“Then I wish we had ’em here!” sputtered Tom Reade vengefully.  “I could eat two of them at this moment, and without salt!”

“They need salting badly!” growled Dave Darrin angrily.

The tent was not only down.  Each guy rope had been cut in the middle, so that the cordage could not be used again.

“I never saw anything more sneaking!” cried Reade in rage and disgust.

“Unless it will be the way that we shall sneak up behind the rah-rah crowd and square matters!” remarked Darry meaningly.

“First of all, we must be sure of their guilt,” warned Dick.  “It won’t do to try to even up a score that’s based only on suspicion.  Wait until I get a lantern out of the wreck, and then we’ll explore the ground to see if we can discover any real proof against the rascals.”

“Let’s get into our working clothes first,” proposed Reade.  “We might want to wear these white clothes again before we get home.”

So Tom and Dave held up a part of the canvas while Dick slipped in under the folds of the tent to find the box in which they had left their hike clothing.

“The box isn’t here,” Dick called.  “Neither can I see any of the bedding.”

“Get hold here, fellows, and lift up more of the canvas,” Reade called.

“There isn’t anything in the tent.  All the stuff has been cleaned out.”  Prescott announced in a voice of disgust.

“It was the tramps, then,” Dave declared.  “The rah-rah boys wouldn’t take the risk of stealing anything.”

“Hold on!  I’ve found a lantern,” called Prescott.  “I’ll come out with that.”

He appeared a moment later, lighting the lantern.

“Now, let’s see what we can find,” he urged.  Not far away the high school boys came upon the prints of sharp-toed shoes.

“The tramps didn’t wear shoes that would make these prints,” declared Dick.  “Neither do any of our crowd.  Fellows, we owe our surprise to the rah-rah humorists.”

“Then we’ll pay ’em back in good measure,” cried Darry in exasperation.

After some searching Dick & Co. came upon their clothes chest, at a distance of some hundred yards from camp.  The chest had not been rifled, for it was locked and the key rested in Dick’s pocket.

“Help me with it, Tom, and we’ll carry it back,” said Prescott in a low, hard tone.  “We need our working clothes at once, for there is work to be done to-night!”

The needed change of costume was quickly made.  Off came the white suits, which were carefully folded and put away.  Then on went the khaki and flannel clothing.

“Dan, you stay with the tent,” Dick ordered, with the air of a general.  “Greg, you and Harry make it your main business to see if you can find the horse.  The rest of us will concern ourselves with finding out whether the rah-rah fellows are still outside the hotel.”

“Here’s the horse—–­grazing,” shouted Greg, two minutes later.