"It's getting pretty nigh dinner time," observed Bob, as he felt for the package of food he had thrust into one of his pockets before starting out, upon the suggestion of the patrol leader, who did not know just how long a time they might be gone.
"Yes, and I supose we've come up about as far as we ought," Thad added, himself feeling the vigorous climb the more because his muscles were not used to anything of that sort. "So, let's drop down right where we are. It's a good enough lunching place. The cat thought so, you can see."
They soon settled in comfortable places, each with a tree to lean his back against while he munched the dry sandwiches that had been hurriedly put together, a little potted ham between crackers, with a slice of cheese thrown in for good measure.
The sun felt warm overhead, but the atmosphere at this altitude was bracing and refreshing indeed, as mountain air always is. The boys, as they ate, talked incessantly, covering the ground of what they hoped to accomplish, if fortune were only kind enough to favor them, and the moonshiners to allow them to leave the mountains in peace.
Bob was explaining that after all it might be well for him to divide his mission into two parts, and get Bertha disposed of, before thinking of trying to find whether the mysterious prisoner of the moonshiners could really be his dear father, when their conversation was interrupted by a scream from a point close by.
The two boys sprang to their feet, and looked at each other blankly.
"That was a girl called out, Bob!" exclaimed Thad. "We can't tell but what it may be a trap of some kind, but that's a chance we've just got to take. Come on, and we'll soon see what it means!"