"That's right, so they are," breathed Billy cautiously. "Let's get behind the trees and learn what is going on."
"It's something crooked, that's sure," whispered Noddy.
"I begin to think so myself," agreed Jack, "but that man's voice, as well as his figure, seemed familiar to me when he hailed Judson, but I can't, for the life of me, think where I heard his voice before."
The three lads lost no time in concealing themselves behind some ornamental bushes in the immediate vicinity. They were none too soon, for hardly had they done so when the figures of two men and a boy appeared at the top of the steps.
"Phew," panted Judson, "I'm not as young as I was. That climb has made me feel my age. Let's sit down here."
"Very well, that bench yonder will be just the place," agreed the man the boys had followed, and who had seemed so oddly familiar to Jack.
The seat they had selected could hardly have been a better one for the boys' purpose. It was placed right against the bush behind which they were hiding. The voices came to them clearly, although the speakers took pains to modify them.
"Well, I've been waiting for you," came in the voice of the man the boys had instinctively followed.
"We'd have got here sooner, but were delayed by an accident, or rather a sort of accident on purpose that occurred this afternoon. I was glad to see that you hadn't forgotten our night signal code," said Judson.
"What was the accident?" asked the man, who was a stranger to the boys, who were listening intently.