was trying to make up his mind what had become of the missing provisions. He turned sharply to Stacy.
"See here, you aren"t playing tricks on us, are you?"
Stacy indignantly protested that he was not.
"I knew you"d try to put it on me," he grumbled. "I"m pretty bad, I know, but I don"t steal."
"Stop it! I haven"t accused you of stealing. Of course I know you wouldn"t do that, but if you have taken the stuff and hidden it for a joke, say so now before I call the others. They might not take kindly to your joke after your early morning vocal exercises."
"I didn"t. I don"t know any more about it than you do."
Stacy"s lips were blue with cold and he was chattering. Tad suddenly observed these signs of cold and felt sorry for the boy.
"When the others come out, you duck in and put on some dry clothes. You will have plenty of time. I don"t think they will bother you. Oh, Ned!
Professor!" called Tad.
Ned Rector, Professor Zepplin and Walter came hurrying out.
"Isn"t there any rest at all in this camp?" protested Ned.
"That is what I was about to inquire," declared the Professor.
"What! _You_ here?" demanded Rector, fixing a menacing eye on the fat boy. "Has he been cutting up again?"
"It"s something else this time."
"What is it?" questioned Professor Zepplin sharply.
"Did any of you folks remove the ham and the other stuff from the line last night?" asked Butler.
"No," replied Ned.
"Of course not. You were the last one to attend to those things," said the Professor.
"I helped him tie them up," interjected "Walter.
"And--and I watched him--them--do it," added Stacy.
"Yes, that"s about all you ever do do," objected Ned.
"What"s this you say?" questioned Professor Zepplin. "The ham missing?"
"Yes, sir. It is nowhere about," Tad informed him.
"Then we must have had a visit from a bear or some other animal."
"What would a bear want with a rope?" asked Butler.
"A rope?"
"I left our quarter-inch reserve rope coiled at the foot of that tree last night. It isn"t there now."
"Stacy Brown, do you know anything about this?" demanded the Professor sternly.
"What"d I tell you, Tad? I knew you"d be accusing me for the whole business. I told Tad you would blame me."
"Go put on some dry garments," commanded the Professor.
Stacy lost no time in getting to the tent.
"What do you make of it, Tad?" asked Professor Zepplin.
"I can make only one thing out of it. There has been an intruder in the camp while we slept. That intruder must have been a man. Bears do not carry away ropes. Bears do not untie knots and take the strings away with them," replied Tad Butler in a convincing tone.
Stacy Brown poked his head through the tent opening.
"What we need in this camp is a watch dog," he shouted.
Ned Rector shied a tin can at him, whereat the fat boy ducked in out of sight.
CHAPTER IX
A MYSTERY UNSOLVED
"But surely whoever was here must have left some trace," protested Professor Zepplin.