CHAPTER XXVII
TED FINDS SOMETHING
"Sure it wasn't an owl?" asked Paul, when a full minute had passed away,without their hearing a repetition of the sound that had reached the earsof his comrade.
"Didn't sound like it. I kind of thought it was somebody calling forhelp!" said Bobolink, quivering with the suspense caused by thesituation.
They stood in a group, listening eagerly. The night wind stirred the topsof the tall forest trees softly, and even this gentle sound boomed ontheir strained nerves like the strokes of a bass drum.
"Oh! there! Didn't you hear it that time?" whispered Bobolink.
"I guess we did," replied Paul; "and you're right in saying it issomebody shouting. But all the same I don't feel sure it was a call forhelp. Let's remember, fellows, that Ted and his crowd must be somewhereabout up here. And you know from past experiences what dodges he's up towhen he wants to play a trick on anybody."
"Do you mean he'd like to draw us off by shouting that way, while someof his fellows went along to the farmhouse, and got the lost boy?" askedWilliam.
"That would be just like Ted. He's as full of tricks as an egg is ofmeat," Jack took it upon himself to say at this juncture.
"Well, what are we going to do about it, boys?" asked Wallace.
"I leave it to Paul; whatever he says ought to be good enough for me,"replied Wallace.
"And me," came from the others without hesitation.
"Thanks, fellows. I hope that my plan will prove the best after all. Butdon't blame me if I should make a mistake. Let's head for the road, whichI take it ought to be somewhere over yonder," remarked Paul, pointingthrough the darkness.
"The road, eh? I see, you mean that once we get on that we'll have iteasy all the way to the pond. That suits me all right. Count William in."
"Yes, seeing that our lanterns are out, and not a match in the crowd, Iguess the sooner we get our feet planted on the highway, the better forour noses. I've barked mine already against a tree, and another dose willspoil my classic beauty," grunted Bobolink, rubbing tenderly at the spotin question.
"Then come along, the rest of you," said Paul, starting off.
"Seems to me it's getting lighter," announced Wallace, presently.
"Mebbe our eyes are used to it, that's what," Bobolink remarked.
"Mine are closing up right fast, I warn you, fellers," said William; "andbefore long it's going to be a case of the blind leading the blind. Thatbranch took me across the face. Hey! ain't that the same old shout?"
"Sounds like it; but much nearer," returned Paul, with a vein ofuncertainty in his voice, as if he might be commencing to doubt whetherthey were doing the right thing in paying no attention to the calls.
"Oh! I guess I know what it means," remarked Jack; "I've been trying tomake it out all along. That's sure a different voice. Some of Ted's crowdhave got separated, and they're just trying to get together again. You'veheard quail calling, after being flushed and scattered. How, Paul?"
"Perhaps you've struck it, Jack. Anyway, we are on the road here, and hadbetter push straight along to the pond first."
"Right enough," uttered Bobolink, as he broke through a cordon of brush,and jumped out on the highway, though it might be only an apology for aroad after all, being scantily used; "and after that experience it'sgoing to be something big that drags me into the woods again."
The little group stood there for a minute to recover their wind, whichhad been more or less exhausted in the last desperate push through thedark woods.
"Ready to move on, fellows?" demanded Paul, who had apparently notchanged his mind, and was more than ever bent on covering the last laplying between themselves and the pond.
Jack and Wallace fell in on either side, and the march was begun. Sincethe other pair did not wish to be left behind, they were forced toaccompany themselves to the movements of the trio.
Thus they walked perhaps a full hundred yards along the winding road,with the stars showing overhead, and the black mysterious woods flankingthem on either side.
The shouts had apparently ceased; at least none had been heard since thefive lads reached open territory.
Again it was Bobolink who caught a sound of some sort.
"Tell me again I'm hearing owls, will you, fellows? If that ain't agasoline wagon climbing a hill ahead there I'm off my guess," hewhispered.
"Chug! chug!" came the plain sound, as the air current veered more towardthe point toward which they were heading.
"I know that hill," Paul observed, as if talking to himself; "it's justthis side of the mill pond. That means the car is coming this way. Thetwo gentlemen are separating themselves from their dear friend, SolusSmithers. Why, I wonder? Would Mr. Pender have anything to do with it?"
"Wow! did you see that?" gasped Bobolink, proving that his plaint abouthis eyes closing up could hardly be based on solid ground.
"Somebody struck a match, and it went out! Whoever it is, he's on theroad just ahead of us, fellows!" whispered Jack.
"Back up into the scrub here. Quick! for perhaps he's got another match!"said Paul, following up his words by instant action.
They managed to cower down in the brush, though Bobolink mutteredsomething to the effect that he had received another jab in theneighborhood of his wretched eyes.
"Look! he's done it, Paul, just as you said he would!" whispered Jack.
"Yes, he's shielding it from the breeze till it gets strong. There--well,what d'ye think of that, fellers?" gasped William.
