The boys ate a hearty meal, and the young fireman paid for it.
“Business good, Joe?” he inquired, as they were about to leave.
“Famous. I’ve got some new customers, too. Don’t know who they are.”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t, for a fact.”
“That sounds puzzling,” observed Ralph.
“Well, it’s considerable of a puzzle to me—all except the double pay I get,” responded Joe. “For 54 nearly a week I’ve had a funny order. One dark night some one pushed up a window here and threw in a card. It contained instructions and a ten-dollar bill.”
“That’s pretty mysterious,” said the interested Zeph.
“The card told me that if I wanted to continue a good trade, I would say nothing about it, but every night at dark drive to a certain point in the timber yonder with a basket containing a good solid day’s feed for half-a-dozen men.”
“Well, well,” murmured Zeph, while Ralph gave quite a start, but remained silent, though strictly attentive.