“It wasn’t the spy,” he waggled. “For the old man hasn’t been out of the mill for hours. It was only within the past ten minutes that he quit his wall pounding and went to bed.”
“The dickens!” cried Scoop, bewildered. “If it wasn’t the spy, who was it?”
“Maybe,” suggested Tom, “it was a second spy, one that we haven’t seen.”
“An unknown spy!” cried Scoop. There was [[175]]a short silence. “You may be right. But what’s his object in playing ghost?”
It was indeed a mystery. In our conversation we advanced various scattered theories. The unknown spy, working alone, didn’t know that the talking frog had been stolen; he was trying to frighten us away in order to gain possession of the invention; or, if he knew that the frog had been stolen by his companion spy, he was working to gain the release of his chief, our upstairs prisoner. Such, in substance, were our theories. But how widely we missed the mark was proved by later events.
On Sunday, the following day, we took turns guarding the old mill. For we were determined that the spy shouldn’t escape from us with the recovered fortune if it were in our power to prevent it. Then, too, we talked of ways of getting into the mill, without the soap man’s knowledge, to hunt for the stolen invention. We were quite sure that the talking frog was there.
We still had the rope that Scoop and I had used the night that we got into the mill by way of the roof. But we didn’t dare to use it. It was hardly to be doubted that the soap man had discovered the unlocked window and the pile of soot in the fireplace. We may have left further evidence [[176]]of our visit. And, in watching for us, he might cut our rope.
Our prisoner gave us no trouble. He seemed to take his confinement as a lark. We would gain nothing by holding him, he said. We would have to turn him loose sooner or later. So why should he worry? He was being well treated and was getting three square meals a day.
Then Monday morning came. We had given no thought to school. And when the first bell rang, we stared at one another blankly.
“What are we going to do with Gennor?” puzzled Scoop. “We dassn’t skip school and stand guard here; and if we leave him alone he’ll surely escape.”