At once the man started forward again and so closely did he come to the boy that the latter felt his foot brush against his side as he passed. Bob hardly daring to breathe, lay perfectly still until the man was some distance away.
“Another inch or two and he’d have stepped on me,” he thought as he rose and stole silently in the direction in which the man had gone. “They are going to meet in a minute or two and if I can only get near enough to hear what they have to say it may be enough to do the trick,” he thought.
The signals were not repeated again but, by straining his ears he could hear the man ahead as he pushed his way through the underbrush but these sounds were getting fainter and fainter proving that the man was going faster than Bob dared to attempt.
In a short time he lost the sound altogether, but he still kept on trying as best he could to keep in the right direction. He stopped more often now to listen as he was uncertain whether the man had gotten so far away that he had lost the sound of his steps or had simply stopped. The latter he thought not unlikely and he knew that it behooved him to use every possible caution.
The way was getting more and more difficult as the underbrush, of which there had been but little near the camp, was now very thick and he was obliged to use all his skill to make his way through it without making a noise which might betray him in case he should come near his quarry.
Now as he stopped to listen the soft lap of water hitting the rocks told him that he was nearing the lake. The breeze had stiffened slightly and the sighing of the branches as they swayed to and fro filled his mind with a fear that he might stumble upon the men before he should be able to hear their voices. But, almost as this thought crossed his mind, the sound of subdued talking came to his ears. That he was within a few feet of them he was sure. He listened but, although he could hear their voices he was unable to distinguish any words. Very slowly, and without making the slightest sound, he crept forward. Now, as he stopped once more, he could hear them distinctly.
To his great disappointment, they were speaking in French and, although he knew the language fairly well, he was unable to catch the drift of the conversation, they were talking so rapidly. Several times he caught the word “hooch” and was certain that they were discussing ways and means of bringing liquor across the border.
Although he was not certain he thought that one of the men was the Frenchman who had tried to purchase his wheel. At any rate, he told himself, the voice sounded very much the same.
For some moments he lay there hardly daring to breathe. Then suddenly he sneezed.