"You won't catch them," said Bert; "they're probably miles away by this
time, and they've probably eaten up all our snacks. Wow, but I'm
hungry!"

"So say we all of us!" chorused the boys, as they flung themselves
around in disconsolate attitudes.

"Not a snip-jack of anything," Jack went on, peering vainly into a few
empty baskets that Sam had left behind him. "The nerve of them, to steal
our coffee and then take our coffee pot to make it in! Honest, fellows,
I never knew such a thing to happen before. I've been up here a lot of
summers and I never struck a crowd that would do such a thing as this."

"That's so," agreed Bob Rose, "why, often a lot of strange chaps will
share their grub with you, but I never knew 'em to hook it! Must be an
awful mean crowd."

"Well, all the same," said Bert, "what are we going to do for lunch? I
rousted out at sunup, and to be sure, I had my breakfast, but it's
forgotten in the dim past."

"We can cook our fish," said one of the boys "but we'll miss the coffee
and potatoes and bread and such various staffs of life. We haven't such
a lot of fish anyhow."

"No; we depended on bacon and eggs for our mainstay. I move we go home."

"S'pose we'll have to," and Bob looked rueful, "We can't put in a whole
afternoon on empty stomachs. What do you say, shall we cook the fish, or
light right out for home?"

"Here's a cracker they dropped," cried Bert, who spied a soda biscuit on
the ground and brushing it off, began to eat it.

"Aw, give a starving comrade a bite," and Guy held out his hand eagerly.

"By jiminy, here's another!" and Jack found another cracker farther
along.

Now this was part of the plan, and it was at Dolly's directions that
Long Sam had carefully planted a few crackers at intervals to lure the
unsuspecting boys to the surprise that awaited them.

Dolly and Dotty, with their arms around each other, were peeping through
the trees, and they shook with glee as they saw the boys eagerly hunting
for the stray crackers.

"Funny how they came to drop 'em along," said Guy and Elmer responded,
"Must have been eating them on their way. But say, they've left a trail;
let's follow it."

The group of boys--there were eight of them--moved slowly along toward
where the girls were hidden. The trail of crackers had been adroitly
arranged to bring them finally within sight of the appetising luncheon
so daintily set forth.

As the boys came nearer to the little clearing, and