Bluff had insisted that they have fried onions with that glorious steak, and, indeed, he even prepared a dozen of the same himself, for Bluff could be very persistent when he chose; Frank called a halt at this number.

“We may want a few another time, old fellow,” he admonished.

“Oh! all right, then.  I was just waiting till somebody called me off.  I’ve shed more tears than Brutus ever dropped at the bier of Caesar.  Wow! some kind person wipe my eyes, please; my hands are too rank to touch my tear-rag,” he declared, and Will performed this friendly office, thinking that he deserved it after his heroism.

The coffee was soon bubbling on the fire, and the delightful odor of that fine sirloin steak, together with a second frying-pan full of onions, so permeated the surrounding atmosphere that had any of the Lasher crowd been hiding in the vicinity they must have suffered tortures in the thought that they were debarred from that glorious outdoor feast around the first campfire.

“Look there!” said Jerry, quietly, pointing as he spoke.

“It’s a little chipmunk come to find out what all this row is about here,” remarked Frank, tossing a piece of bread toward the cunning animal.  “If you don’t do anything to frighten them away we can have a lot of such friendly creatures hanging around the camp all the time.”

“Then, for goodness’ sake, chain up that annihilator of Bluff’s before he gets it working overtime.  Looks as if he had an eye on it just now, for game is game to the pot hunter, no matter how he gets it, or what it happens to be,” growled Jerry, scowling in the direction of the other, who only grinned in reply.

“Supper am ready, gemmen.  Kindly draw yer seats ’round de table,” announced the tow-headed cook at this juncture; and in the eagerness to appease their keen hunger everything else was forgotten for the time being.

Two collapsible tables had been brought along, and these were placed under the raised fly of one of the tents, so that the warmth of the open fire could be enjoyed; but the whole supper had not been cooked after the old fashion, for Frank had a little outfit that burned kerosene, making its own blue flame, and which the other boys declared to be the finest thing of the kind they had ever seen.

A set of aluminum ware went with it, the kettles nesting in each other; there were cups, dishes, knives, forks and spoons for four persons; besides, Frank had added a lot of kitchen things from the house, so that they were amply supplied.

The supper was almost finished when something crashed through the branches of a tree and fell at Frank’s feet.

“What’s that?” exclaimed the boy.

Crash! came another object.  It landed on a platter and bounded off into Bluff’s lap.

“A rock!  Somebody is throwing rocks at us!” cried Will, starting to scramble to his feet in wild excitement.

“It must be one of that Lasher crowd,” ejaculated Jerry; “come on, boys, and let’s get hold of the fellow!”