“Say, that’s what I call a narrow shave!” cried Shep, when he and his chum realized that the danger was over.  “I want nothing more to do with that ram.”

“It’s a pity we lost the strawberries,” returned Snap.  “However, it can’t be helped.”

The two boys were soon well out in the river and they looked anxiously over to the cove.  Nothing was to be seen of Giant and Whopper.

“They must be behind the bushes dressing,” said Snap.  “Hello!” he yelled.  “Hello!  Where are you?”

No answer was returned, and the doctor’s son joined in the cry.  Then both boys pulled a more hasty stroke and soon got to a point where they could wade ashore.

“It can’t be possible they went home,” said Snap, as he gazed around in perplexity.

“We’ll soon see,” was the answer, and the doctor’s son ran to the bushes where the clothing had been left.  “Well, I never!” he cried.

“Why, all the clothing is gone!

“Yes, their clothing and ours too!

“Do you think they’ve played a trick on us?”

“No, they wouldn’t be so mean.”

“But where are they, and where is our clothing?”

“I don’t know.”

In deep perplexity the two chums looked around that vicinity.  No trace of Giant or Whopper was to be found and the only article of wearing apparel they could discover was a blue-and-white sock.

“That’s Giant’s sock,” said Snap.  “And that proves something is wrong.  He wouldn’t go away and leave his own sock behind.”

“True enough, Snap, but what do you think happened?”

“I don’t know, unless they caught somebody in the act of running off with our duds and ran after them.”

“Let us call again.”

This they did, using the full power of their lungs.  Soon an answering cry came back, and Whopper appeared on the river bank above them, followed by Giant.  Each carried a bundle of clothing under his arm and some shoes in his hand.

“Well, what does this mean?” demanded the doctor’s son, as the others drew closer.

“You’re fine fellows to stay away so long,” grumbled Giant.

“We called to you about a million times that we wanted help,” put in Whopper.

“Well, we’ve had our troubles of our own,” answered Snap.  “A big, angry ram came after us and held us prisoners for awhile.  But what happened here?  Did somebody run away with our outfits.”

“Yes, and we had a great time getting them again,” answered Whopper.

“We had to run after the chaps barefooted,” came from Giant.  “Just look at my feet,” and he showed how they had been cut and scratched.

“Who were they?” demanded the doctor’s son.

“We don’t know exactly, but we’ve got our suspicions,” answered the small boy.

“There were two of them,” said Whopper.  “Both good-sized fellows.  We didn’t hear them until they had all the clothes in their arms and were running away.  As soon as they heard us coming both threw their coats up over their heads, so we wouldn’t recognize them.  They would have gotten away sure only Giant yelled that he would fire a pistol at them if they didn’t stop and then they, got scared and dropped the clothing in a ditch.”