o the woods by Werner, Glutts and Stowell, who had
obtained a brief leave of absence from the officer of the day. The
trio had watched the girls and their cadet friends closely, and viewed
the disposal of the knapsacks and the wraps with satisfaction.

"Here is where we get square with them," muttered Gabe. "We'll fix 'em
for putting chopped-up onions in our mess kits!"

"What are you going to do with those onions I got for you?" questioned
Codfish.

"We'll doctor up every bit of their food with 'em," answered Glutts.
"They can have onion sandwiches and onion cake and onion pie galore.
My, but that lunch will be one sweet mess when we get through with
it!" he added gleefully.

"Yes, and I'll tell you another thing we can do," pursued Gabe Werner
maliciously. "We can put some of the chopped-up onions into the
pockets of those girls' coats. That will make 'em all smell fine!"

"Oh, say! do you think you ought to touch the girls' things?"
questioned Codfish timidly.

"Sure! That will give those fellows a job cleaning the mess up,"
answered Gabe heartlessly.

"But we don't want to get caught." Now that the time had arrived to
play the joke on the Rovers and their friends, the sneak of the school
was beginning to tremble.

"Oh, we won't get caught," said Werner. "Come on. They are all out of
sight, and it will be dead easy to turn the trick."

CHAPTER XXIV

TOM ROVER'S ANNOUNCEMENT

Fred and May had gone up to the topmost point of the cliff overlooking
Barlight Bay. Here they could get a view not only of the water front,
but likewise of the Colby Hall camp stretched out in the clearing to
the northeast of the woods. The wind was blowing rather freely, and
presently the youngest Rover noticed that the girl beside him
shivered.

"Why, you are cold, May! You should have brought your coat along,"
Fred declared.

"I wish I had," May answered.

"Let me run back and get it."

"Oh, don't bother, Fred. We won't stay up here so very long."

"It's no bother at all. It will take me only a few minutes to get it,"
answered the young lieutenant gallantly, and began to climb down the
rocks.

It did not take Fred long to reach a point where the cliff was more
level, and then he hurried off in the direction where the knapsacks
and the wraps had been left.

"Hello! what's this?" he asked himself, coming up beside the flat
rocks. "I'm sure we left them here." But neither the knapsacks with
food nor the wraps we