Chapter XVI: Tit for Tat

But instead of returning toward the tents she ran straight across the clearing. Possibly she did not stop to think where she was going, for she came against the underbrush again and that terrific growl was once more repeated.

Frankie stopped as though she had been shot. Right in front of her loomed a second black, hairy figure.

She glared around wildly. At the back of the clearing was the opening into the wood path leading from Windmill Farm down to the boat-landing at John Jarley's place. And in that opening, and for an instant, appeared likewise a threatening form!

"Come here! Come here, Frank!" shrieked Bess. "There's another of them--we're surrounded."

The Cameron girl started again, and let out the last link of speed that there was in her. She ran straight down to the shore where Mrs. Havel just aroused by the shrieks, was starting to return to camp.

The other girls piled after her. But Wyn brought up the rear. She looked around now and then. Three bears! In a place where no bears had been seen for years and years! Wyn was puzzled.

"There are bears in the woods, Mrs. Havel!" gasped Grace.

"Nonsense, child!"

"I saw 'em. One almost grabbed me," declared the big girl.

"And _I_ saw them, Auntie," urged Percy Havel.

"This way! this way!" cried Frank, running along the shore under the high knoll on which the camp was pitched. "They can't see us down here."

Mrs. Havel was urged along by her niece and Grace. Wyn brought up the rear. Oddly enough, none of the bears came out of the bushes--that she could see.

The girls plunged along the sand, and through the shallow water for several yards. Here the bushes grew right down to the edge of the lake. Suddenly Wyn caught sight of something ahead, and uttered a sharp command:

"Stop! every one of you! Do you hear me, Frank? Stop!"

"Oh, dear! they can eat us here just as well as anywhere," groaned Grace.

"Now be quiet!" said Wynifred, in some heat. "We've all been foolish enough. _Those were not bears._"

"Cows, maybe, Wynnie?" asked Mrs. Havel. "But I am quite as afraid of cows----"

"Nor cows, either. I guess you wouldn't have been fooled for a minute if you had seen them," said Wyn.

"What do you mean, Wyn?" cried Frank. "I tell you I saw them with my own eyes----"

"Of course you did. So did I," admitted Wyn. "But we did not see them right. They are not bears, walking on their hind legs; they are just boys walking on the only legs they've got!"

"The Busters!" ejaculated Frank.

"Oh, Wyn! do you think so?" asked Mina, hopefully.

"Look ahead," commanded Wyn. "There are the boys' canoes. They paddled over here this morning and dressed up in those old moth-eaten buffalo robes they had over there, on the island, and managed to frighten us nicely."

"That's it! They played a joke on us," began Frank, laughing.

But Mrs. Havel was angry. "They should be sent home for playing such a trick," she said, "and I shall speak to Professor Skillings about it."

"Pooh!" said Wyn. "They're only boys. And of course they'll be up to such tricks. The thing to do is to go them one better."

"How, Wyn, how?" cried her mates.

"I do not know that I can allow this, Wynifred," began Mrs. Havel, doubtfully.

"You wish to punish them; don't you, Mrs. Havel?"

"They should be punished--yes."

"Then we have the chance," cried Wyn, gleefully. "You go back to the camp, Mrs. Havel, and we girls will take their canoes--every one of them. We'll call them the trophies of war, and we'll make the Busters pay--and pay well for them--before they get their canoes back. What do you say, girls?"

"Splendid!" cried Frank. "And they frightened me so!"

"Look out for the biscuits, Mrs. Havel, please," begged Bess. "I am afraid they will be burned."

The lady returned hurriedly to the camp on the top of the hillock. When she mounted the rise from the shore, there was a circle of giggling youths about the open fireplace and a pile of moth-eaten buffalo hides near by. Dave was messing with the Dutch oven in which Bess had just before put the pan of biscuit for breakfast.

"Ho, ho!" cried Tubby. "Where are the girls?"

"Bear hunting, I bet!" cried Ferd Roberts.

"Good-morning, Mrs. Havel," said Dave, smiling rather sheepishly. "I hope we didn't scare _you_."

"You rather startled me--coming unannounced," admitted Mrs. Havel, but smiling quietly. "You surely have not breakfasted so early?"

