“Why doesn’t he steal in through the door, then?”
“Afraid he’ll make too much noise, I guess. He’d rather take his chance of coming through a hole in the wall.”
“He’s making more noise than he would by using the door,” said Alec. “We’ll nail him when he gets inside. If it’s some of the fellows from the other cabin, Dick, we’ll force them to——Get up, then, and get ready for business.”
Silently the two lads swung to a sitting posture on the edge of their bunks, and, with straining eyes, peered through the thick gloom toward the wall from which the muffled sounds were coming. Suddenly, as they watched and waited, the lower sash of the window,—which, by the way, was next to Alec’s bunk,—was raised slowly, and a man’s head and shoulders appeared against the lighter background of silvery moonbeams. This human figure silhouetted itself sharply in the opening, evidently not striving for concealment, and an arm was thrust through. It seemed to be groping around in the darkness of the log-house, and finally a hand rapped softly on Alec’s bunk, almost touching his leg.
Alec crawled to the foot of his bed, slipped down, and stepped to Dick’s side. Dick also rose, and the two moved noiselessly upon the prowler.
The man grunted and breathed hard, while crawling through the window. Just as he was on the point of tugging at Alec’s pillow, both Alec and Dick seized him. Like a flash, he turned, without making a sound; it seemed that he was astounded, for a moment.
Yet his amazement was quite apart from the surprise of the unexpected seizure. A gurgling laugh sounded in his throat.
“You got me! You th’ boy I want to see,” he chuckled, turning to Alec.
The moonlight fell full upon his swarthy face.
“Joe!” gasped Alec. “What are you doing here at this time of night?”