The inside of the bag was literally alive with insects. The fat
boy quickly closed the bag, twisting the mouth tight and tying it fast
with a string. Then blowing out the candle, he shouldered the bag,
setting off for camp as Walter had done some thirty minutes before.
But Stacy failed to observe the figure of a man near by as the boy
stepped out on the plain. This figure followed along behind him at a
safe distance, the man chuckling to himself as he watched the boy and
the bag. The mysterious stranger was the Ranger lieutenant.
Reaching the silent camp, Stacy slunk in, apparently seeking to avoid
being seen. The grinning lieutenant saw the boy slip cautiously to
the tent occupied by the sleeping Rangers. There the fat boy very
carefully deposited his 'possum bag, first having opened the mouth of
it, after which he slipped away to his own tent and crawled into bed.
But Stacy did not go to sleep at once. He lay there listening,
gazing up at the roof of the tent through which he could make out the
faint light of the sky.
Some twenty minutes elapsed when the boy sat up, thinking he had heard
a sound from the other tent. This became a certainty just a few
minutes later when a great uproar arose in the tent of the Rangers.
Loud voices were heard, threats and shouts. The hundred and fifty-eight
varieties of bugs that the fat boy had brought in in his 'possum bag,
were getting in their deadly work on the persons of the Rangers.
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