But perhaps they would not have to face the tall chap just yet. He seemed ready to start into the bushes across the way first, taking the lamp with him.
"Keep on piling up the trash, Wash. Get him surrounded good and plenty. For if we don't run across that bag mighty soon we're bound to make it warm for this Smart Aleck. But don't put a match to the heap till I get back. I wanter see the fun, you understand."
"Oh! mister, it's just like I was tellin' you. I stood in the road and guv the bag a throw when I see your light over the top of the hill. She jest must be close around here somewhere," Ted wailed.
"If Brad finds her, all well an' good; but if he don't—well, you'll have a sweet time soon, that's all," growled the shorter man, still on his knees, and engaged in scraping more leaves together.
"If you on'y would let me, I'd stand on the road jest where I was when I throwed the old bag. Then you could figger where she landed. Let me loose, won't you, mister? I told you the truth this time; and you're sure to find that bag. They'll be wonderin' what's become of me at home, sure they will. I got a mother, and she thinks a heap of me, she does. You wouldn't break her heart, mister, by smokin' a poor boy?"
"Aw! dry up! you fooled us once, but you can't do it no more. It's the bag, or your hide gets a singein', my fine feller. That'll do for you, now."
The man had a temper as short as his stature; and Ted dared not stir him up any further. So he hung there alongside the tree, watching the glow of the lamp further up the road.
And as he stood in this disconsolate position, he suddenly became aware that something was taking place just beyond the kneeling Wash.
Perhaps, had his hands not been so snugly fastened together with that horrid steel chain, Ted might have tried to rub his eyes, under the impression that they were deceiving him; for he saw a face in the dim light, a face that looked wonderfully like that of Paul Morrison.
Some foolish boys would have been so thrilled by the prospect of relief that they must have called out, and thus betrayed the creeping rescuers. Ted chanced to be built on different lines. He stared and blinked, but gave utterance to no sound.