“Well, as I said before, I wouldn’t like to swear to it until I got a better look at ’em. But those two fellers on the wagon had the same bushy black hair and whiskers and the same round faces. More than that, they wore the same slouch hats that the other fellers had.”
“Have you any idea what was in the packages in the wagon?” questioned the young captain.
“Sounded to me as if it might be iron, or something like that. It jangled just like hardware.”
“It’s queer they would be on that back road with such stuff,” said Jack slowly. “Did the folks at Rackville think they might live down near the bay?”
“They said there wasn’t any folks around there so far as they knew that wore bushy black hair and black beards. They knew about everybody who lives within several miles of here,” answered Jed Kessler.
The two Rovers talked the matter over with the old man for a few minutes longer, the foreman of the dairy also having his say. Then the boys had to hurry back to the camp, to fulfill their duties as captain and lieutenant.
As was to be expected, there was a certain amount of horseplay in camp that evening to which those in charge turned something of a blind eye.
“We’ll have to leave the boys let off steam a little,” said Captain Dale to the professors who had come with him. “I think they’ll soon settle down to regular routine.”
But the excitement of getting ready for the encampment, and the long tramp over the dusty roads, had tired all of the cadets, and it was not long before the great majority of them were ready to retire. Only a few, like Andy and Randy, wanted to continue the fun, but Jack and Fred quickly subdued the twins.
“You’ll have plenty of time for your jokes when we get into the regular camp,” said the young captain. “Now you had better get a good night’s rest, for we have a long hike before us for to-morrow—over the Lookout Hills.”