They took their time, and during the meal Shadow was allowed to tell as many stories as he pleased, much to his satisfaction. It was Dave who was the first to get up.
“Might as well be moving,” he said, after consulting his watch. “We’ll have to start on the return inside of two hours, and that won’t give us much time for hunting.”
“Wait, I want just one more picture!” cried Sam, who had been busy before with his camera. “Now all look as happy as if to-morrow were Christmas!” And as the others grinned over the joke, click! went the shutter of the box, and the picture was snapped.
“Now, Sam, let me take you, with a gun in one hand and the partridges in the other!” cried Dave. “If it turns out well, we can have it enlarged for our dormitory.” And a minute later another picture was added to the roll of films.
“Why not leave the things here and come back for them?” suggested Roger. “No use in toting the hamper and game everywhere.”
“We can hang the game in a tree,” added Ben.
All agreed to this, and so the hamper and the game were hung up on the limbs of a near-by walnut tree along with their skates and some other things. Then the fire was kicked out, so that it might not start a conflagration in the woods, and the students prepared to continue their hunt.
“I guess we may as well tramp to the upper end of the island first,” said Dave, in answer to a question from his companions. “Then, if we have time, we can beat up one shore and then the other. By that time it will be getting dark and time to turn back to the Hall.”
“Say, wait a minute!” cried Ben, suddenly.
“What’s wrong, Ben?” asked several.
“Why, I – er – I thought I saw somebody over in the woods yonder, looking at us,” and the Crumville lad pointed to the trees in question. All gazed steadily in the direction but saw nothing unusual.
“Maybe it was a rabbit, or a bear, or something like that,” suggested Buster. “If it’s a bear we had better look out,” he added, nervously.
“We’ll soon find out,” said Dave. “Come on,” and he walked forward toward the woods. But he found nothing and soon rejoined his companions.
“I must have been mistaken,” said Ben. “Come on, if we are to do any hunting.” And off he stalked, and one by one the others followed.
Evidently the shots at the partridges had scared much of the game away, for at the upper end of the island they started up nothing but two squirrels and a few wild pigeons. Then they came down the north shore and there bagged two rabbits. They also saw a wild turkey, but it got away before anybody could take aim at it.
“See, it has started to snow!” cried the senator’s son, presently, and he was right. At first the flakes were few, but inside of five minutes it was snowing steadily.
“We may as well start for the Hall,” said Dave. “This storm looks as if it might last for some time.”
They left the shore and soon reached the edge of the island. By this time the snowflakes were coming down so thickly that the boys could see but little around them. The sky was now growing quite dark.
“I don’t like this,” was Phil’s comment. “We’ll have no fun of it getting back to school, especially if the snow gets so deep that we can’t skate on the ice.”
“Say, this puts me in mind of a story,” commenced Shadow. “Once two boys were caught in a storm and – ”
“We haven’t any time for yarns now, Shadow!” cried Dave. “It’s back to the camping place as fast as we can get there, and then off for school, unless we want to be snowed in along the route!”
All started across the island, which, at that point, was not over seventy-five yards wide. They came out at a spot just above where they had stopped for lunch. Soon all of them stood close to where lay the remains of the campfire, now covered with the fast-falling snow.
“Hello! What does this mean?”
“Where is the hamper?”
“Where is the game?”
“What has become of the skates?”
“Where is that overcoat I left on the tree?”
These and several other questions were asked in rapid succession. Then the Oak Hall students looked at each other in blank dismay.
And not without good reason. For everything left at the camping spot when they had continued the hunt – game, hamper, skates, an overcoat, a sweater, and some other things of lesser importance – all had disappeared!
CHAPTER V – A TRAMP THROUGH THE SNOW
“What do you make of this, Dave?”
“I don’t know what to make of it, Roger – excepting that somebody has taken our things.”
“Do you think it’s a joke, or just plain stealing?” demanded Ben.
“That remains to be found out,” replied Ben. “One thing is certain, the things didn’t walk off by themselves.”
“Footprints of two persons!” exclaimed Gus, who had been scanning the snow-covered ground in the vicinity of the trees and bushes.
“Where do they lead to?” asked Dave, eagerly.
“Here they are – you can follow them as easily as I can,” was the reply, and the heavy-set youth pointed out the tracks in the snow. They led all around the trees and bushes and then in the direction of the river. Here there were a jumble of tracks and further on the marks of skate runners.
“Stopped to put on their skates,” remarked the senator’s son.
“And they have skated off with all our things!” grumbled Buster Beggs. “What are we going to do?”
“Say, that puts me in mind of a story,” came quickly from Shadow. “Once two boys were out skating and – ”
“For the sake of the mummies of Egypt, let up on the story-telling, Shadow!” burst out Phil. “Don’t you realize what this loss means to us? It’s bad enough to lose the hamper and clothing, but what are we to do in this snowstorm, with night coming on, and so far from Oak Hall without skates?”
“Humph! I guess we’ll have to walk,” grumbled the story-teller of the school. “But that will take time, and if this storm keeps up – ”
“We’ll be snowed under!” finished Chip Macklin.
“Well, no use in staying here,” came from two of the students.
“That is just what I say,” said Dave. “Those skate marks lead down the river and that is the way we want to go. By following them we’ll be getting nearer to the Hall and at the same time closer to the fellows who took our things.”
“We’ll never catch those fellows,” grumbled Ben. “They can skate five times as fast as we can walk.”
“Never mind, we’ll go after ’em anyway,” replied Gus. “And if we catch ’em – ” He did not finish in words but brought his right fist down hard into his left palm, which left no doubt as to how he intended to treat the thieves.
“Maybe it’s a trick, of some of the Rockville cadets,” suggested Buster, when the crowd were on their way down the river.
“Say, don’t you remember my saying I thought I saw somebody near the camp, just before we went away?” burst out Ben. “You all thought I was mistaken.”
“Well,