“Ask me something easy,” laughed the scout-master. “It all depends on Hank himself. If he once took a notion to make a man of himself, I believe he could do it no matter what happened. He’s got the grit, but without the real desire that isn’t going to count for much. Time alone will tell.”
“Well, we’ve seen something like that happen right in our town, you know,” Bobolink went on to say, reflectively, as he trudged along close to the heels of the one in front of him, for they were going “Indian-file,” following the sinuous trail made during their preceding trip.
“I was talking with the other Jud,” remarked Jud Elderkin just then, “and he gave me a pointer that might be worth something. I don’t know just why he chose to confide it to me, instead of speaking out, but he did.”
“Was it, too, about the fire and the robbery?” asked Tom Betts.
“It amounted to the same thing, I should say,” replied Jud, “because it was connected with the hoboes.”
“Go on and tell us then,” urged Bobolink.
“He says they’re up in this part of the country,” asserted the other.
“Wow! that begins to look as if we might be running across the ugly pair after all!” exclaimed 207 Tom Betts, his face lighting up with eagerness. “Now wouldn’t it be queer if we managed to capture the yeggs and turn ’em over to the authorities? Paul, how about that now?”
“Oh! you’re getting too far ahead of the game, Tom,” he was told. “We must know a good deal more about this business before we could decide to take such desperate chances.”
“But if the opportunity came along, wouldn’t it be our duty to cage the rascals?” the persistent Tom demanded.