“Somebody please give me a pinch,” said Bumpus. “I sure must be dreaming one of my old dreams about findin’ buried treasure. Hey! not so hard, Step Hen; I’m awake now all right, because that hurt like the dickens. But just look at what Thad’s unearthed, would you? Whew! I don’t blame that feller for hangin’ around here. I’d refuse to be chased away too, if I had all that stuff lyin’ under a stone in an old cabin.”
For some little time the boys continued to talk. Allan had wisely in the beginning stepped over and hung something over the one little window of the cabin. He seemed to understand that, with the finding of this stolen plunder belonging to a bank that had been looted at some previous day, they had taken up issues with these desperate men; and whether they wanted to or not, from this time forward it must be a question as to whether the hobo thieves recovered their prize; or were in turn taken prisoner by the scouts, and the guides with them.
By unearthing this rich haul Thad had settled the question. They could no longer hold aloof, and sit on the fence; but must enter into the game with the yeggmen.
And so the plan suggested, which looked to the ultimate capture of the rascals, appealed to the boys more than ever. If circumstances over which they seemed to really have little control, forced them to take a hand in the matter, it was the part of wisdom that they get in the first blow; and not wait for the desperate fugitives of the Maine woods to attack them, in order to try and force them to hand over this rich find.
“How’d it do to make up a dummy bundle, with these same old clothes,” remarked Giraffe. “We could fasten it with the string, same as they had it; and in case the fellers didn’t take the trouble to open the same, why, we’d be that much ahead, you see.”
“That’s a good idea, and can do no harm to try,” remarked the patrol leader, who was only too pleased to receive suggestions from the scouts, even though at times they thought of plans that were wildly impracticable; for it showed their minds were working; and anything was better than that they fall into the state of letting some one else do their thinking for them.
So Giraffe was set to work constructing the imitation bundle. Of course it did not contain one blessed thing worth mentioning. Bumpus wrote the single suggestive word “fooled” on a piece of paper, and wanted them to insert that; but Thad remarked that it would be better not to further arouse the anger of such lawless men. This was no child’s play in which they were now engaged, but the most serious adventure of all they had ever run across; and must be treated with the sober consideration grown-up men would be apt to give to such a matter.
But even this rebuff could not quench the newly-aroused spirit in the stout boy, Bumpus, who saw his dreams coming true. He could imagine the wonderful results when they delivered these valuable bonds over to the bank that had been looted. Surely there must have been a generous reward offered for their return; which, with that they were certain to receive for capturing the hobo thieves, would cram the treasury of the Boy Scout troop, and open up many delightful chances for other vacation trips to far-away places.
“But what will we do with all this glorious stuff?” he asked, as they sat, and looked, and talked, while the night wore on.
“I’m going to make it up into a packet, somehow,” remarked Thad. “Then, when I’ve got it in as small a compass as possible, I’ll wind a cord around it every which way, and use a little piece of red sealing wax I remember seeing in my haversack, to seal it up with. Then nobody can break it open without our knowing it.”