In a couple of minutes, two tramps hustled out of the machine, as though they wished to swing free of it before anyone saw them. One of them carried a large bundle carelessly done up in a red bandana of extra size, the other a frayed and torn knapsack.
They strolled leisurely toward the Camp, and the new driver, starting the car, went on, entered the Camp, and stopped at the Adjutant’s office, where he asked for an officer, but who was away on sick leave. The stranger was sorry. They were old classmates, he explained. He was passing through, and thought he would look the Captain up.
The Adjutant was sorry too, but cheered up over the cigar the stranger gave him. Cigars like that were like a patent of nobility. Wouldn’t the stranger like to look over the Camp? The stranger had some time to kill and he would be delighted. The Adjutant joyfully steered him around. When the stranger finally drove off, the Adjutant made haste to lock four more of those amazing cigars in his locker.
Up in the airplane, Ernest sat at the wheel, while Eddie and Dee, each armed with powerful glasses, watched the car far below.
Everything had gone with the utmost smoothness. Thanks to the white panel which Ernest had painted on the top of Frank’s car, he had been able to pick them up without the least trouble. And once on the Dixie Highway he followed the other car easily. Ernest listened to the reports of the boys without interest. He thought that the lady passenger would be dropped in some safe place, and was not surprised at the appearance of the third man.
But when the two hoboes got out and dawdled along toward Camp, the boys and Ernest felt that the plot was unfolding fast. They watched the car enter the Camp, while the tramps trudged along in the rear, and when the Adjutant, after talking to the driver, sallied out with him, Ernest growled. “Now we will have to do all our sleuthing up in the air. We can’t come down and chase those fellows up while that guy is on deck. The very minute the airplane started down to the Field they would come hustling over. That Adjutant is nutty on flying, and this is the only plane out today. Keep your eyes on the tramps, boys!”
He brought the plane directly over the Adjutant’s office and, cloud-high, commenced a series of lazy manoeuvers.
“It is getting near sundown,” he said. “If they don’t know it is me, they will think some of those kids are crazy. They are supposed to come down by four o’clock. Well, they will have to work it out! Do you see the hoboes?”
“They have just turned in at the gate, and are going toward the hill trail,” reported Eddie.
“Wish ’em a pleasant journey!” said Ernest hopefully. “I want them to get wherever they are going before dark. If they don’t suspect us, they will, too, because there is no reason for them to wait for dark. You can’t see a step of that mountain road from the Camp.”