“It wouldn’t make any difference to us if they did,” said the scout master; “our only idea is to find the child, and so long as that’s done, it doesn’t matter who has the luck to bring him back. Please tell us what you’ve found out, sir.”
“The little fellow ate his supper with his grandfather at half past six. In fact, the three of us sat at that table over there, and tried to make the best of the meal they prepared for us here in the plant. It’s been the habit of little Reuben to be put to bed early, and so Mr. Campertown took him off immediately we were done. Why, the kid was that sleepy he went off while we sat here at the table, and the last I saw of him he was lying like a log in his grandfather’s arms.”
Mr. Campertown barely suppressed a groan. The recollection evidently came near overpowering him, so that it was only with an effort he shut his jaws tightly and held his feelings in with a tight rein.
“An hour or so afterward, about eight it was, and just dark,” continued the sheriff, “Mr. Campertown had occasion to go again to the room over yonder, where you see that partly open door. There had been a couple of cots arranged for himself and the child, the rest of us meaning to bunk in other parts of the plant. Well, I heard him give a cry, and he came staggering out, looking as white as a ghost, and trying to tell me that the boy was gone.”
“Whew! that was exciting,” Ralph could not help saying when the sheriff paused to catch his breath, for he was a large man, and talking was not his strongest point.
“Of course I hurried in,” the official went on, “and found a window wide open, showing where the abductor had entered. We had heard no sound while we sat here, which proved that the man or men had worked with expedition and great caution, not even arousing the child. That’s about the extent of our information, son. Whoever the contemptible scoundrel was, he left no card behind him with his signature.”
“It happened between seven and eight, then, according to what you say, Mr. Sheriff?” Hugh ventured to say, as though that fact might be worth remembering later on.
“That’s a certainty, son. The main thing, though, is the fact that they took the kid out through the window without my men being any the wiser. Then there was the stockade to consider; they must have known where a weak place could be found in that.”
“If they were on guard here for days and weeks they would be apt to know every foot of the place, don’t you think?” asked Hugh boldly, so that the sheriff stared at him, and then exclaimed:
“What does this stand for? Have you lighted on a clue already that my men missed? Why do you speak of those guards we sent packing? What have they got to do with this kidnapping game, son?”