Rod immediately reached the ground, and laying his machine down hurried back.
“Nothing serious, I hope, Josh?” he inquired, Hanky Panky bustling around, while Oscar was hopping up and down, as though he might have received a bruise on his leg that was painful to a degree.
Josh was frowning dreadfully. Truth to tell his suspicions were growing stronger and stronger all the while; and he even believed the man to whom he had extended the courtesies of the road had purposely brought about the accident at such a particular moment when the fall would be apt to prove less serious than when they were whizzing along at twenty miles an hour.
“I don’t know yet whether the machine is knocked out of commission or not,” muttered Josh, disconsolately, as he proceeded to hastily examine into matters; “but it would be exasperating for us if that happened, just when we’re close to the battle line, and want to get around so lively. Hang the luck, I say!”
He glared in the direction of the apparent cause of all the trouble; but as Oscar was now raising his trouser leg, as if meaning to examine into the state of his own injuries, of course the look was wasted so far as he was concerned.
Rod frowned also. Up to then he had not allowed himself to suspect that the so-called Switzer-American could be other than he so frankly claimed; but somehow it began to dawn upon Rod that there may have been a method in his madness. What if it were all a part of a deep-laid scheme calculated to delay them, for some dark purpose or other?
The thought made him angry. Now that it was too late he felt that they should have seen through the scheme of the other, when he asked to be given a lift on his way. He had claimed boldly to have such sore feet that he could hardly bear to stand his weight upon them; yet here he was now dancing around as lightly as any one could.
“But what object could he have in view?” Rod was asking himself, even while continuing to keep a cautious eye on Oscar, though he pretended to be tending over Josh, still examining his wheel.
Like a flash it shot through Rod’s mind that this same Oscar might be in league with the man who was devoting all his talents and energies to the task of getting a certain paper out of their possession–Jules Baggott. He had already shown himself to be possessed of considerable skill at planning, and the story told by Oscar may have all been made up out of whole cloth, just to cause them delay, and give the plotter another opportunity to rob them.
It was well that these thoughts should have raced through Rod’s mind just then; for they caused him to take exact note of what the stranger was doing. Josh chanced to be too busily engaged at the time to observe anything; as for Hanky Panky, really he was not to be depended on. And that his sudden suspicions were well founded Rod presently had positive evidence.