At last the wind died down, the rain ceased and the sun shone.  Out rushed the six little Bunkers with gladsome shouts.  Laddie and Russ had some large toy shovels which their mother had bought them.

“What are you going to do?” Rose asked her two older brothers as she saw them hurrying down to the beach when the sun was out.

“We’re going to make a sand fort and have a battle,” answered Russ.  “The sand will pack fine now ’cause it’s so wet.  We’re going to make a big sand fort.”

And he and Laddie began this play.  Something very strange was to come from it, too.

CHAPTER XXIV

A MYSTERIOUS ENEMY

“Here’s a good place to make the fort,” said Russ as he and Laddie reached the beach not far from Cousin Tom’s bungalow and looked about them.  “We’ll build the fort right here, Laddie, near this hill of sand.”

“What’s the hill for?”

“That’s where we can put our flag.  They always put a flag on a hill where everybody can see it.”

“But we haven’t a flag.  Where are we going to get one?”

“Say, you ask almost as many questions as Vi,” exclaimed Russ.  “We’ll make a flag!”

“How?”

“Out of a handkerchief.  You’ve a handkerchief and so have I. One is enough for both of us and we can take the other and make a flag of it.”

“But that’ll be a white flag, Russ, and soldiers don’t ever have a white flag lessen they give up and surrender.  We didn’t surrender, ’cause we haven’t even got our fort built.  We don’t want a white flag.”

“Oh, well, I didn’t mean to have a white flag.  That’s just the start.  We’ll take a white handkerchief for a flag and we can make it red and blue.”

“How?” Laddie certainly was asking questions.

“Well, Cousin Tom has some red and blue pencils.  I saw ’em on his desk the other night.  He marks his papers with ’em.  You go and ask Cousin Ruth if we can’t take a red and a blue pencil and then I’ll show you how to make a red, white and blue flag out of a handkerchief.”

“You won’t make the fort till I come back, will you?”

“No, I’ll only start it.  Now you go and get the pencils.”

Laddie ran back to the bungalow and Cousin Ruth let him have what he wanted.  He promised not to lose the pencils, and soon he was helping Russ mark red stripes and blue stars on Laddie’s white handkerchief.  They did make something that looked like our flag, and then, finding a long piece of driftwood to use as a flag-pole they planted it on top of the hill.

Making a fort in the damp sand at the seashore is very easy.  It is even easier than making one of snow, for you don’t have to wait for the snow to fall and often after it has snowed the flakes are so cold and dry that they will not pack and hold together.  But you can always find damp sand at the seashore.  Even though it is dry on top if you dig down a little way you will find it moist.  Now, on account of the rain, the sand was wet all over and was just fine for making forts.