He was holding something up. Seen in the light from the lamp belonging to the red car it looked very much like a fat wad of greenbacks, tied together with a cord.
Wash sprang up, and bent over to examine the object in the light. Then he laughed harshly.
"It's the boodle, all right, Brad. He found the bag, sure as thunder! And now he's got to tell, or it's all up with him!"
Both men turned furiously on the bound boy. Ted had held out against all odds up to this critical point; but of course he must admit himself beaten, now that they had found the evidence in his pocket.
Nearer crept Paul, with his chums tagging close at his heels. And nobody thought to look beyond the line of brilliant light cast by the lamp which rested on the ground at the foot of the tree. Fortunately its powerful rays were directed away from the quarter occupied by the creeping Boy Scouts.
"Now, I reckon you're agoin' to tell all you know about that ere bag, son?" said Brad, in a terrible voice.
"I guess I'll have to, mister. I was just holdin' out to see if so be you was what you says. Now I know you be, and I'm ready to tell the hull thing if you'll only let me go free. I don't want to be smoked, just yet anyway," Ted whined.
"You did find the bag, then?" demanded the other.
"Yep, that's what I did."
"And took this wad of dough out of it?" pursued the other, savagely.