Arthur Gates, uneasy over the affair, had been standing at an upper window when the flare had illuminated the sky, and clearly and distinctly he had seen the three cadets on the wall. Uttering an exclamation the man ran from the house and made his way to the digger. Unknown to the boys a rapid interchange of words followed and then Gates took up the box and went back to the house. The man who was doing the digging dropped his shovel and waited a moment, until he was joined by the caretaker of the property. Some whispering passed between them and then they silently made their way to a gate in the wall.
The three cadets crouched there in the blackness of the night beside the wall and waited. They strained their ears to hear continued sounds of the digging but they heard nothing.
“He must be finished,” Terry whispered.
“I should think that we would hear him replacing the dirt,” suggested Jim.
“Suppose you go aloft and see?” said Don, in a low voice.
Jim straightened up and Don gave him a hand to the top of the wall. Once there Jim peered carefully over to see how far the man had gotten in his work. But in a moment he was down again.
“The man is gone!” he told them, in wonder.
“Then he has finished,” concluded Don, but Jim shook his head.
“I don’t know why he should be. The lantern is still there and the hole is open, but the box is gone!”
“Gone?” the others cried guardedly.