“I don’t know what you might do,” was the answer. “I only know what I see—egg stains. You might have sneaked into the barn if I hadn’t seen you. And when I did notice you, you told me some story about a crooked-nosed man to make it sound natural.”
“But there is a crooked-nosed man,” insisted Bob.
“Course there is,” said the farmer. “I admit that. But he isn’t such an unusual man. For all I know you may have seen him driving in with my wagon—he’d been to town—and you made up that story about wanting to see him.”
“Yes, we did see him driving,” admitted Bob. “And then we thought——”
He stopped. He realized that appearances were against him and his chums, and that any explanation they might make, especially after Ned’s mishap with the eggs, would seem strange.
“First I thought you were all right, and really did want to see my hired man,” went on the farmer. “But when this other soldier came and said he’d seen you go into my barn, and had heard you talking about getting eggs for a good feed, why, I realized what you were up to.”
“Did he tell you that yarn about us?” asked Jerry, looking at Pug.
“He did. And it’s the truth.”
“Well, it isn’t the truth, and he knows it!” cried Ned. “He’s taking this means of getting even because of what he thinks we did to him. All right! Let it go at that. We’ll go before the officers with you. We’re not afraid! We’ll tell the truth.”
“You’d better!” declared Mr. Martin. “You wait till I hitch up and I’ll take you back to camp. This soldierin’ business is all right, and I’m in full sympathy with it. But it isn’t right to rob farmers, and your officers won’t stand for it.”