"If we follow them Ritter will think it mighty queer," was Pepper's comment.
"I don't care—I want to get a good look at that man," answered Andy, doggedly.
The acrobatic youth led the way and his chums felt compelled to follow. Ritter and the stranger had passed between two buildings. They found a side doorway of one structure wide open, and stepped into a lathed but unplastered hallway. Andy bounded up on an unfinished front piazza and stepped through an open casement into a lathed but unplastered parlor.
"Shall we follow?" asked Pepper of Jack.
"Might as well," returned the young major. "Andy may get into trouble with Ritter, and if so we want to be on hand to help him."
Ritter and the man were talking in a low tone, so that what was said could not be overheard. They had stepped into the house to get out of the keen wind that had sprung up. Andy tiptoed his way across the unfinished parlor and applied his eye to a crack where a lath was missing. He watched until the man shoved back his soft hat and turned his face around. Then he uttered a low cry.
"See anything, Andy?" whispered Pepper.
"That man—he's the same fellow—I feel sure of it!" gasped the acrobatic youth.
"What are you talking about?"
"That man! Don't you remember how the horse ran away with me and I got caught in the tree and was knocked unconscious? Don't you remember my telling how I had seen a man ahead of me just before the accident? Well, that is the man!"