“Say,” Jimmie demanded after a long walk, “did that kid who talked with me tell you to follow him and get me?”
“You one fool boy!” declared one of his captors. “You have your eyes in the wool!”
CHAPTER VI
A BRIBE OF HALF A MILLION
Preceded by the boy who had brought the note, Ned walked swiftly along the side of the mountain for a mile or more, taking a northerly course. It is needless to say that the boy was more than suspicious regarding the authenticity of the message he had received.
In the first place, the handwriting on the piece of paper was not at all like that of either of the boys who were alleged to have sent it. In the second place, the boys were never known to carry writing paper with them on their trips out from the camp.
There was a chance, however, that either Jimmie or Frank had written the message at a moment of peril or during great excitement. There was a bare chance, too, that one of them had discovered a sheet of writing paper in his pocket.
The appeal for help, suspicious as it was, was by no means to be disregarded, so Ned trudged along behind his guide, feeling that whatever took place he was doing his full duty.
And there was another feature of the case which Ned considered fully. Should the sending of the message prove to be a trick on the part of some designing person, it was quite important that he should know who that person was. His decision to follow the boy, therefore, was brought about by these two reasons.
It will be remembered that up to the time of Ned’s departure from camp, no suspicion of any hostile presence in the mountains had been entertained. Gilroy, the fat, confidential clerk, it will be remembered, arrived shortly after Ned’s departure in response to the message.
Realizing that the messenger might be leading him into a trap, Ned took occasion to blaze his trail by marks on trees, carelessly made, by signs in twigs and by signs in stones. All these, he knew, would be readily understood by anyone of his chums, or, in fact, by any Boy Scout.