“Why can’t he turn over a new leaf like Dan Baxter and his father did?” was Randy’s comment.
“The answer to that is that some people would rather be bad than be good,” returned Fred, and then he added quickly: “Do you suppose Crabtree would come after us, the same as Davenport did?”
“There is no telling what a man of that calibre will do,” said Jack. “The only thing for us to do is to be on our guard against him.”
Then the boys turned again to their letters.
“Here is news!” cried Andy. “Dad tells me that before long he’s going to take another trip out to the Rolling Thunder gold mine.”
“And my dad says he’s going to take another trip down to the oil fields in Oklahoma,” came from Jack. “Gee, I’d like to go with him! We’d have a chance to visit Phil Franklin and a lot of other people we know.”
“And I’d like to go out to Sunset Trail again!” cried Randy. “We certainly did have good times out there.”
“Not while we were kept prisoners in that cave by Davenport and his gang,” broke in his brother.
“You fellows hold your horses about going down to Oklahoma or out to Sunset Trail!” cried Fred. “Perhaps there will be something better coming. Who knows?” And then he began to hum softly to himself. “Down on the ocean bottom, boys! Down on the ocean bottom!”
“Say, Fred, for cats’ sake, stop that singing and let us know what you’ve got in your mind!” cried Andy. “You keep on that way, and you’ll have us all bughousey.”