“Or a dozen other things,” Bob interrupted. “Let’s not cross those bridges till we come to them.”
“I know, but—”
“I’ve got the pocket radios here,” Bob again interrupted as he handed one of the small cases to his brother. “So we’ll be able to keep in touch with each other all right. It’ll take you about an hour to get down to the dam and another hour from there to Kernertok’s cabin. Give you an hour there and say three to get back and you ought to be here about three o’clock. Unless something happens I’ll be here before that time waiting for you.”
“Unless something happens,” Jack repeated. “That’s a good one.”
“What do you mean, a good one?”
“Did you ever know of us starting out on a thing like this unless something happened? I’ll bet something’ll happen all right.”
“Well, we’ll both be careful and that’s the best we can do,” Bob assured him.
“All right, so long,” and Jack pushed off and again headed down the lake.
Bob stood on the shore and watched until his brother was but a speck on the surface of the lake, then he turned and plunged into the forest which at that point was very dense. It was only a short distance back to the camp and he was soon looking for a good hiding place from which he would have a good view of the cabins and himself remain unseen. He realized that his position was a most delicate one. If their friends were innocent not for worlds would he have them know that he was spying on them but as he had told Jack, he believed that suspicion pointed to them with sufficient force to justify the espionage.
At the edge of the clearing and located about fifty feet from the cabin occupied by the Sleepers, grew an exceptionally large spruce tree with very thick branches. After making a thorough survey of the place Bob decided that up among the branches of that spruce would be the best place he could find. They were thick enough, he thought, to shield him from any but a most searching glance. The problem of getting up there bothered him the most, and he knew that it would be a risk but, as he had been unable to find anything else which suited half as well, he decided to take it.