Part 31 (1/2)
They bobbed along like professionals, it seemed to me.”
”You'll see how fast they can run!” Bradley growled. ”They'll go fast enough to send you all over the road.”
”Now about this grandson,” asked Ned, falling back. ”Mrs. Brady wants to know where he is. No use for you to hide him, now that we all know he was disguised to look like the prince stolen from Was.h.i.+ngton. Why did you paint him if not to imitate this other boy we speak of?”
”I don't know anything about the boy,” was the reply. ”He was taken without my knowledge, and that is on the level. I was ordered to do the paint act.”
They trudged on for some minutes in silence, and then Bradley asked:
”What is it about this prince you are always talking about? What is there about the prince? Where is he? Why is he supposed to be in this section?”
”You don't know a thing about him, do you?” asked Ned, laughing, ”and yet you painted a boy to represent him?”
Bradley only scowled.
”When I find him,” Ned continued, ”I'll present him to you!”
When the boys reached the tent they found Oliver and Teddy mourning over the destruction of a large number of films and plates. Many pictures, developed and printed with great care, had also been torn or burned.
”Well,” Jimmie declared, ”they didn't get their hands on the films in my baby camera. I've got a few good ones left.”
”Now, Jack,” Ned said, ”suppose you connect with Uncle Ike and make for the nearest telegraph office? Don't break your neck, and the neck of the mule, but get there as soon as you can. And get back as soon as you receive an answer.”
”Why can't I go with him?” asked Jimmie. ”I guess I want a mule ride.”
”Go it, if you want to!” Ned laughed. ”That will leave us one mule to run away on if things get too hot for us here!”
CHAPTER XXI
TOLD BY THE PICTURES
”You'll think we took great care of the camp!” Teddy said, flus.h.i.+ng, to Ned, as Jack and Jimmie, followed by the cheers and good wishes of their chums, started away.
”Aw, it wasn't Teddy's fault at all,” Oliver declared. ”He went down to tell Uncle Ike what a gentleman and a scholar he was, and I was supposed to watch the tent.”
”And I was to help him,” wailed Dode. ”See how well I did it!”
He swung a hand around at the mess on the ground.
”So, while Teddy was down at the corral, Dode and I sat down to develop some snapshots. We never looked out at all! After we had a lot of pictures ready to show on your return, we heard a noise outside and thought Teddy had come back.”
”And there is when we got it!” Dode cut in.
”Yes, there, is where we got it in the neck,” Oliver went on, while Teddy grinned. ”The gun I looked into seemed about as large as the tunnel under the Hudson, and I became the good little boy without further argument.”
”I thought the gun I saw was a room in a cavern!” grinned Dode.
”So they performed with their ropes and gags, and we lay there like two little kittens while they tore up our work and smashed things generally. And the way they wrecked the trunks and boxes was a caution.”