“Gee, isn’t Jimmy’s dad smart?” asked Dan, as the boys left the office. “That was a hot one about this town’s walking in its sleep.”
“We’d better keep it under our hats, too, boy. He said more than he meant to. Did you see Jimmy making eyes at him?”
The girls, meantime, were in the dark in regard to why the two boys wanted the drawings. They were more concerned, however, about having missed a day’s hiking, when they heard what Miss Haynes had seen, in spite of the bad, windy morning. Wednesday morning they were to meet at four o’clock, with their breakfasts in their pockets, and hike till schooltime. May was going and with it the spring migration of birds; Miss Haynes would be going away after school closed, the first week in June, and there would be no one to make them sure about what they saw.
“Oh, but you must learn to make yourselves sure,” she told them, when Jean said as much to her. “You will miss some things; everybody does; but you’ll learn twice as much on your own initiative!”
This hike was to be “on their own,” then, for even Miss Haynes could not manage a hike before school. And curiously enough, it was because of their early rising that the S. P.’s surprised a venture of the Black Wizards, which it was quite plainly to be seen that they had hoped to keep a secret.
It was great fun to be starting off together in the early morning. They would not even make a fire for wieners or bacon. This was strictly a cold breakfast. As they went they munched sandwiches and tossed crumbs and cold banana skins “to the birds,” they said. Judge Gordon had bought Jean some glasses as good as those of Miss Haynes and these she shared with the rest, for who could see the markings on a warbler or a vireo up in the high treetops without a strong pair of lenses?
The bushes and trees along the river road seemed best for finding warblers. Accordingly they were tramping along that road, still as mice, behind this bush or that, moving quietly, singly or by twos or threes, when they heard a shout and a big truck shot by. It was loaded with lumber and the shouting came from several boys of the Black Wizard combination who were either perched on the boards or sitting in the driver’s seat in front.
Whether they had seen the girls or not was a doubtful matter. Jean came out from behind a tree against which she had been braced in trying to look almost over her head. “Say, every warbler will take to cover after that noise! Who was it?”
“Oh, Jean! Didn’t you see them? They were the Black Wizards on a load of lumber, and why should they get up so early if they didn’t want to get out of town before we should see them?”
“You flatter the S. P.’s, Fran. But I shouldn’t wonder if they are doing something.”