“A carrier pigeon!” exclaimed Miss Briggs wonderingly. “Are they all carriers?”
“All carriers, and fully equipped for business,” Tom informed them. “Are we back in France in the war?”
Hippy turned the basket about so that the light would shine on the other side of it, and made a fresh discovery, more important, even, than the discovery of the carrier pigeons. They heard him utter an exclamation and saw him remove something that was hanging to the handle and tied to it with a leather thong.
CHAPTER XVI
THE CARRIER PIGEONS’ FLIGHT
“A letter!” cried Emma. “Isn’t this perfectly romantic?”
“If it is a letter, it’s a crumby looking one,” observed Hippy. “Tom, hold that lantern so I can see.”
The Overlanders crowded up closer, with Bindloss in the forefront, the cowpunchers peering over their heads and shoulders, as Hippy began to unfold a sheet that had once been wrapping paper. One keen look at it and Lieutenant Wingate uttered a yell and began hopping up and down with most of his weight on one foot.
“Chunky! It’s from Chunky,” he cried.
“Read it! This suspense is killing me,” wailed Emma.
“It is addressed to the Overlanders and to Joe Bindloss. He spells it ‘Bindlass,’ and—”