ise.

"But, don't you see, that is why we didn't get to the store. You are
really liable for our suppers. Don't you think so, fellows?" he asked.

"Not only liable, but accountable," added Ed. "Of course we will go
home and dress. I wonder what on earth the squall did to headquarters?"
he asked, suddenly realizing that the camp had had need of secure
moorings during the last two hours.

"Let's look," suggested Dray, who had now moored the _Dixie_ securely,
while Jack and Cora had attended to the _Chelton_.

"Oh, you ought to see your tent," sang out a little fellow, who wore
little beside a shirt and bathing trunks. He had been out in the
squall and had, very likely, enjoyed it immensely.

"What's the matter with it?" inquired Jack.

"Oh, it's all flippy-floppy," replied the urchin. "But some lady saw
it goin' and she tied it back to the stakes."

"Some lady?" repeated Jack.

"Mrs. Lewis, likely," suggested Cora. "I hope she did not go out in
that down-pour to tie the tents."

"I rather hope she did," admitted her brother. "I had some things in
that tent not warranted rainproof. Hey, fellows!" he called to the
other members of Camp Couldn't. "Hurry up. Our tent was struck, they
say."

At the word the crowd from the beach ran helter-skelter through the
woods toward the camp colony. Surely there was enough excitement
around Crystal Bay that afternoon to last for some time, and there was
every prospect now of new adventures developing.

"Any tents down?" asked Dainty, as he puffed along.

"Thinking of spilled grub?" queried Walter. "Nothing doing. We have a
salvage corps department to our housewives' league, you know, and they
are bound to protect the members from bandits. So you may just run
along and see what is going on at the Cattle."

The storm had played havoc in the woods. Pine branches had scratched
deep furrows in the white sand paths, beautiful bushes of blooming
mountain laurel and mountain pinks were shorn of every bloom, and the
wild roses were scattered like pink butterflies on the catch leaves of
shrubs.

The first camp to be met by the boys was Camp Hyphen. This was quite a
pretentious establishment with a smaller tent adjunct. The adjunct
stood for the hyphen, and it now lay in a heap like a discarded potato
sack, its store of supplies settled uncertainly in nearby bushes.

"My, and they had just joined the League," wailed Jack. "I suppose we
will all have to put up for the reinforcement