ARRESTED AS SPIES
"Of course, we'll go with you!" replied Will, in answer to the boy's anxious question. "Do you think anything can be done tonight?"
"I think we ought to begin the search tonight," replied Chester. "One of father's hobbies is the campfire. It is my idea that if he has matches he will build himself a rousing fire, if he comes to dry wood. If he doesn't do this, he's likely to make his way to the first campfire he sees. I was in hopes that he'd come here."
Will called his chums into the tent for a general discussion of the matter, Chester remaining just outside the fire line. The boy seemed to have a mortal fear of being watched and followed.
Before entering fully into the conference, Will carried a liberal supper out to the hungry boy. Chester said that he had eaten very little since disposing of the provisions taken from the camp. Owing to the sudden disappearance of his father, he had not had time to hunt and fish. Will thought he had never seen a boy eat so industriously.
"Why don't he come into the tent," queried Tommy, as Will returned.
"He's afraid some one's watching the camp," was the reply.
"What if there is some one watching the camp," Tommy insisted, "they'll see something's going on and follow us when we go away with Chester. So he might just as well come on in!"
"Watch us when we go away?" repeated George. "Who do you think is going away with the boy in search of his father?"
"I'm going, for one!" declared Tommy.
"Not so you could notice it!" Will cut in. "You and Sandy have been doing all the scouting tonight, and now George and I will take a turn at it!"
Tommy winked slyly at Sandy but said nothing.
Will, however, caught the look which passed between the two boys, and declared that he meant to tie them both up before he left the camp.
"You boys are always running away, and always getting into trouble!" he declared. "You remember what a scrape you got us into down in the Everglades. If it hadn't been for the Seminole, you'd 'a' had us all under ground before we'd been there two days!"
"Aw, who said anything about leaving camp?" demanded Sandy.
"No one said anything about it," returned the other, "but I understand what you boys have in your minds, and I'll tell you right now that I don't think it's right for you to leave the camp until we return."
"Of course we won't!" declared Tommy.
"Well, I've said all I'm going to say about it!" Will went on. "Of course, you'll go if the notion comes into your heads, anyway, so what's the use? I hope you'll get into something that'll keep you home for a week if you do go out tonight."
"All right," laughed Tommy. "We know all about you! If we got into trouble anywhere, you'd be the first one to help get us out."
"And now about plans for the search," Will went on, without seeming to notice the last remark of the boy, "it is nearly midnight now, and we may not be back by morning, so perhaps we'd better take something to eat with us. We may be miles from camp at sunrise."
"And when we find Wagner, we may find a hungry man," George added.
"That's a fact!" cried Tommy darting away to the provision box.
In a very short time the boy brought a great package of egg and ham sandwiches to the two lads who were about to start away.
"Now, don't eat all this truck before sunrise," Tommy advised. "As George says, when you find Wagner, you'll find a hungry man."
After stowing the sandwiches away in their pockets, and seeing that their automatics and searchlights were in good condition, the boys went out to the place where they had left Chester and found him sound asleep in the long grass.
"The poor fellow is about all in!" exclaimed George.
"I wish we could get him to remain in camp while we make the search!" Will suggested. "He's in no shape to take a long trip into the mountains."
"And still," George began, "we haven't any idea where to look for his father. And the boy may have a very clear notion as to where to look first. I guess, after all, we'll have to take him with us!"
"I suppose so," Will agreed, "but I tell you what we can do. We can get him to tell us what he knows about his father's habits and inclinations, and then ask him to rest up while we investigate some of the points suggested. Perhaps he'll do that."
"I guess he'll have to!" smiled George. "He's so sound asleep now that we could carry him bodily into the tent and he'd never know it!"
It was quite a difficult task to wake the boy, but at last when he sat up rubbing his eyes he pretended, as all boys will, that he had just dozed off for a minute.
"I was pretty tired," he declared, "and I guess the supper I ate made me a little bit sleepy."
"Well," Will said, "we may as well be on our way. I suppose you'll take us first to the place where you and your father have been hiding."
"That was my intention."
The sky was clearing now, and the light of the stars made it possible for the boys to walk at a swift pace over the level valley and up the easy slope which led to the top of a low and rocky range of hills lying at the western foot of Atlantic peak.
When the boys finally reached the summit of the ridge, Chester led the way down an incline facing the east to a gulch which ran in between the great mountain and the lower range.
"Here's where we've been stopping," he said, pointing to what is known in that part of the country as a limestone cave. "It's quite comfortable in there if you have a fire near the entrance, and no one can see the blaze from the valley, so it's reasonably safe."
The boys stepped into the cavern and looked around. A rude couch had been made of the boughs of spruce and white pine, and saplings had been roughly hewn into a table and two chairs.
"You must have been here some time?" asked Will, pointing to the skins on the floor.
"Several long, dreary weeks," was the reply.
"Did you come here with your father?"
"Yes, we came together."
"Were you with him in Chicago just before he left for Wyoming?"
The boy opened his eyes wider.
"How did you know we were ever in Chicago?" he asked.
"We know more about your father and yourself than you think we do."
"Perhaps," said the boy suspiciously, "I have done wrong in asking you for assistance."
"Oh, you've come to the right shop for help," George cut in. "You'll find that we'll help you while you're in the hills, and continue to help you after you get out of the hills. You're a Beaver, you know."
It was on Will's lips to tell the boy exactly why they were there, and how glad they were that he had come to them in his trouble, but he refrained from doing so.
After half an hour's walk they came to the place where the gulch opened into a small valley.
"I think," Chester said, as they stepped into one of these openings, "that father may be hiding somewhere in this vicinity."
"Do you think so," asked Will, "because of that light in there?"
"I didn't see any light when I spoke," replied the boy, "but I see the reflection of a fire now. It must be some distance from this opening."
The boys moved forward softly until they came near a campfire which was in a passage connecting the cave they were in with one to the north. When they came close enough they saw three figures sitting before the fire. Chester clutched Will fiercely by the arm and declared that one of the men was his father. He was for rushing forward immediately, but the boys held him back.
"If the other fellows are the detectives," George suggested to Will, "it's all up with us, unless we can get him away."
"But they are not the detectives," replied Will.
"Those fellows are the men who are wanted for the Union Pacific train robbery!"
While the boys were advancing the three men at the fire disappeared as if by magic! The next moment the circle of light showed the figures of half a dozen cowboys darting hither and thither in search of the men who had taken themselves off so suddenly.
Believing that the cowboys might be induced to assist in the search for the missing man, the boys advanced toward the fire. As they did so the cowboys swarmed down upon them. Before they could utter a word of protest they were securely bound with ropes and dragged to the opening.
"We didn't get the robbers," the man who seemed to be leader of the party said, "but we can amuse ourselves lynching these spies!"