"No. That's part of the game," declared another youth. "We claim forfeit--and in this case take payment in eats."

"I am afraid you are more slangy than understandable," returned Mrs. Havel. "Did you come for something particular?"

"Goodness! didn't you see those girls running?" cried Ferd.

"Running? Where to?" queried the chaperone.

Dave began to look more serious.

"Perhaps they are running yet!" squealed Tubby, only seeing the fun of it.

"Bet they've gone for help to hunt the bears," laughed another of the reckless youngsters.

"They'll get out the whole countryside to find 'em," choked Ferdinand Roberts. "That's _too_ rich."

"Are you sure the girls didn't come your way, Mrs. Havel?" asked Dave, with anxiety.

"Oh, the girls will be back presently. I came up to see to the biscuit, Mr. Shepard. About inviting you to breakfast--You know, I am only a guest of Green Knoll Camp myself. I couldn't invite you," said Mrs. Havel, demurely.

The boys looked at each other in some surprise and Tubby's face fell woefully.

"Ca-can't we do something to help you get breakfast, Mrs. Havel?"

Mrs. Havel had to hide a smile at that, but she remained obdurate. "I have really nothing to do with it, Sir Tubby. You must wait for the girls to come," she said.

The boys began whispering together; but they did not move. They had scuttled over from their own camp early with the express intention of "getting one" on the girls, and making a breakfast out of it. But now the accomplishment of their purpose seemed doubtful, and there was a hollow look about them all that should have made Mrs. Havel pity them.

That lady, however, remembered vividly how she had run along the shore in fear of a flock of bears; this was a part of the boys' punishment for that ill-begotten joke.

The biscuit were beginning to brown, the coffee sent off a delicious odor, and here were eggs ready to drop into the kettle of boiling water for their four-minute submersion. Besides, there was mush and milk. Every minute the boys became hungrier.

"Aren't the girls ever coming?" sighed Tubby. "They _couldn't_ be so heartless."

"They haven't gone far; have they?" queried Dave Shepard. "We saw their canoes on the beach."

Just then the laughter of the girls in the distance broke upon the ears of those on the hillock. They were approaching along the shore--apparently from the direction of Jarley's landing.

"They don't seem to have been much scared, after all," grumbled Tubby to Ferd.

"It was a silly thing to do, anyway," returned young Roberts. "Suppose we don't get any breakfast?"

At this horrid thought the fat youth almost fainted. The girls came in sight, and at once hailed the boys gaily:

"Oh! see who's here!" cried Frank. "What a lovely surprise!"

"Isn't it?" said Bess, but with rather a vicious snap. "We couldn't get along, of course, without having a parcel of boys around. 'Morning, Mr. Shepard."

Bess made a difference between Dave and the rest of the Busters, for Dave had helped her in a serious difficulty.

"Where's the professor?" demanded Grace. "Isn't he here, too?"

"He's having breakfast all by his lonesome over on the island," said Ferd, and Tubby groaned at the word "breakfast," while Dave added:

"We--we got a dreadfully early start this morning."

"Quite a start--I should say," returned Wyn, smiling broadly. "And now you're hungry, I suppose?"

"Oh, aren't we, just?" cried one of the crowd, hollowly.

"How about it, Bess? Is there enough for so many more?"

Bess was already sifting flour for more biscuit. She said: "I'll have another panful in a jiffy. Put in the eggs, Mina. We can make a beginning."

"There's plenty of mush," said Mina. "That's one sure thing."

"But we can't all sit down," cried Grace.

"You know, there are but six of these folding seats, and Wyn's been sitting on a cracker box ever since we set up the tents."

"Feed 'em where they're sitting," said Wyn, quickly. "Beggars mustn't be choosers."

"Jinks! we didn't treat you like this when you came over to our camp," cried Ferd.

"And we didn't come over almost before you were up in the morning," responded Frank, quickly. "How did you know we had made our 'twilights' at such an unconscionable hour?"

The girls were all laughing a good deal. Nobody said a word about the "bear" fright, and the boys felt a little diffidence about broaching the subject. Evidently their joke had fallen flat.

