"But what it means is a big puzzle," Dick added. "If Rip and his crowd are or were in the cottage, they would hardly explode anything purposely and perhaps kill a man. That man appeared to be dead—-he must be dead. Rip and Dodge are mean fellows, but they're hardly up to killing people."
"There was an explosion," remarked Tom judicially, though his voice was still husky. "Now, while I don't know everything, I believe there always has to be an explosive in order to bring about an explosion. Am I right?"
"You stand on ground that no one can dispute," nodded Dick. "But how did the explosive come to be in a building that belongs to the water company, and which is supposed not to have been occupied in some years?"
"What was the man doing in there, for that matter?" demanded Tom.
"He wasn't very well dressed," observed Harry.
"Yet he didn't look like a tramp," Dave put in.
"But the man himself, and the fact that he's hurt or dead, are our two first points to consider," spoke Dick quickly. "If he's hurt we are bound to bring him help. If he's dead, we'll have to notify—-some one."
"I'd like to go back there and have a look at him," quoth Tom, "but the biggest explosion of all may come out of that cottage at any moment now."
"Yet the facts are that another explosion hasn't come, and that the man ought to have help, as a matter of common decency," Dick urged.
"I'll run to the nearest house where people are living," suggested
Tom, pulling off his jacket and making ready for a run.