“Do you know who they were?” Bob asked.
“Nary a bit. Sure and they had handkerchiefs over their faces and not a woid did they spake thot I could hear,” Tom explained as he started to build a fire in the stove.
“It’s too bad we couldn’t have recognized them,” Bob sighed, as he held out his hands to the stove which was already radiating heat through the room. “We’ve got nothing but suspicion to go on again.”
Sam, saying that he had better get back and see to the horses, soon left the office and Bob, after picking up the papers and putting them back in the safe, got out the checker board and soon they were deeply interested in the game. So intent were they that it seemed but a few minutes before the rising horn told them that in ten minutes breakfast would be on the table.
“Sure and we’ll have ter finish this game, breakfast or no breakfast,” Tom declared as he jumped one of Bob’s kings. “It’s meself as thinks thot I got yer in a hole this time,” and a few minutes later Bob had to acknowledge that he was right and with a grin the foreman made a mark on his side of a bit of paper on which he kept a record of all the games.
“Yee’re only two ahead now,” he declared, as he put the paper carefully away in the drawer of the table.
After breakfast was over Bob told Jack what had happened, but cautioned him to keep the information to himself, for the present at least.
“The plot thickens,” Jack whispered dramatically, as Bob finished.
“Well, if it gets much thicker I’m afraid we’ll be all clogged up,” Bob smiled, but, as Jack declared, it was a serious sort of a smile.
As they had decided to take no steps until they had talked with their father, they joined the men at the cutting and were soon busy sawing down a big spruce. The logs, owing to the horses being sick, had accumulated during the past two days, and all about them were piles which were steadily growing larger. The one team which was available was doing its best to keep the big logs moving, but their efforts seemed puny when compared with what was needed.