Part 16 (2/2)
”We'll go,” he added.
”I wish you would,” the man replied, civilly enough. ”I have no objection to your walking all around within a mile of here, but within that s.p.a.ce the land is prescribed,” and he smiled in no unfriendly fas.h.i.+on. ”I will bid you good day. Sandy, I guess you can come with me; they will go,” and the man moved back into the woods whence he had come, carrying Sandy's rifle, and followed by that youth, who paused to shake his fist at the chums.
”Well, did you ever hear the beat of that?” asked Ned, as he and the others turned around and walked back. ”So this is where Sandy is camping. I wonder what it all means?”
”It means there is something queer going on, and I'm going to see what it is,” declared Bart. ”Come on, I'll show them a trick.”
”What are you going to do?” asked Ned.
”We'll go up on top of the hill. I know a place where we can look right down into this clearing and all around it. It's from a tall tree I climbed once when I was after bird's eggs.”
”But we can't see so far,” objected Frank.
”I've got something that we can take a peep with,” replied Bart, and he pulled out a small telescope. ”I saw that advertised in a magazine and I sent for it,” he explained. ”It came this noon when I was home to dinner, and I forgot to show it to you. You can see five miles off quite plainly through it.”
”That's all to the good!” exclaimed Stumpy.
”What beats me,” put in Frank, ”is how that man came to hire Sandy, and why they're so afraid of being seen, or of having any one on that particular land?”
”Maybe we'll find out pretty soon,” spoke Bart.
”I thought Lem said it was a man with a black moustache who was talking to Sandy that day,” said Frank. ”This fellow has a light beard.”
”Might be another man, or this one might be disguised,” spoke Fenn.
”It's getting just like a story in a book,” remarked Ned. ”All it needs is the King of Paprica now to complete it.”
”Perhaps they're all in this game,” suggested Bart.
”The plot thickens, as they say on the stage,” remarked Frank. ”Come on, we'll have to make better time than this. Wonder if Miss Mapes will get her wild flowers?”
”There are plenty on top of the hill,” observed Fenn. ”It's a hard climb, that's all.”
”There's some sort of a path around here,” Bart said. ”It leads to the top, and was used by some lumbermen. I used to take it. Seems to me--yes, here it is,” he added as he burst through a particularly thick patch of brush, and came out on a rude wagon trail. ”Now it will be easier going.”
It took about an hour to reach the top of the hill, and they were so tired they sat down for a moment to rest. They could get a good view of the surrounding country from their vantage point, and, for a while, tried the telescope in various directions. As Bart had said, it was a good instrument and showed things very clearly.
”Now for a look at our friend Sandy's camp,” observed Bart as he went to the tree from which he had said he could look down into the clearing. It was his privilege to take the first peep, and when he had climbed half way up and adjusted the gla.s.s he focussed it on the place from which the boys had recently been ordered away.
For a few seconds Bart remained motionless, gazing at something below him. His companions waited anxiously for some report.
”See anything?” asked Frank.
”No, don't appear to be anyone--hold on though! Yes, there is. I see three men.”
”What are they doing?”
”They seem to be walking about.”
<script>