"I've got a right to be nervous. We're not safe here, I tell you. We should have moved out of here a week ago."
"We'll never find a place as safe as this."
"Is that so? Ever since those two boys came snooping around here and asking Lester questions I've been suspicious. They've got their eye on this place, let me tell you. They were down at the railway station the day I slipped the package to Burgess, and I'm mighty sure they saw me."
"Just a couple of kids. You're too nervous."
"Well, I'm going up on the hill and take a look at that log, as you call it."
As it happened, there was a log lying in the grass close by Frank. But he realized that if Markel came up to investigate he would have no chance to evade discovery. They could not get up and run away—at least not until capture seemed inevitable. Frank's heart sank. They had been discovered before they had a chance even to reach the mill.
At that moment relief came from a most unexpected quarter.
A dark cloud that had been creeping across the sky began to obscure the moon, and gradually the vivid illumination that bathed the hillside gave way to gloom and darkness. The cloud hid the moon completely.
"Now's our chance!" whispered Frank, to his brother. "Head toward the willow tree."
He scrambled to his feet and together the boys raced down the slope toward the willow tree back of the mill. Their feet made no sound in the deep grass. They were taking a desperate chance, they knew, for, in spite of the cloud that had fallen across the moon, Markel might be able to see them.