“I only made the suggestion,” Gilroy advised, “in order that you boys might be looking for some indication of friendliness on the part of this seeming enemy. The boy may be of great use to you yet.”
“It’s a mystery to me how they ever got a true Boy Scout mixed up in a dirty game!” Harry declared. “This boy is no easy mark. The language he used said ‘New York’ just as plain as anything, so they must have brought him clear from the big city for some purpose of their own.”
“Well,” Gilroy said in a moment, “I’ve given you the best advice I have at my command, and made what I regard as a valuable suggestion,” he continued with a laugh, “and now I’ll go to bed and dream that I’m back in New York sleeping on top of the Singer building.”
“The Singer building ain’t nothing to this,” Harry grinned, sweeping his hand over the great stretch of country to the east. “From the top of the Singer building you can’t see the back yard of half a dozen states.”
Gilroy passed through the narrow opening and the four boys gathered about the fire to lay plans for the future.
“Now, whatever we do,” Frank suggested, “we must never leave this cave unprotected. Just as long as we have a bullet proof place to hide away in, and plenty of provisions, they can’t drive us out of the mountains with anything less than a piece of artillery. They know exactly where to find us, so we won’t have to go chasing through the woods looking for them!” he added with a grin.
“That’ll help some!” Harry laughed, “especially when we want to sleep and have to set up to dodge bullets.”
“There ain’t going to be no bullets!” laughed Jack.
“And now,” Jimmie suggested, “I’m going to take a little stroll for my health. I’m afraid I’m not getting sufficient exercise.”
“Before we turn him loose in the mountains,” Jack laughed, “we ought to tie a bell on him. Jimmie has a way of getting lost that approaches the artistic. I believe he’d get lost in a hall bedroom.”