“And so,” Ned went on, “I wanted to learn if there were people about here, so I might visit them in the morning and put up the bluff of Boy Scouts playing with an aeroplane in the woods. We can’t attempt anything in the mysterious line,” he went on. “We’ve got to be entirely frank about everything except the business we are here on.”
“Well,” Frank said, “we found people here to-day and called on them.”
“What sort of people?”
“Well, they seemed to have good broad backs,” laughed Frank.
“They ran away from you?” asked Ned, in surprise. “I should think they would have proved inquisitive. Where were they?”
“Down by Kintla lake.”
“Indians?” asked Ned.
Then Frank told the story of the visit to the shore of the lake and the cavern, taking good care to describe the surroundings as closely as possible. Ned laughed when the boy came to Jack’s adventure in the hidden chamber.
“I say it is some deserted mine,” Pat declared, when Frank had concluded the recital. “What else could it be?”
“Robber’s nest!” suggested Jack.