"Come on!" whispered Tom.
"I'm with you!" answered Ned.
Side by side they started around the left of the House, intending to make their way to the front and gain control of the machine. They were not half way to their objective when there was a noise up ahead—a crackling and trampling of the bushes and voices coming out of the darkness.
Tom reached out and caught the coat of Ned who was moving away from him.
"Hold on!" whispered the young inventor, pulling his chum toward him. "Let's see who these birds are before we bump into them."
It was good advice, as Ned admitted by following Tom into a little recess of the underbrush about midway of the auto. Pushing themselves back into the screen of shrubs, the two waited. They were not long left in doubt as to the character or intentions of the men whose voices came to them.
There were two men, as evidenced by the different tones. One said:
"Well, we got her all right!"
"You said it."
From the tones of the voices Tom and Ned judged one man to be big and the other small, and, without sight of them, the hidden ones so distinguished the two speakers mentally.