"Oh, well, no wonder!" cried Tom.
"Well, maybe I can get our Scout Master to come back with us now and stay all night," went on Chot. "He'd like it. That's what we'll do! We'll go back home, get something to cook for supper, bring some blankets and stay all night. We'll camp out in the log cabin. It'll be lots of fun!"
"Will you sure get the Scout Master?" asked Rick, to whom the idea was appealing more and more strongly.
"Sure I'll get him!" promised Chot. "He'll come. Now come on! Let's hurry back home and get the things."
They started on their way, down the now almost dark road, and then Rick happened to think of something.
"S'posin' the junk man and the sailor come back while we're gone?" he asked. "Then how we going to get Ruddy?"
"I didn't think of that," admitted Chot. "Let's see," he said, musingly. "We passed a house a ways back, just before we saw this cabin. We could stop there and ask 'em to sort of keep an eye on this shack until we get back."
"Yes, we could do that," agreed Rick. "But it's going to take us a long time to go home and come back."
"Oh, maybe we'll get a lift," suggested Chot, always a hopeful sort of chap.
They had better luck than they expected. At the nearest house to the log cabin, where they stopped, they told their story of how they were searching for Ruddy. The place was a farm, and a boy who lived there belonged to the Scouts, though not to the same troop of which Chot was a member.