“That’s a question I can’t answer,” replied Wilson. “They’re going to hold a consultation about something.”
“Or somebody,” observed Chase. “I believe you and I will be the subjects of their deliberations—in fact I know it. Didn’t you see how angry Bayard looked over what we said about Walter and his crowd? I know him too well to believe that he will allow that to pass unnoticed. He’s up to some trick now, and if we creep through the bushes very carefully we can find out what it is. We’d be playing eavesdropper though, and that would be mean, wouldn’t it?”
“I don’t see that it would. When one knows that a fellow like Bayard Bell, who is bad enough for anything, is laying plans against him, he has a perfect right to resort to any measures to find out what those plans are. Come on; I’ll go if you will.”
Chase, needing no second invitation, arose to his feet and stole up the bayou in the direction Bayard and his friends had gone, closely followed by Wilson. They moved very cautiously, and presently arrived within hearing of the voices of the three conspirators, for such they believed them to be. A few seconds afterward they came within sight of them, and found them seated in a little thicket which grew on the bank of the bayou, engaged in an earnest conversation. So deeply interested were they in what they were saying that they thought of nothing else, and the two eavesdroppers approached within twenty yards of them, and took up a position from which they could observe their movements and hear every word that was said. Bayard was talking rapidly, and the others were listening with an expression of intense astonishment on their faces; and Chase and Wilson had not been long in their concealment before they began to be astonished too.
“Everything I tell you is the truth,” said Bayard, emphatically. “There is scarcely a person in the settlement who does not know that there is such an organization in existence; but I do not suppose there is any one outside of the band who knows who the members are except myself. I know three of them, and I found them out by accident. They are the ones who must do this work for us.”
“Must!” repeated Seth.
“Yes, they must, whether they are willing or not.”
“Have you spoken to them about it?”
“No, I have not had a chance.”
“Why, you said you had got matters all arranged!” said Will.