Boy Scouts in California; or, The Flag on the Cliff — Story, Setting & Ideas

. “You bet I did do it. What is it?”

“How did you ever manage it?” asked Jimmie with a wrinkling of his freckled nose.

“How did I ever manage it?” repeated Jack. “What’s the answer?”

Jimmie took his chum by the arm and headed for the cave.

“Bring your breakfast along with you,” he said, “and hold onto it tight. Clutch it with the grip of destiny! I’ll show you what I’m talking about, and then you can tell me who’s got the appetite.”

Directly the three boys stood before the roughly built cupboard and then Frank drew aside the canvas curtain. The shelves were entirely bare except for knives, forks, spoons, a sack of salt, and an empty plate.

“There!” Jimmie cried. “Did you go and eat all our perfectly good provender last night?”

“I wasn’t out of bed last night!” insisted Jack.

“Then it must have been Ned or Harry!” Frank declared.

Jack looked from one to the other with amazement showing in his face.

“Did some one clean out the refrigerator in the night?” he asked.

“You’re just right, some one cleaned out the refrigerator!” Jimmie answered, “and we’ve got to go and make baking powder biscuit, or corn pones, or something like that for breakfast, or go hungry!”

“I guess this bear steak will be all right for me,” Jack replied. “I always did like bear steak and coffee.”

“I’m not going to make any biscuit, or cook any corn pones!” Frank exclaimed. “Let the kids that robbed the refrigerator do the cooking!”

“Ned or Harry got busy in the night all right enough!” Jack insisted.

At that moment Ned Nestor and Harry Stevens, the other members of the party, entered the cavern, dressed in neat khaki uniform, as were, in fact, all the boys, and approached the table where the bear steaks lay exposed. Harry seized a knife and fork and laughingly prepared to attack Jack’s breakfast. Jack seized the meat and darted out into the sunlight.

“That’s a nice way to serve a guest you’ve invited to breakfast!” Harry exclaimed. “Where do I get my eatings this morning?”

“You and Ned got yours last night!” Jimmie grinned.

“Oh, we did?” queried Harry. “Perhaps Ned got his last night, but if I got mine I don’t know it. What are you talking about?”

“Go and look in the refrigerator,” suggested Jimmie.

Both Ned and Harry walked to the corner and drew aside the curtain. They stood in front of the empty shelves for a moment, and then walked back to the table, their faces showing only amusement.

“What did you do with it?” asked Ned, presently, as Jimmie and Frank attacked their fast-cooling steaks vigorously.

“What did _you_ do with it?”

Frank answered the question by asking one.

Ned Nestor’s face became serious in a moment. He glanced from one chum to the other, and then went to the shelves and looked them over thoroughly. There was a puzzled line between his eyebrows as he walked back and seated himself beside Jimmie and Frank.

“Honest, now, boys,” he asked, “what does this all mean?”

“Didn’t you get the eatings?” asked Jimmie seriously.

“I certainly did not!” replied Nestor, seriously.

“Now about you, Harry?” Jimmie questioned. “Where did you find a market for all that good provender?”

“Never touched it!” Harry insisted. “I went to bed at nine o’clock, as you all know, and when I awoke the sun was just showing his nose over the foothills.”

“And you were good and hungry, too, just about that time!” Jimmie scoffed. “You must have been hungry to eat all that!”

“Wait a minute, boys,” Ned replied. “There’s something mysterious about this! No wild animal ever entered the cave last night. Some creature on two legs stripped the refrigerator while we slept!”

“Je-rusalem!” exclaimed Jimmie. “It’s a wonder he didn’t do something more than steal our grub.”

“I didn’t suppose,” Frank cut in, “that there was a human being anywhere in this district except ourselves.”

“Well,” Ned replied, “there’s some one prowling about, and the thing for us to do is to find out who it is.”

“It’s the mystery of the thing that gets me!” declared Frank.

CHAPTER II A VOICE IN THE THICKET

“That’s just what it is—a mystery!” Jimmie McGraw exclaimed.

“How could anyone get in here and lug away a load of provisions like that without our waking up? They just couldn’t do it!”

This from Jack, who had now returned with his half-eaten steak.

“I heard some one moving around in the night,” Frank declared.

“Then, why didn’t you get up and see about it?” asked Ned.