"There are screens of bushes behind which I can operate," Ripley
decided. "I am glad of the bushes, for, if I use care, not a
living soul can see me. Now, for some swift work."

It did not take Ripley long to discover where the boys' food supply
was stored.

"These fellows act like boobs!" muttered Fred in disgust. "Here
they go away and leave everything exposed. If they didn't have
an enemy in the world, even then some tramp could come along and
clean out the camp. Humph! Two tramps, if they wanted to work
for a little while, could carry away all the food there is here.
What a lot of poor, penniless muckers Prescott and his friends
are!"

Again Fred studied the lay of the land, then drew off his coat
and flung it aside.

"Now, to work!" he said to himself gleefully.

First of all, he got the food supplies all together. Most of this
stuff was in the form of canned goods. Ripley gathered it up in
one big pile.

Then he stepped over to the tent, from which, at several points
and angles he looked carefully over to the hotel landing float
on the other side of Lake Pleasant.

"They can't see, from the hotel, whether the tent is down or up,"