Early the following morning, Jack left camp. He walked at a steady rapid pace and in about three hours he arrived at the farm house. Wallace had told him that Tom Woods would meet him there. He searched for some sign of the agent and finding none, he entered the yard and crept stealthily along, aiming for a position which would keep him in hiding while he had a good view of the road and most of the yard. He gained his goal and stretched himself out on the ground, prepared to wait until the agent showed up. Suddenly he felt the presence of someone close to him. He bounded up from the earth, but Tom Woods grabbed him and pulled him down again. The man laughed. “It’s all right, boy,” he whispered.
“Whew! You certainly scared me, Mr. Woods!” Jack exclaimed, heaving a sigh of relief.
“Just a little foolish playfulness on my part,” the agent stated. “What’s the news from camp?”
“Nothing happened. The boys did everything they were supposed to and everything is ready to greet the gang.”
“That’s good. I have a faint suspicion that we won’t have to wait for them long either.”
“You think they’ll come today?”
“Most likely. Though I wouldn’t swear to it. Nothing is certain, you know.”
They lay there side by side and conversed in very low whispers. Woods questioned the boy about his home, his activities, his friends and all sorts of little details about his life. In return he told many anecdotes of his experiences. He possessed a very fine sense of humor and he twisted every story he told into a humorous narrative. He had Jack giggling most of the time.
It turned out that Tom Woods was wrong and nothing happened that day. Towards nightfall, he instructed Jack to return to camp, tell the boys to be ever on the watch and have Wallace come down the following morning. It was quite dark when he reached camp and he was so tired that after a sandwich he turned in for the night.