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As they rode along they busied themselves with devising means of concealing dispatches and making ciphers which would be absolutely blind to the uninitiated and only read by those possessing the key. As fast as one of them designed a mode of concealment the other cited an instance of its previous use, and whenever one proposed a cipher the other managed in one way or another to show its defects.
They had about come to the conclusion that Solomon was right when he said there was nothing new under the sun, when suddenly a gruff voice from the bushes at the roadside called out:
“Halt, there!”
They looked in the direction whence the sound came, and saw the muzzles of four or five rifles pointing directly at them. It is needless to say they halted.
CHAPTER XXXIV. CAPTURED AGAIN—HOW JACK “PLAYED CRAZY.”
Their new captors proved to belong to the band through whose hands they had passed, as already described, and after another examination, in which their pockets were again turned inside out, they were allowed to proceed. As they rode on Jack suggested a new idea for their actions the next time they were stopped, as he was fearful they might encounter somebody from “Forsyth way,” and thus it would be discovered that they were not telling the truth.