Part 21 (1/2)
”I have a hunch,” Jack declared, after a time, ”that Jimmie is somewhere in this section! I don't know why, but when I saw those men, strangers, evidently, walking so stealthily over the country I got the hunch! Then I followed them, because I thought I might get a clue to the boy's whereabouts by so doing.”
”If the boy is here,” Ned replied, grimly, ”we'll find him!”
”Of course we'll find him! That's what we are here for!”
The boys thus encouraging each other crawled deeper into the thicket and lay down. They were more than tired, worse than hungry, but they never thought of sleep, or of leaving their post of observation. The afternoon pa.s.sed slowly, the boys taking snapshots now and then.
”The boys will be thinking we've been geezled!” Jack said. ”I wish they knew where to find us. There's no knowing what they will do, they're so anxious about Jimmie. And if they scatter over the country others may be captured.”
”They usually show good sense in emergencies,” Ned commented.
When the first tint of twilight came, the boys crept to the edge of the thicket and sat looking out on the mountain. There was the broken way to the summit, and there was the chimney rock behind which the men had disappeared, but no human being was, for a long time im sight.
Then a small figure came swinging down the slope, off to the north, and presently came opposite to where the boys lay. Jack seized Ned by the arm and pointed.
”Is it the prince, or is it Mike III?” he asked.
Ned got out his field gla.s.s and studied the face and figure until, whistling some childish discord, the boy turned back and disappeared in the direction of the cabin.
”What is that boy doing off here alone?” asked Jack, then.
”Keep watch of the chimney rock,” Ned advised.
”But what do you think of it?” demanded Jack. ”How did that boy get up here?”
”If you see any one moving up there,” Ned went on, provokingly, ”let me know.”
”Oh, look here!” Jack insisted, half angrily, ”what's the use of shutting up like a clam? What is your idea about that boy? We've never seen him before except in Bradley's company. Do you think he ran away? Why can't we go and get him and hold him until Jimmie is released?”
”So you think the men who have taken Jimmie are the men who are conducting the abduction game?” asked Ned.
”Yes, don't you?”
”I have written the answer to that down in my little book,” smiled Ned, ”and when the right time comes I'll show it to you.”
”Well, if we are going to catch the boy we'll have to be moving.”
”We are not going to catch the boy.”
Jack threw himself down on the ground in disgust.
”You're the Secret Service man,” he said, ”and I presume you know what you are about, but it looks to me as if you had been reading a dream book, or something like that.”
”Why should we catch the child?” asked Ned.
”To hold him! To be able to say to the outlaws that we hold the top hand!”
”And trade the child for Jimmie, as you suggested?”