“Well, I guess that explains why Tad Carson and Ike Nash were heading in this direction the day Hanleigh ordered us off the island,” Frank Hardy said, when the boys were out of earshot.
“They were on their way to bring Hanleigh back to town,” agreed Joe.
“He’s been using their ice-boat to get back and forth to Cabin Island.”
“Wonder what’s the big idea,” remarked Chet. “They don’t seem to know what he’s up to.”
“No, but we will—and mighty soon. We’re responsible for the cabin now, so it’s up to us to find out what Hanleigh is doing there.”
Biff looked dubious.
“He won’t tell us, you can depend on that. Probably he’ll tell us to clear out of here.”
“What if he does? We now know he hasn’t any authority. I’ll tell you what we ought to do, fellows,” said Frank. “We should try and catch our friend Hanleigh off his guard. If we detour around through the woods, we can come out at the back of the cabin. He’ll never hear us coming through the snow. We’ll take a peep through one of the windows and see what it’s all about.”
“That’s a long way around,” grumbled Chet.
“It won’t take us far out of our way. The snow isn’t very deep. We can make it easily enough. Come on.”