“Must be all of three miles,” answered Andy, and Pepper nodded.
“They must keep more or less to the woods,” continued George Strong. “Otherwise more folks would see them and spread the alarm. I asked that man at the cottage and he said he had heard nobody mention them.”
“They must have some hiding spot in the woods, where they lay off their masks and hoods,” said Stuffer. “They must fancy themselves regular highwaymen.”
“If they are my relatives, and I capture them, I’ll take good care that they do not get away again,” said George Strong.
The boys tramped on with the teacher until all calculated they had covered fully a mile. Then they came out of the woods at a point where a babbling brook ran over some rocks. Here was a good-sized clearing and at the farther end a hut that had once been used by lumbermen or charcoal burners.
“They may be in that hut!” cried George Strong. “Let us spread out and surround the building. Use no violence if it can possibly be avoided.”
They scattered as he advised, and approached the lonely hut from all sides. The door stood wide open and with great caution George Strong looked inside. Much to his disappointment nobody was present.
“But they have been here!” cried Jack, as he and his chums entered the dilapidated structure. “See, there are the remains of a fire and of a roast chicken.”
“Must have been living on the contents of some farmers’ hen-houses,” murmured Pepper. “This looks as if they had been here last night if not this morning.”
“Here is the looking-glass that was stolen,” cried Andy, pointing to the object, hanging on the wall.