But the girls really had no intention of being mean to the six Busters. The first pan of biscuit came out of the oven a golden brown. Grace and Percy set them and the bowls of mush on the table, and handed around other bowls and a pitcher of milk to the circle of boys, sitting cross-legged on the ground like so many tailors.

There was honey for the biscuits, too, as well as golden butter--both from Windmill Farm. The eggs were cooked just right, and there were plenty of them. Crisp radishes and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes added to the fare.

"Gee!" sighed Tubby, "doesn't it take girls to live _right_ in camp? And look at those doughnuts."

"I fried them," cried Mina, proudly. "Mrs. Havel showed me how, though."

"Mrs. Havel, come over to Gannet Island and teach us how to cook," cried Dave. "We don't have anything like this."

"Not a sweetie except what we buy at the Forge--and that's baker's stuff," complained Tubby.

"Don't you think you boys had better be pretty good to us--if you want to come to tea--or breakfast--once in a while?" asked Wyn, pointedly.

"Right!" declared Dave.

"Got us there," admitted Ferdinand.

"_I'll_ see that they behave themselves, Wyn," cried Tubby, with great enthusiasm. "These fellows are too fresh, anyway----"

But at this the other boys rose up in their might and pitched upon Master Blaisdell, rolling him over and over on the grass and making him lose half of his last doughnut.

"Now, now, now!" cried Mrs. Havel. "This is no bear-garden. Try to behave."

The boys began to laugh uproariously at this. "What do _you_ know about a bear-garden, Grace?" Ferd demanded.

"And wasn't that growling of Dave's awe-inspiring?" cried another.

"And weren't _you_ scared, Frank Cameron?" suggested Tubby, grinning hugely when his mates had let him up. "I never did know you could run so fast."

"Why, pshaw!" responded Frank. "Did you boys really think you had scared us with those moth-eaten old robes?"

"How ridiculous!" chimed in Bess. "A boy is usually a good deal of a bear, I know; but he doesn't _look_ like one."

"And--and there haven't been any bears in this country for--for years," said Grace, though rather quaveringly.

"Say! what do you know about all this?" demanded Dave, of his mates.

"Do you girls mean to say that you weren't scared pretty near into fits?" cried one lad.

"Did we act scared?" laughed Wyn. "I guess we fooled you a little, eh?"

"You're just as much mistaken," said Frank, "as the red-headed man was who went to see the doctor because he had indigestion. When the doctor told him to diet, it wasn't his hair he meant; but the red-headed man got mad just the same. Now, you boys----"

"Aw, come! come!" cried Dave. "You can't say honestly you were not scared. You know you were."

"I am afraid your joke fell flat, Davie," laughed Wyn. All the girls were enjoying the boys' discomfiture. "Of course, I suppose you thought you deserved your breakfast as a forfeit because you got a trick across on us. But you'll have to try again, I am afraid. Just because we ran doesn't prove that we did not recognize the combination of a boy and a buffalo robe."

"Aw, now!" cried one of the boys. "What did you run for?"

"There's a reason," laughed Percy.

"Wait!" advised Frank, shaking her head and her own eyes dancing. "You will find out soon enough why we ran."

"'He laughs best who laughs last,'" quoted Grace. "Bears, indeed!"

The boys were puzzled. Breakfast being over the girls went about their several tasks and paid their friends of the opposite sex very little attention. To all suggestions that they get out the canoes and go across to the island with the boys, or on other junkets, the girls responded with refusals. They evidently thought they had something like a joke themselves on the boys, and finally the latter went off through the brush toward the spot where they had tied their canoes, half inclined to be angry.

They were gone a long while, and were very quiet. The girls whispered together, and kept right near the tents, waiting for the explosion.

"At least," Wyn said, chuckling, "we gave them a good breakfast, so they won't starve to death; but if they want to go to the island they will have to swim."

"We've given them 'tit for tat,'" said Frankie, nodding her head. "Glad of it. And _they'll_ pay the forfeit, instead of us."

"If they don't find the canoes," whispered Grace.

"They wouldn't find them in a week of Sundays," cried Percy.

"Then let's set them a good hard task for payment," suggested Bess.

"That's right. They oughtn't to have tried to scare us so," agreed Mina.

