Just then in the distance, two shots rang out.
“That’s the signal!” cried Jerry. “They’re ending the sketch ‘The Sentry’s Last Challenge.’ We go on right after that in the final chorus. We’ve got about five minutes to make it. Come on! Hike!”
“But what about these fellows?” asked Bob.
“We’ll have to let them go,” decided Ned. “We can’t afford to spoil the minstrel show for the sake of something that may not amount to anything.”
“Not even to catch Crooked Nose?” asked Bob, in disappointed tones.
“We’ll take up his case later,” said Jerry. “Just now we’re minstrels. Come on.”
There was nothing else to do, and though the boys wanted to remain and, if possible, solve the mystery, they felt that they owed it to Captain Trainer to make the minstrel show a success. They had important parts, and the shots they had heard fired were blank cartridges, discharged during the enactment of a little skit, played by some members of their company.
The two men had disappeared in the shadows, and it was a question whether the boys could have spied on them to any further advantage that night. So they hurried back, arriving just in time to take part in the last chorus.
After the show, which was voted a big success, the boys debated among themselves whether they should report what they had seen and heard and mention Pug Kennedy’s name. Also they talked of the time when they had seen Pug have a midnight meeting with some one.
“There was more in that than appeared on the surface,” declared Ned.