"I've
cleaned up the house, and you ought to clean up the barracks. There is
too much stealing going on."
"A good idea," Sheldon agreed. "Their boxes should be searched. I've
just missed a couple of shirts, and my best toothbrush is gone."
"And two boxes of my cartridges," she added, "to say nothing of
handkerchiefs, towels, sheets, and my best pair of slippers. But what
they want with your toothbrush is more than I can imagine. They'll be
stealing the billiard balls next."
"One did disappear a few weeks before you came," Sheldon laughed. "We'll
search the boxes this afternoon."
And a busy afternoon it was. Joan and Sheldon, both armed, went through
the barracks, house by house, the boss-boys assisting, and half a dozen
messengers, in relay, shouting along the line the names of the boys
wanted. Each boy brought the key to his particular box, and was
permitted to look on while the contents were overhauled by the boss-boys.
A wealth of loot was recovered. There were fully a dozen cane-knives--big
hacking weapons with razor-edges, capable of decapitating a man at a
stroke. Towels, sheets, shirts, and slippers, along with toothbrushes,
wisp-brooms, soap, the missing billiard ball, and all the lost and
forgotten trifles of many months, came to light.
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