“Tell us about it, then,” said Thad.
“Well, when I saw them making for the barn, I kind of suspected they meant to look over our car, and I slipped along after ’em. Course my having been a scout helped me a lot to do that without giving myself away,” and there was a vein of justifiable pride in the way the tall boy said this.
“Was it our car they looked over?” asked Allan.
“They were nosing all around it,” replied Giraffe, “when I glimpsed them through a knot-hole. Would you believe it, that man with the crooked eye was lighting matches to let them see better. And they certainly did overhaul the car from stem to stern.”
“Thad, it might be they thought we left something valuable in the car, such as a pair of expensive field-glasses, you know?” suggested Bumpus, as though seized with a bright thought for once.
The others waited to hear what the spy thought of that idea. Giraffe, however, did not seem to consider it an answer to the riddle.
“No,” he said decisively; “they acted as if they were more concerned about the car itself, for they even tested to see whether there was any amount of petrol in the tank, and looked the engine over in the bargain.”
“Then they want to make us an offer for the car in the morning?” Bumpus once more advanced; “but I hope none of you’ll feel tempted to part with it, while we’re still so far away from Antwerp.”
“They don’t look as if they had pockets full of money,” Giraffe told him scornfully. “My idea was that they mean to steal the car some time during the night!”
Thad sat, and seemed to be turning it over in his mind.