“There you are,” he said. “You see, they clum that apple tree right alongside the winder and—”
“Say!” broke in Fred, as a thought came to him like a flash of lightning, “I bet I know who the robbers were.”
All eyes were turned on him in surprise.
“It was two tramps that I saw round here a few days ago,” continued Fred. “A lot of us fellows were in Sam Perkins’ barn, and we heard the tramps talking. They didn’t see us, but we saw them. We couldn’t hear all they said, but I did hear them say something about an ‘apple tree’ and ‘side window’ and something being ‘dead easy.’ I’d forgotten all about it till just now. But there’s the apple tree and the side window, and that must have been what they were talking about.”
“By gum, it wuz!” assented Hi. “Tell us what the fellers looked like.”
“One of them was a good deal taller than the other,” said Fred, trying to recall their appearance. “They were both ragged and dirty. And, oh, yes! the tall one had a scar up near his temple, as if he had been stabbed there some time.”
“Well,” commented Hi, “that may help a lot. We know now what we’ve got to look for. I’ll telephone all along the line to the other towns to be on the lookout for them, and some of us will hitch up and drive along the different roads. They can’t have got very far, and we may get ’em yet.”
Later on, as the boys were on their way home, Jim chuckled.
“What are you laughing about, Jim?” asked Bob.
“I was just thinking,” Jim replied, “that it was mighty lucky they didn’t ask Fred how he happened to be in Sam Perkins’ barn.”