“Listen, boys!” he cried in a low voice. “There is some one now!”
“Where?” came from the others, and all aroused themselves on the instant.
Randy pointed out the direction, and, gathering up their things, the cadets hurried off to where he had pointed. There, sure enough, was a man plodding along with a bundle over his shoulder. He was a short, thick-set man, and wore a heavy mustache curled up at the ends.
“Let’s see where he goes,” said Jack. “Maybe he’ll take us to that place where the noises come from.”
They followed the man without his being aware of their presence. The fellow climbed over and around a number of rocks, and then pursued his way past a dense clump of bushes. Then, of a sudden, he disappeared from view.
The cadets were amazed, the more so after they had tramped around the spot without ascertaining what had become of the man.
“Looks as if the earth had opened and swallowed him up,” remarked Randy.
The cadets had advanced with caution, but now they grew bolder, and made a closer examination. But it was all of no avail—the man had disappeared, and where he had gone to or how, there was no telling.
“One thing is sure,” declared Jack. “He didn’t walk away from here, and he didn’t go up into the air. That being so, he must have gone down somewhere among the rocks and bushes. We had better hunt around for some sort of an opening to a cave, or something like that.”
The others were willing enough, and spent the best part of an hour in the task. But no opening presented itself, although the rocks and rough places in that vicinity were numerous.