“Ah, ha! Police spies—four of ’em!” he snarled. “I thought we’d be found out!”
With surprising quickness in one seemingly so aged the man slipped behind the girls. They turned, fearing an attack, but they need have had no alarm on that score. With a quick motion the old man closed and locked the door through which they had come.
“Now you’re here—you’ll stay!” he rasped out. “On guard here, Bombee! Hist! Watch ’em!”
And, as he called, a raw-boned, half-witted boy shuffled forward, and squatted, with a horrible grin, in front of the terrified girl prisoners.
CHAPTER XXIX—TO THE RESCUE
Jack and his two chums, waiting in the dark of the cave, wondered who it was approaching. They had guessed it would prove to be the two men who had gone down the road shortly before in Cora’s car, but this was only a guess. And whether these two were the same men who had first taken the machine was, of course, only a conjecture.
“What’ll we do, Jack?” whispered Paul, from behind a barrel where he was crouching. “Jump out on ’em?”
“No,” was the answer. “Not at first. Let’s see what their game is and then we’ll have better evidence against them. Just lie low and wait.”
“Here they come!” cautioned Walter.
The sound of the footsteps and of the voices was nearer now, and presently the boys saw the glimmering reflection of light on the rocky and dirt sides of the cave.