looked around at the untidy interior of the tent, with a pile of
provisions lying in the open center, where the eager intruder had thrown
them. "He meant to just clean us out, that's what he did. I bet that
Herb Benson had something to do with this mean old raid. He wanted to
scare us off the island, or starve us out!"

If Max thought along these same lines he had not as yet mentioned the
fact; but he did look queerly at Bandy-legs when he said this last
sentence, as though the possibility of such a thing appealed to him.

"Was there only one feller here, or a crowd?" demanded Steve, as he eyed
the pile of canned goods, that ham that was only partly cut, and a
number of packages containing prunes, sugar, flour and such things, many
of them as yet not even opened.

"Looks like there was half a dozen; or else the feller, if there was
only one, had an appetite that would beat Bandy-legs here all holler,"
declared Steve, who was really more enraged than any of the others.

All of them looked to Max to decide this question, satisfied that if the
truth could be learned at all, he would unearth it.

"I think there was only a single thief here," he presently said. "And
I'll tell you why I hit on that. He certainly carried off a few things,
just as much as he could grab up in a big hurry when he heard us. Now,
his first intention was to scoop in the whole business; you can see how
he piled the stuff up here, meaning to get it all. And if there had been
two, three, or more, they'd have made a bigger hole in our grub
department than happened."