"Yes, I trust him, but he won't betray the men he has been working with. In order to get the boy he'll have to go to the man I want."
"All right!" Frank laughed. "Come on, Dode! I might have known that Ned was next to his job. I'll come back just before sunset to report, if not before. If you love me have a supper fit for six of us ready for me!"
The two boys started away, and Ned, Teddy and Oliver went back to the pictures. After an hour or more Ned went down to the corral, as if looking after the mule. He saw no one on the way there, but when he reached the level spot, rich with June grass, he saw that it had had visitors during the day.
The grass was beaten down flat behind a boulder on the edge of the fertile spot, and there were cigarette stubs and half-burned matches scattered about. The lush grass still carried the odor of tobacco, and the boy knew that the watcher had not been long absent from his post.
He went back to the camp, and, much to the surprise of Teddy and
Oliver, began packing.
"What's doing now?" the boy asked.
"Why," laughed Ned, "haven't I agreed to get out of here to-morrow or next day?"
"Yes, but—"
"We're going to pack, anyway," Ned said, "whether we leave or not! There are people watching every move we make, and I want to convey to them the idea that we are going at once."
"If they are watching us," Oliver suggested, "they doubtless saw Jack and Jimmie leave the camp."