“Where are you from—Hyannis?” asked another of the fellows, quickly.
“Up with your hands, all of you!” commanded the first man who had spoken.
As several of the men were armed, the boys felt that it would be useless to resist, so they allowed themselves to be searched. Then one of the men went into the cabin and found a pistol which belonged to Ralph. Of course, the Rovers and their chums were very angry; but they saw that they had an exceedingly rough crowd to deal with—men who would go to any length to have their own way—so they felt that it would be useless to resist.
“Carrying any loose change with you, Buddy?” questioned one of the men, leering into Randy’s face and then glancing down at his watch-chain.
“What do you mean?” answered Randy. “If I’ve got any money I’m not going to give it to you.”
“Don’t be so sure of that, Buddy. What are you fellows doing out here, anyway?”
“I think they’re too young to be spies,” said one of the men, who seemed to be a trifle more respectable than his companions.
“Don’t you be too sure of that, Ike,” was the reply from the man with the scar. “The government is getting all sorts of people to watch us lately. They’ve even got some women folks on our trail.”
“Well, if they’re spies, we caught ’em nicely,” came from another of the crowd.