by quickly. "They're the only ones
who won't wear a sensible shoe."

CHAPTER XXIII

JUST DESERTS

"Who," demanded Betty, "is Marshall Morgan?"

"He's a pest," said Tommy, with characteristic frankness. "He has one
mission in life, and that is to plague those unfortunates who have to be
under the same roof with him. He never does anything on a large scale,
but then a mosquito can drive you crazy, you know."

"Dear me, he ought to know Ada," rejoined Bobby. "Perhaps he does. She is
a pestess, if there is such a word."

"There isn't," Betty assured her. "Anyway, this won't get our lunch back.
What are you going to do, Bob?"

"A little Indian work," was Bob's reply. "We'll send out scouts to locate
the thieves and then we'll surround them and let the consequences fall."

"I'll be a consequence," declared Bobby vindictively. "I'll fall on Ada
with such force she'll think an avalanche has struck her."

Bob sent some of the boys to trace the steps, and while they were gone
outlined his plans to the others. Once they knew where the marauders
were, they were to spread out fan-shape and swoop down upon the enemy.

"I figure they'll get a safe distance away and then stop to eat the
lunch," said Bob. "It is hardly likely that they will take the stuff back
to school with them."

"But Ada went to Edentown," protested Libbie. "We saw her in the bus,
didn't we, girls? And Ruth, too."

"They could easily come back in the same bus," said Betty. "Indeed, I'm
willing to wager that is just what they did. Miss Prettyman as a
chaperone probably killed any desire Ada had to go shopping."

The scouts came back after fifteen or twenty minutes to report that they
had discovered the invaders camped under a large oak tree and preparing
to open the boxes.

"They were laughing and saying how they'd put one over on you," said
Gilbert Lane.

"Well, they won't laugh long," retorted Bob grimly. "How many are there?"

"Marshall Morgan, Jim Cronk, the Royce boys, all three of 'em, Hilbert
Mitchell and George Timmins," named Gilbert, using his fingers as an
adding machine. "Then there are nine girls."

"Has one of them a brown velvet hat with a pink rose at the front and
brown gaiters and mink furs and a perfectly lovely velvet handbag?" asked
Betty. "And did you see a girl with black pumps and white silk stockings
and a blue tricotine dress embroidered with crystal beads?"

The boys looked bewildered.

"Don't believe we did,