"Look! he's done it, Paul, just as you said he would!" whispered Jack.
"Yes, he's shielding it from the breeze till it gets strong. There—well, what d'ye think of that, fellers?" gasped William.
"It's Ted!" muttered Wallace, staring hard at the figure that seemed to be huddled up on the road a little distance away.
"What do you suppose the silly goose is doing on his knees?" came from Jack.
"He's found something, and he's looking at it. See, now he's managed to open it up. Seems to me like a leather bag, boys," Wallace managed to wedge in with.
"Just what it is, old cat eyes. A hand bag! Now, however did that thing happen to be lying there in the road? Nobody ever comes up here but Solus, and he isn't the one to own a bag like that."
"The red car," said Paul, as Jack seemed to hesitate.
"That's it, as sure as you live. Dropped out of the machine; and by jinks! the fellers are comin' back to look for it. Never missed it till Sol got home!" his chum declared.
All this talk between the five boy scouts was carried on in the lowest of whispers. The sound of their voices would not have carried twenty feet; and the kneeling Ted was several times that distance away.
Besides, he seemed to be so fascinated by what he had discovered in the leather grip that he had eyes and ears for nothing else just then.