With bated breath the boys listened. At first they heard little but the rushing of the water over the rocks. Then came a sudden cracking of a rotten floor board, followed by an exclamation.
"Confound the luck! I've put my foot through the floor again," growled a man's voice. "Shelley, why don't you light the lantern? Do you want me to break my neck?"
"If I light the lantern the Rovers may come here," was the answer from the man called Shelley.
"Oh, they went down the river I saw them."
"They may have turned in nearby."
Some more words followed, but spoken so low that the boys could not understand them. They heard a faint creaking of the flooring of the old mill, but that was all.
"They are there, that's certain," whispered Dick. "But I don't see how we are going to capture them in this darkness."
"I wish we had a lantern," said the youngest Rover.
"We wouldn't dare to light it, Sam," answered Tom. "Let us crawl up close to the building. Maybe we can find out something more about the men. They may be some good for nothing fellows from the village."
As there seemed nothing else to do, this advice was followed, and soon the boys were at one of the broken out windows of the mill. They listened and looked inside, but saw and heard nothing.