"It's Ted!" muttered Wallace, staring hard at the figure that seemed tobe huddled up on the road a little distance away.
"What do you suppose the silly goose is doing on his knees?" came fromJack.
"He's found something, and he's looking at it. See, now he's managed toopen it up. Seems to me like a leather bag, boys," Wallace managed towedge in with.
"Just what it is, old cat eyes. A hand bag! Now, however did that thinghappen to be lying there in the road? Nobody ever comes up here butSolus, and he isn't the one to own a bag like that."
"The red car," said Paul, as Jack seemed to hesitate.
"That's it, as sure as you live. Dropped out of the machine; and byjinks! the fellers are comin' back to look for it. Never missed it tillSol got home!" his chum declared.
All this talk between the five boy scouts was carried on in the lowest ofwhispers. The sound of their voices would not have carried twenty feet;and the kneeling Ted was several times that distance away.
Besides, he seemed to be so fascinated by what he had discovered in theleather grip that he had eyes and ears for nothing else just then.
"The motor is coming closer!" remarked Wallace, as the sound of theengine was borne more distinctly to their ears.
"Sure. She's just at the top of the rise, and now it's down-grade. Reckonshe'll be here in a minute. Push back further, fellows."
"Look! Ted hears it now! He's jumped up! Seems like he just don't knowwhat to do, cut and run with the bag, or wait till the car gets there.Hey! watch that, will you?" gasped William.
"He threw the bag as far as he could into the woods!" said Jack.
"That looks like he meant to try and keep it," suggested Jack; "I imaginethat the leather grip holds something that took Ted's fancy. But all thesame I reckon it isn't going to be easy sledding for him. Will he run,fellows?"
"He's debating that same question now; but it's too late. He waited justhalf a minute too long," Paul remarked, as a sudden flash of dazzlinglight shot around a bend a short distance ahead, and the red car with thekhaki-colored top came into view, making fairly fast time.
They could dimly see the inmates apparently surveying the road ahead withthe utmost eagerness, as though anxious to make a discovery. The loss ofthat bag must have rather upset their plans, and given them a jolt.
Every one of the five hidden scouts crouched low, so that their facesmight not be discovered by that fierce white glow.
Plainly to their ears was borne the shouts of
the men in the machine, asthey discovered the figure of Ted on the road. The Stanhope bully hadevidently made up his mind that the bag was well worth struggling for,and that he must make some sort of a fight to retain possession of it.
Paul could guess what his plan of operations would be. He had seen Tedplay innocent more than once before, when caught in the act of doing somemean thing. And as a rule the fellow could carry out the game fairlywell.
But he was up against a different proposition now; and these keen-eyedmen were not apt to be hoodwinked so easily as a parcel of schoolboys.
Ted stood there, looking at the car that was bearing down upon him.
No doubt he had assumed the innocent air of a rustic, and tried to makehimself appear as stupid as he could. The two men in the red car were nolonger calling, for they had seen that the boy on the road showed nosigns of wanting to run.
As they bore down upon the spot the car slowed up, and came to a fullstop within a few yards of the waiting Ted. Every scout lying in thescreen of bushes held his breath as he listened to catch what was goingto follow.
"Say, gimme a ride, mister?"
That was Ted speaking, before either of the men could say the first word.Indeed they were too busy clambering out of the car to surround him, andcut off any chance of escape, to think of anything else.
Without answering they bore down on Ted, and he found himself confrontedby two eager faces, while a rough hand clutched his arm.
"He ain't got it, Brad!" exclaimed the shorter of the pair, as thoughdisappointed over something.
"Hey, what'd you do with it, son?" demanded the taller traveler, lookingfuriously at Ted, though pretending to speak gently.
"With what, boss? I ain't got nothin' that belongs to you, sure I ain't!"whimpered the boy; and Paul came near to chuckling at the way Ted put onthe agony.
"We lost a leather bag out of the car. I saw it after we turned into thishere twisting side road just back a piece. We've looked over every footbetween here and the mill pond, and ain't seen it. I'm going to ask youagain, son, what did you do with it?"
The man did not threaten, as yet, but there was something deep down inhis voice that seemed to tell of all sorts of terrible things that mighthappen to the boy unless he came to time, and confessed.
But at any rate Ted was game. His covetous nature had been aroused bysomething he had glimpsed inside of that same bag; and he did not mean togive it up unless pushed to the last resort.
"Ain't seen no bag, mister, 'deed an' I ain't," he whimpered; "I got alantern here, an' I was ahuntin' a little boy that was lost from home.Lots of other fellers in the woods adoin' that same. But my light giveout. Then I struck this here road. I'm clean tired out, mister, and I'dlike to get a ride home, if so be you're goin' my way. A bag, mister?Sure I ain't knowin' nawthin' about no bag. Cross my heart if I do. Gimmea ride to Stanhope, mister, please!"