Part 21 (1/2)

”You want to look everywhere, feller citizens,” the officer was saying; ”look into sheds and barns and under fences, and every old nook and corner where the boy may be hidin'. He's plumb loony, ye know, and he's li'ble to crawl into any old place. Mebbe he'll be scat of ye and want to fight when ye do find him, so handle him gentle.”

At this juncture two men came panting down Main Street. ”We know where he is!” shouted one. ”We've seen him!”

”Yep, we've seen him,” gulped the other. ”We almost ketched him, but he got away from us somehow.”

”Where is he? Where is he?” cried twenty voices.

”We was goin' up the street, lookin' for him, and we'd almost got to the Widder Chester's, when we see somebody scoot across the road, jump the fence and put off inter the field above Cedar Street. When we hollered for him to stop he run faster.”

”And he could run some,” gasped the smaller man. ”We chased him into a strip of trees and bushes, and he must be hid there right now, for we couldn't find him.”

”Come on,” commanded William Pickle, taking the lead-”come on, everybody. Show us the way, Turner and Crabtree.”

Forgetting the original plan of search, the crowd poured up the main street, straggling out into a long, irregular body. Osgood, keeping close to the leaders, felt some one press against him, and recognized Billy Piper.

”This is bad business,” said Piper in a low tone.

”You're right,” agreed Ned instantly. ”No one can feel any worse about it than I do.”

”But feeling bad,” retorted Billy grimly, ”doesn't make amends; it's got to be something more than that.”

As the searchers turned from the road near Mrs. Chester's house, climbed the fence and streamed across the field, Ned began to understand that the shouting, which had seemed to break in upon his troubled dreams, had been real. And with this conviction came the thought that in his delirium Hooker had sought to return to the place where he had been injured. It was a disagreeable thought, which Osgood tried to put aside.

The rising moon, breaking now and then through ragged clouds, promised aid to the searchers. Directed by Pickle, they spread out and practically surrounded the long, narrow strip of trees and bushes. This done, a body of men entered the growth and worked their way through it, leaving scarcely a yard of ground uninspected. But when they had pa.s.sed over it all in this thorough manner, it became known that not one of them had found the slightest trace of the missing lad.

”He must have hid till Turner and Crabtree left,” said the deputy sheriff. ”As soon as they were gone, he prob'ly hit out for somewhere's else.”

”Too bad one of 'em didn't have sense enough to stay and watch while t'other one went for help,” said Abel Hubbard, the constable.

The posse gathered in a group, seeking further instructions from their leaders.

”Don't believe they'll ever find him this way,” said Billy Piper.

”They're not going about it with any sort of method.”

”Yeou're so all-fired clever at sech things,” said Sile Crane, ”why don't yeou suggest a plan?”

”They wouldn't listen to me if I proposed anything.”

”If you have a plan, Piper,” said Nelson, joining the little cl.u.s.ter of boys that surrounded Billy, ”just tell us what it is. If it sounds reasonable, we'll carry it out.”

”Let me think a moment-let me think,” said Piper, tapping his knuckles against his forehead. ”The report is that Roy was talking some along about nightfall, though his words were jumbled, without much sense in them. He kept repeating certain things, such as 'poker,' 'five aces,'

and 'cabin.'”

”You know what Professor Richardson said,” put in Rodney Grant. ”It's thought that Roy was playing cards for money when he was hurt.”

”If so,” said Billy, ”that would explain the words 'poker' and 'five aces'; but why did he keep talking about a cabin? Ha! I have it. I happen to know that once on a time a certain little bunch of fellows went over to the old camp in Silver Brook Swamp to play poker, and Hook was one of the crowd. Cabin-that's what he meant; he had something in his muddled mind about that old camp in the swamp. Come on, fellows, perhaps we'll find him there.”

”You've always been so lucky in your guesses,” said Nelson, ”that there's a chance you may be right this time. If you should happen to be, your reputation as a great detective will be established on a firm--”