"I guess it is agreed," laughed Wyn, "to show them no mercy. Ah! here they come now."

The Busters slowly climbed the knoll in rather woebegone fashion. Their feathers certainly were drooped, as Frank remarked.

"Well," said Dave, throwing himself down on the sward, "we must hand it to you Go-Aheads. You've got us 'way out on the limb, and if you shake the tree very hard we'll drop off."

"No, thanks!" snapped Bess. "We don't care for green fruit."

"Oh, oh!" squealed Ferd. "I bet that hurt me."

"Now, there's no use quarreling," said Dave. "We admit defeat. Where under the sun you girls could have hidden our canoes I don't see. And your own haven't been used this morning, that's sure."

Wyn and her mates broke into uncontrollable laughter at this.

"Who's the joke on now?" cried Bess.

"What will you give to find your canoes?" exclaimed Frankie.

"Aw--say--don't rub it in," begged Tubby. "We own up to the corn. You beat us. Where are the canoes?"

"Ahem!" said Wynifred, clearing her throat loudly, and standing forth.

"Hear, hear!" cried Mina.

"Oh! you've got it all fixed up for us, I see," muttered Ferd.

"The understanding always has been," said Wyn, calmly, "that if one party succeeded in playing a practical joke on the other, and 'getting away with it,' as you slangy boys say, the party falling for the trick should pay forfeit. Isn't that so?"

"Go on! Do your worst," growled Ferd.

"That's right. You state the case clearly, Miss Mallory," said Dave, with a bow of mockery.

"And they never paid a forfeit for the time Tubby slid down our boathouse roof, plunk into the water," cried Bessie.

"Aw--that's ancient history," growled Tubby.

"Let us stick to recent events," agreed Wyn, smiling. "If we girls were at all frightened by your 'bear-faced' attempt to frighten us this morning, we have paid with a breakfast; haven't we?"

"And it was a good one," agreed Dave.

"It's made me go right to cooking again," said Bess. "A swarm of locusts would have brought about no greater devastation."

"Then, gentlemen," said Wynifred, "do you admit that the shoe is now on the other foot? You cannot find your canoes. Will you pay us to find them for you?"

"That's only fair," admitted Dave.

"Say! how do we pay you?" demanded Ferd.

"Shall I tell them what we demand, girls?" asked Wyn.

"Go ahead!" "It'll serve them right!" "They've got to do it!" were some of the exclamations from the Go-Aheads.

"Oh, let the blow fall!" groaned Dave.

"Then, gentlemen of the Busters Association, it is agreed by the ladies of the Go-Ahead Club that while we remain in camp on Green Knoll this summer, you young gentlemen shall cut and stack all the firewood we shall need!"

"Ow-ouch!" cried Ferd.

"What a cheek!" gasped Tubby, rolling his eyes.

"_All_ the firewood you use?" repeated one of the other boys. "Why--that will be cords and cords!"

"Every stick!" declared Wyn, firmly.

"And I'd be ashamed, if I were you, to complain," pursued Bessie. "If you had been gentlemanly you would have offered to cut our wood before. You know that that is the _one_ thing that girls can't do easily about a camp."

"Gee! you have quite a heap of stove wood yonder," said Tubby.

"That is what Mr. Jarley cut for us," Wyn said. "But it doesn't matter what other means we may have for getting our firewood cut. Will you accept the forfeit like honorable gentlemen?"

"Why, we've _got_ to!" cried Ferd.

"We're honestly caught," admitted Dave Shepard. "I'll do my share. Two of us, for half a day a week, can more than keep you supplied--unless you waste it."

"And we can have the canoes back?" demanded one of the other Busters, eagerly.

And so it was agreed--"signed, sworn to, and delivered," as Frankie said. With great glee the girls led the Busters to the steep bank by the waterside, over which a great curtain of wild honeysuckle hung. This curtain of fragrant flowers and thick vines dragged upon the ground. There was a hollow behind it that Wyn had discovered quite by chance.

And this hollow was big enough to hide the six canoes, one stacked a-top of the other. One passing by would never have suspected the hiding place, and in hiding the craft the girls had left no tell-tale footprints.

So, for once at least, the Go-Aheads got the best of the Busters.