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 ears of his comrade.
"Didn't sound like it. I kind of thought it was somebody calling for help!" said Bobolink, quivering with the suspense caused by the situation.
They stood in a group, listening eagerly. The night wind stirred the tops of the tall forest trees softly, and even this gentle sound boomed on their 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 is somebody shouting. But all the same I don't feel sure it was a call for help. Let's remember, fellows, that Ted and his crowd must be somewhere about up here. And you know from past experiences what dodges he's up to when he wants to play a trick on anybody."
"Do you mean he'd like to draw us off by shouting that way, while some of his fellows went along to the farmhouse, and got the lost boy?" asked William.
"That would be just like Ted. He's as full of tricks as an egg is of meat," 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. But don't blame me if I should make a mistake. Let's head for the road, which I take it ought to be somewhere over yonder," remarked Paul, pointing through the darkness.
"The road, eh? I see, you mean that once we get on that we'll have it easy 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, I guess the sooner we get our feet planted on the highway, the better for our noses. I've barked mine already against a tree, and another dose will spoil my classic beauty," grunted Bobolink, rubbing tenderly at the spot in 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; "and before long it's going to be a case of the blind leading the blind. That branch took me across the face. Hey! ain't that the same old shout?"
"Sounds like it; but much nearer," returned Paul, with a vein of uncertainty in his voice, as if he might be commencing to doubt whether they 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 to make it out all along. That's sure a different voice. Some of Ted's crowd have got separated, and they're just trying to get together again. You've heard quail calling, after being flushed and scattered. How, Paul?"
"Perhaps you've struck it, Jack. Anyway, we are on the road here, and had better 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 a road after all, being scantily used; "and after that experience it's going to be something big that drags me into the woods again."
The little group stood there for a minute to recover their wind, which had been more or less exhausted in the last desperate push through the dark woods.
"Ready to move on, fellows?" demanded Paul, who had apparently not changed his mind, and was more than ever bent on covering the last lap lying between themselves and the pond.
Jack and Wallace fell in on either side, and the march was begun. Since the other pair did not wish to be left behind, they were forced to accompany 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 flanking them on either side.
The shouts had apparently ceased; at least none had been heard since the five 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 a gasoline wagon climbing a hill ahead there I'm off my guess," he whispered.
"Chug! chug!" came the plain sound, as the air current veered more toward the point toward which they were heading.
"I know that hill," Paul observed, as if talking to himself; "it's just this side of the mill pond. That means the car is coming this way. The two gentlemen are separating themselves from their dear friend, Solus Smithers. Why, I wonder? Would Mr. Pender have anything to do with it?"
"Wow! did you see that?" gasped Bobolink, proving that his plaint about his eyes closing up could hardly be based on solid ground.
"Somebody struck a match, and it went out! Whoever it is, he's on the road 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 muttered something to the effect that he had received another jab in the neighborhood 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 to be huddled up on the road a little distance away.
"What do you suppose the silly goose is doing on his knees?" came from Jack.
"He's found something, and he's looking at it. See, now he's managed to open it up. Seems to me like a leather bag, boys," Wallace managed to wedge in with.
"Just what it is, old cat eyes. A hand bag! Now, however did that thing happen to be lying there in the road? Nobody ever comes up here but Solus, 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 by jinks! the fellers are comin' back to look for it. Never missed it till Sol got home!" his chum declared.
All this talk between the five boy scouts was carried on in the lowest of whispers. 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 the leather grip that he had eyes and ears for nothing else just then.
"The motor is coming closer!" remarked Wallace, as the sound of the engine was borne more distinctly to their ears.
"Sure. She's just at the top of the rise, and now it's down-grade. Reckon she'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 know what 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 imagine that the leather grip holds something that took Ted's fancy. But all the same 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 just half a minute too long," Paul remarked, as a sudden flash of dazzling light shot around a bend a short distance ahead, and the red car with the khaki-colored top came into view, making fairly fast time.
They could dimly see the inmates apparently surveying the road ahead with the utmost eagerness, as though anxious to make a discovery. The loss of that bag must have rather upset their plans, and given them a jolt.
Every one of the five hidden scouts crouched low, so that their faces might not be discovered by that fierce white glow.
Plainly to their ears was borne the shouts of the men in the machine, as they discovered the figure of Ted on the road. The Stanhope bully had evidently 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 Ted play innocent more than once before, when caught in the act of doing some mean thing. And as a rule the fellow could carry out the game fairly well.
But he was up against a different proposition now; and these keen-eyed men 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 make himself appear as stupid as he could. The two men in the red car were no longer calling, for they had seen that the boy on the road showed no signs of wanting to run.
As they bore down upon the spot the car slowed up, and came to a full stop within a few yards of the waiting Ted. Every scout lying in the screen of bushes held his breath as he listened to catch what was going to 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, and cut off any chance of escape, to think of anything else.
Without answering they bore down on Ted, and he found himself confronted by two eager faces, while a rough hand clutched his arm.
"He ain't got it, Brad!" exclaimed the shorter of the pair, as though disappointed over something.
"Hey, what'd you do with it, son?" demanded the taller traveler, looking furiously 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 on the agony.
"We lost a leather bag out of the car. I saw it after we turned into this here twisting side road just back a piece. We've looked over every foot between here and the mill pond, and ain't seen it. I'm going to ask you again, son, what did you do with it?"
The man did not threaten, as yet, but there was something deep down in his voice that seemed to tell of all sorts of terrible things that might happen to the boy unless he came to time, and confessed.
But at any rate Ted was game. His covetous nature had been aroused by something he had glimpsed inside of that same bag; and he did not mean to give it up unless pushed to the last resort.
"Ain't seen no bag, mister, 'deed an' I ain't," he whimpered; "I got a lantern 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 give out. Then I struck this here road. I'm clean tired out, mister, and I'd like 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. Gimme a ride to Stanhope, mister, please!"