"Try it once more, Elmer," advised cautious Mark.
Again the tattoo sounded, but as before it produced no results. So Elmer opened the door, which he saw had been fashioned in the rudest way from boards, and hung upon strap hinges.
As he pushed the door aside, every scout held his breath and gripped his stick expectantly. But nothing happened. No string of rough men came bustling forth, demanding in coa.r.s.e language what the boys meant by bothering them.
It looked as though Toby must have struck the right key when he so confidently declared there was n.o.body at home.
So Elmer entered, with some of the bolder among the scouts at his heels.
The balance contented themselves in pressing around the door and window, and taking it out in looking.
Just as he had expected, Elmer found the interior of the shack pretty gloomy. Under the best of conditions very little daylight could find a way through such small openings, and these were now almost filled by the bodies of the curious scouts. But this was a matter easily remedied.
Elmer had his matchsafe ready in his hands, and his first act was to strike a light.
As soon as the match flamed up he cast one quick look around the interior. This a.s.sured him that there were certainly no low-browed men crouching in the corners, and ready to hurl themselves upon the young invaders.
The next thing Elmer did was also a very natural move. He saw a candle in a bottle, standing on an upturned box, and stepping forward he applied his match to the waiting wick.
Then he looked around again.
There could be no doubt about this shack having been recently used as sleeping quarters by a number of men.
Several heaps of straw told where they lay, and Elmer counted four of these. Then there were a few bits of old clothing hanging from nails, a pair of heavy shoes, a frying pan, a kettle in which coffee might have been made, some broken bread, part of a ham, and some ears of corn; this last possibly stolen from the field of some farmer.
It looked like a tramp"s paradise, but the puzzle was, what would tramps be doing so far away from all customary sources of supply?
Elmer sniffed the atmosphere, which was both heavy and far from pleasant. And Lil Artha, who had pressed into the shack, hot upon the heels of his chief, took note of his significant action.
"I should say yes, it"s rank as all get out," he remarked, holding his nose between a finger and thumb. "Even beats that fishy smell we struck when we looked down into the cellar at the cottage. Whew!"
Others expressed themselves about as strongly, and little Jasper Merriweather, who had unwisely pushed into the shack, found it necessary to hurry out again, white of face and gasping.
But Elmer had conceived an idea, even while suffering from the unpleasant odor of the place.
"Howling cats!" exclaimed Lil Artha, "I don"t see how you can stand it, Elmer. Talk to me about tramps, and the way they hate water, here"s the rank evidence of it. Wow, ain"t I sorry for poor Nat if he"s got to a.s.sociate with this hobo crowd for long!"
"But how do we know they"re hoboes?" asked Elmer, turning on the tall scout.
"Hey? What"s that?" exclaimed Lil Artha, actually so surprised that he neglected to hold that firm grip on his nose any longer.
"What makes you so sure they"re tramps?" pursued the scout master.
"Why, goodness gracious alive, Elmer, you don"t mean to say you doubt that now?" cried the tall boy, sweeping his hand around as though to draw attention to the various articles that seemed to stamp that theory a positive fact.
"Seeing these things here is what makes me question that idea very much," began Elmer; and then he picked up one of the old shoes, to hold it at arm"s length. "Look at that, fellows; never made in this country, and you know it. Hobnails such as no one but foreigners use on their shoes."
"Well, I declare; I guess Elmer"s right!" exclaimed Red.
"He certainly is, suh, take my word foh it," was the way Chatz expressed himself.
"Now look here, whoever saw a tramp"s nest with anything like this in it?" and Elmer picked up a string of beads, evidently a rosary, that must have been overlooked in a hasty flight.
"Whew, that"s going some!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Phil Dale who, with his cousin Landy, happened to be in the shack eager to see all that went on.
"Perhaps he can even tell us what brand of foreigners these fellows are," remarked Landy, who was beginning to look upon Elmer pretty much in the light of a wizard.
"Oh, that ought to be easy, fellows," said the young scout master, as he reached up and took down a worn letter his quick eye had noticed stuck in a crack.
Every eye was immediately focused on the scout master. They knew his reasoning powers of old, and expected that Elmer would quickly put them on the right track now.
Indeed, hardly had the latter glanced at the well-worn letter he held than he smiled.
"What is it?" asked Red, impatiently.
"Yes, tell us what you"ve found out, Elmer," said Lil Artha.
"Why, look here at the name. As near as I can make out it"s Giuseppi Caroni," replied the other.
"Wow, that is plain enough!" exclaimed Red.
"Sure Italiano," echoed the tall scout.
"Just as I thought," replied Elmer.
"But you can prove it," remarked Chatz.
"That"s easy enough," added Dr. Ted, "the thtamp ought to be enough, you thee."
"And if it isn"t, fellows, here"s the postmark as plain as anything--Naples, Italy," continued Elmer.
"Naples, hey?" remarked Lil Artha. "Say, I was just reading about Naples the other day, and it said that next to the island of Sicily we get more of our Black Hand crowd from there than any other part of Garibaldi"s old land."
A gasp seemed to go the complete rounds of all the khaki-clad warriors who thronged that mysterious little shack.
"Black Hand, you say, Lil Artha?" exclaimed Red.
"Yes, and anarchists, too; the kind that blow up the kings and queens of the Old World. The kind that abduct people so as to make their rich relatives whack up a big ransom."
"Oh!"
Some of the boys looked a little timid, and glanced around apprehensively, as though they antic.i.p.ated seeing a whole bunch of fierce-looking dynamite users rise up around them.
Others shut their teeth together harder than ever, and these more determined fellows, it might be noticed, tightened the grip they had upon their sticks.
All eyes were turned again upon Elmer, who had listened to these remarks with an amused smile.
"Hold on your horses, boys," he said, raising his hand just then to still the rising dispute.
"Shut up, everybody; Elmer"s got something more to tell us," Lil Artha cried.