“You might as well stop!” cried Andy. “We are bound to catch you.”
“If you come any closer somebody will git hurt,” called back the tramp roughly. “You ain’t goin’ to catch me, not much you ain’t!”
“Do you think he’ll dare to shoot at us?” asked one of the cadets.
“No,” answered Jack. “I believe they are all cowards.”
On and on plunged the tramp, with the boys after him. He was now ascending a small hill. Beyond, the cadets knew, was a cliff, fringed with brushwood.
“Wonder if he knows about the cliff?” said Pepper.
“He must—since he has been in this neighborhood so long,” answered Jack. “But if he doesn’t he may take a nasty tumble.”
“Maybe he is hoping to make us take the tumble,” came from Andy.
This was a trick the tramp had in mind, and reaching the edge of the cliff, he darted to the right and crouched down under some thick bushes.
The cadets ran on at full speed until they neared the cliff and then slowed up. They peered over the edge of the height into the little valley below but could see no one.