“It’s a wonder they don’t laugh out loud,” I said.

All of a sudden, as we were going along, Pee-wee grabbed me by the shoulder and whispered, “Look!

“Have a heart,” I told him; “don’t knock me down. What is it?”

“Look!” he whispered. “Look! Where that board is broken.”

Then I knew what he meant. About twenty feet off our path was a kind of an old tumbled-down shack. It was boarded up in front with old odds and ends of boards that were not painted. There was quite a big piece gone from one of the boards, and as I looked through that I could see a face.

“Shh, do you see it?” I whispered to Westy. Then I kind of urged the fellows along the path because I didn’t want us to be standing right there in front of that hole.

“What—what did I tell you?” Pee-wee whispered, all excited.

“You didn’t tell me anything,” I said. “Shh, don’t talk so loud. Come on, let’s walk along a little further. Do you want him to see us?”

“Did you see?” Pee-wee whispered, so excited he could hardly speak. “It was a black man. It’s the bandit. I discovered him.”

“What are we going to do about it?” I asked the other fellows. “There’s somebody in there.”