Brad suddenly froze into alert attention. His gaze had focused hard upon one of the upstairs hotel windows. The glare of the sun was upon it, and for a moment the others could not see what had attracted his interest.
“Fellows, there’s someone standing at the window!” he exclaimed. “Not Jabowski either!”
“It looks like a boy,” Chips declared, shifting his position so that the reflected sunlight would not blind him.
Huddled together, the Cubs all fastened their gaze upon the window. Plainly they could see a youth standing there, his face pressed close against the dirty pane.
“Jeepers!” Chips whispered in stunned recognition. “It’s Jacques!”
Almost at the same instant, Brad and the other Cubs had made a similar observation. The boy who stood at the window was the same one who had vanished from the Cave only a few days earlier.
As the boys watched, a hand appeared from nowhere to jerk Jacques back from the window. They waited several minutes, but the boy did not reappear.
“You know what I think!” Midge cried, recovering from stunned surprise. “Jacques is being held a prisoner in there!”
“Either Jabowski or someone else saw him trying to signal us, and pulled him back out of sight!” Fred added excitedly. “I say we ought to break in and rescue him!”
“Not so fast,” Brad cautioned as the other Cubs were ready to back up the proposal. “Our orders were to report back to camp. Remember?”