“That’s so,” agreed Bart. “I didn’t think of that.”
“Probably don’t want folks to know which way it’s going, as if they did, they might put up the price of land.”
“But that doesn’t explain the queer actions of the crazy men,” objected Ned. “I bet there’s something more than that in all this.”
“Well, I don’t see as we can do anything,” spoke Frank cautiously. “We haven’t any right to go on private land. Guess we’ll have to let it drop.”
“Wonder how they came to hire Sandy?” said Bart.
“Probably they knew he was so unpopular he wouldn’t say much to the other fellows,” explained Ned.
“Anyhow we’ve seen what we wanted to, though we can’t make head or tail of it,” came from Fenn. “Let’s go on after the flowers.”
“The men are going away now,” Bart reported. “They’ve gone back in the woods, and Sandy is there on guard again. He needn’t worry, we’ll not bother him.”
The boys remained on top of the hill some little while longer and then, finding a place where there were a number of beautiful wild flowers, gathered large bunches, wrapping the stems about with leaves, wet in a spring, to keep the flowers fresh.