Part 24 (1/2)
”Well, this is a surprise and no mistake!” was Tom's comment, in a low voice. ”If I know anything about it, they must have done some quick traveling.”
”I believe they followed the river, at least part of the way,” returned the youngest Rover. ”I see a pair of skates lying by one of the sleds.”
”Do you suppose d.i.c.k and Mr. Barrow met them?”
”I don't believe they did. See, they have some rabbits they are going to cook. That accounts for the shots we heard.”
Crouching down behind the bushes, the two Rovers watched the other party with interest. A lively conversation was going oh between Dan Baxter and the former teacher of Putnam Hall, but they were too far off to catch anything of what was said.
”What do you propose doing next?” asked Sam, after a pause of several minutes. ”It's mighty cold here.”
”We may as well retreat, Sam. We don't want to expose ourselves, do we?”
”I don't suppose it would do any good--although I'm not afraid of Baxter, or Grinder either.”
”It isn't that. If they know we have arrived here, they will do all they can to locate that treasure first. We want to keep dark and get ahead of them.”
”But how shall we turn?”
”We'll have to go back to where we found the two trails crossed and then try the other one. I don't know of anything else to do.”
”Wouldn't Dan Baxter be surprised, if he knew we were so close?”
”Well, we won't let him know.”
”Why not?” demanded an unexpected voice from the rear.
Both boys started and turned around, to find themselves confronted by Lemuel Husty, the man d.i.c.k had seen in company with Baxter at Cedarville.
”Hullo, who are you?” asked Tom, as quickly as he could recover from his surprise.
”If you want to know real bad, youngster, my name is Lemuel Husty.”
”I don't know you.”
”But I know you--leas'wise I know of you,” went on Husty, with a frown.
”You're down on my friend Baxter, aint you?”
”If we are, we have a good reason to be,” came from Sam.
”Perhaps you have, and then again, perhaps you haven't. It aint no nice thing to be cotched spying, though.”
”We weren't spying. We came up quite by accident.”
”You can tell that to the monkeys, but you can't tell it to me,” growled Lemuel Husty. Then he raised his voice: ”I say, Baxter! I say, you fellows! Come over here!”
The three around the camp-fire looked up in surprise, and were even more surprised when Husty waved his hand for them to come to him.
”What's wanted?” demanded Dan Baxter.