“Natalie Fuller! Don’t you dare say such things!”

“The idea of any one being at our camp!”

“I sha’n’t sleep a wink to-night!”

“I don’t believe you left the olives and other things out at all—you’ve made a mistake.”

Thus did the chums of breath-of-the-pine-tree try to refute her statement.

“Are you sure, Natalie?” asked Mrs. Bonnell.

“Positive,” was her answer.

“She wouldn’t be likely to forget if Jack asked her to do anything,” declared Marie with a laugh.

“I thought it was Blake,” said Mabel.

“Stop it!” demanded Natalie with a stamp of her small foot, encased in a boating shoe, while the red surged up under her olive coat of tan. “Some one has been here!” she added.

“Yes, and a can of peaches is gone!” declared Mrs. Bonnell, looking along an improvised shelf, where some canned goods had been set. “I remember noticing that there was one on the very end of the row,” she continued, “and now it is missing. Some one has been taking liberties with our camp.”

“Tramps,” suggested Mabel.

“Gypsies,” declared Natalie. “Oh, dear! I hope they won’t come around after dark.”

“How can you suggest such things?” demanded Mrs. Bonnell. “Stop!”

“We must tell the boys,” remarked Marie, and a little later, the meal being finished a flag was run up on a pole near the lake shore. It was easily observable from the point where the boys camped, and was an adopted signal requesting the presence of the three chums at Crystal Springs.

“Well, what is it this time?” asked Jack as he and his companions arrived a little later. “Has old Jackson been trying to arrest you again for scaring some one’s cows?”

“Nonsense,” declared his sister. “This is more serious. Boys, we’ve been——”

“Nothing is more serious than scaring cows,” insisted Jack. “If you make them run they’ll give milk instead of butter.”

“Then I should think it would save the farmers the bother of churning,” was Mabel’s opinion, at which they all laughed.

“What is up?” asked Blake, seeing that the girls looked worried.

“Some one has been taking our things,” said Mrs. Bonnell. “A bottle of olives, some sardines——”

“The ones you asked me for, Jack,” put in Natalie.

“Look here!” cried Marie, as she detected a grin on the faces of Blake and Phil, “you boys have been taking stuff; haven’t you? Own up now, if you have. We’ll forgive you, for we don’t want to have to worry; and, really, it’s enough to make any one nervous.”

“Not guilty,” answered Phil.

“We have committed many sins,” replied Blake, with mock-heroics, “but far be it from us to rob the helpless. So, Master Jack, you have been soliciting alms in the shape of sardines; hast thou?”

“Yes, for you duffers don’t like ’em, and wouldn’t buy any. I offered to pay Nat for a can, only——”

“Oh, you’re welcome to them, I’m sure,” said Mrs. Bonnell. “We were only thinking that perhaps you came over here while we were away and—&............