“Never mind, boys, the old man will go free this minute.”
He said it with a bad grace, and the glances that he covertly cast at the boys showed that he was enraged at the turn affairs had taken. What made him still angrier was the fact that the cook and two or three men had gathered around and seen him come out second best in the battle of words.
He determined to make the best of a bad situation.
“I am afraid that I spoke a little too hastily in this thing,” he said, coming closer to Garry. “I want you to remember that I am always trying to protect your father’s interests here; that is what he pays me for, and I thought that there might be something peculiar in this chap’s showing up here in the dead of night.”
Garry, having won his point, and for the sake of future peace and freedom from interference, resolved to mollify the manager.
“That’s all right, Mr. Barrows. Only I want to tell you this,” and here Garry lowered his voice: “The old chap is mentally unbalanced, and it was largely for that reason that I did not want him to be annoyed. He lives near a tract of wild land where we patrolled early this summer, and was very decent to us, tanning skins of animals that we shot, and leaving us rabbits for eating. It is a pet trick of his to wander about at night, and appear very mysteriously, and as I propose to have him stay with us a few days, I wish you would pass the word that he is afflicted and caution the men not to tease or annoy him.”
Barrows assented grudgingly and then marched off to the office.
Left alone with the hermit, for the cook and the others had departed for their customary tasks, the boys eagerly asked the hermit what he meant by his note, and if he had anything to tell them.
“I didn’t mean to get caught,” he said. “I know what you boys are here for. Nate told me a little and I can make two and two equal four. I was creeping through the woods last night to come and leave a letter for you, when I heard some men talking, and crept up to listen to them. They were just getting ready to leave and all I heard was a man saying that his brother would soon be there and that he would know how to deal with those spies. I couldn’t get a good look at the man, but he spoke with an accent, and was a heavy, strongly built man. That’s what I was going to write to you, for I believe you are the ones that the men in the secret meeting meant when they referred to spies.”
The boys looked aghast at each other when they heard the concluding words of their friend the hermit. At once the same thought leaped into the minds of all three. Man with an accent, heavily built and strong appearing. Brother was coming to help him. All put together it meant only one thing, and that was voiced by Dick.