“Well,” Ned replied, “I am glad of your confidence, and thankful for the help you promise, and will only say that the man behind the scenes will soon be brought out. I think I know his ‘cue’!” he added, with a laugh.
“I am only expressing confidence in the clues I now hold,” Ned said in reply. “It may be that the next clues I find will point the other way.”
Green shook hands with the boys and went to his tent. It was a clear night up above the mountain tops, but down where the boys were the smoke of consumed forests lay on the ground like the gray ghost of fallen trees. Off to the west the summit of the Rocky Mountains—or one of the summits—lifted itself above the smudge, standing like a giant up to his neck in gray dust.
“Over there,” Frank said, “is Pat—hungry, if you want to know, and nearer are Jack and Jimmie. I wish we could hear from them.”
“If the ground wasn’t still red hot back there,” Ned said, “Jimmie would be sure to find us.”
“By the way,” Frank said, presently, “what did you mean when you told Green that you had a ‘cue’ which would bring out the man behind the scenes?”
“I meant that I have blundered on a clue which promises well,” was the reply. “And now,” he said, yawning, “I’m going to bed. Rather warm, but I think I’ll sleep, all right.”
In five minutes Ned was sound asleep and Frank was about to lie down by his side when Green made his appearance. The forester noted the sleeping boy and laid a finger on his lips.
“Let him sleep,” he said. “And come out here and see if you know anything about the fellow that is tampering with the aeroplane.”