But the men didn"t. Instead, they kept right on, and before long the last electric light had been pa.s.sed and they were in the open country.
"Hadn"t we better turn back?" murmured Hiram. "It looks as if we were going too far for safety."
"Let"s keep on," urged Tubby. "There"s no danger. If we gave up the chase now we"d have had all our work for nothing."
Hiram made no reply, and the two boys, taking advantage of every bit of cover--as the game of "Hare and Hounds" had taught them--kept right on d.o.g.g.i.ng the footsteps of their quarry. All at once Tubby began sniffing the air.
"We"re getting near the sea," he proclaimed. "I can smell the salt meadows."
Aquebogue lay some distance back from the open waters of the ocean. It was situated, like Hampton itself, on an inlet. In the dim light of the stars, the two boys presently perceived that they were traversing a sort of d.y.k.e or raised road leading across the marshes.
"Where can they be going?" wondered Hiram.
"Don"t know. But there are lots of fishermen"s huts and shacks dotted about in the marshes. Maybe they are making for one of them."
"Maybe," opined Hiram, "but if you weren"t so all-sot on following them, I"d be in a good mind to turn back."
"Not yet," persisted Tubby, and the chase continued.
But it was soon to end. All at once the faint glimmer of a watercourse, or inlet from the sea, shone dimly in front of them. Upreared, too, against the star-spangled sky, they could see the inky outlines of a structure of some kind.
"Crouch down here," said Tubby suddenly, as the men ahead of them came to a halt.
A bunch of marsh gra.s.s offered a convenient hiding place, and behind it the two boys lay flat. Pretty soon they heard the scratch of a match, and then the grating of a lock, as the door of the dark building they had remarked was opened. The men entered the place and slammed the door to. A few instants later, from the solitary window of the shack, a light shone out. The window was toward the creek, and the glare from it showed the two watching boys the mast and rigging of a large sloop. At least, from her spars, they judged her to be of considerable size.
"Gee whiz!" exclaimed Tubby, "we"ve found the place, all right. They must have come in that sloop. Maybe that"s the way the two men who took the wallet got out of Hampton un.o.bserved."
"But the wind"s against the sloop, and she couldn"t have beaten her way down here in that time," objected Hiram.
"She might have an engine, mightn"t she?" whispered Tubby in scornful tones.
"That"s so. Lots of boats do have gasoline motors. I guess you"re right, Tubby. What are you going to do now? Go back?"
"Not much," rejoined the fat boy. "We"ll just have a look into that hut and see what"s going on. We might even get a chance to get that wallet back."
"Say, you"re not going to take such a chance! If you looked through that window----"
"Did I say I was going to look through the window, stupid? Don"t you see that chimney on the roof? Now, the roof comes down low, almost to the ground. I"m going to climb up on it, and, by leaning over the chimney, I can hear what is said."
"But they"ll hear your feet on the roof," objected the practical Hiram.
"I"m going to take my shoes off."
"It"s awfully risky, Tubby."
"Say, look here, Hiram," sputtered the fat boy, "if this country was to go to war, you"d want to go to the front and fight for Old Glory as a Boy Scout, wouldn"t you?"
"Of course."
"Well, then, don"t you suppose that if you were scouting after an enemy you"d have to take bigger chances than this?"
Hiram said no more. Kicking their shoes off, and leaving them by the gra.s.s hummock, the two boys crept forward as silently as two cats. In the yielding sand their feet made no noise.
As Tubby had surmised, at the rear of the house the roof came almost to the ground, for the sand was heaped up against that particular wall, being driven in big dunes by the winds off the ocean.
"Up with you," whispered Tubby, giving Hiram a "boost." The Yankee boy"s long legs carried him onto the roof in a jiffy. Then came Tubby. Already the two boys could hear below them the low hum of voices, Freeman Hunt"s sharp, boyish tones mingling with the ba.s.s drone of the elder men"s conversation.
The roof was formed of driftwood and old timbers, and was as easy to climb as a staircase. Before many seconds, the boys were at the chimney.
With beating pulses and a heart that throbbed faster than was altogether comfortable, in spite of his easy-going disposition, Tubby raised himself and peered down the flue. It was of brick. But to his astonishment, as he peered over the edge, he found he had a clear view of the room below.
The chimney, as is often the case in rough dwellings, did not go all the way down to the floor. Instead, it was supported on two beams, so that, peering down it, the boy could command a view of the room below, just as if he had been looking down a telescope.
Round a table were seated Stonington Hunt, the two rough-looking men who had stolen the wallet, and Freeman Hunt. A smoky gla.s.s lamp stood on the rough box which served for a table. Spread out on the table, too, was something that almost made Tubby let go his hold of the chimney and go sliding down the roof. It was the wallet, and beside it lay the paper covered with figures and markings, which, the boy had no doubt, was the precious doc.u.ment of the major.
"We"ll have to get out of here early in the morning," Stonington Hunt was saying. "I don"t fancy having the police on my heels."
"No. And Jim here says that those pesky Boy Scouts are mixed up in the search for the wallet," struck in Freeman Hunt.
"Well, this is the time we give those brats the slip," growled his father. "Come on, let"s turn in. We"ll get the motor going and drop down the creek before daylight."
"Better leave the light burning then," said one of the men who had been in Hampton that afternoon.
This was done, and presently snores and heavy breathing showed the men were asleep. Tubby could not see what resting places they had found, but a.s.sumed that there must be bunks around the edge of the hut, as is usual in such fishermen"s shelters.
Before retiring, the men had shoved the paper into the wallet, but for some reason, probably they didn"t think of it during their preparations for sleep, the wallet had been left on the table. It was almost directly below the chimney. As Tubby looked at it, he had a sudden idea.
"Got a bit of wire, Hiram?" he asked, knowing that the mechanical genius of the Eagle Patrol usually carried such odds and ends with him.
"Guess I"ve got a bit of bra.s.s wire right here," rejoined Hiram, "but it isn"t very long."
"Long enough," commented Tubby, scrutinizing the bit handed to him, "now, if you had some string----"
"Got a bit of fish line."
"Couldn"t be better. Give it to me."
Much mystified, Hiram watched the fat boy bend the bit of wire and tie it to the string.
"Going fishing?" he asked in a sarcastic tone.
"Yes," replied Tubby quite seriously.
His quick eye had noted that the straps that closed the wallet had not been placed round it but lay in a loose loop on the table. If only he could entangle his improvised line in the loop, it would be an easy matter to fish up the wallet. If only he could do it!
Very cautiously, for he knew the risk he was running, Tubby lowered his line. Then he waited. But the breathing below continued steady and stentorian. Swinging his hook, which was quite heavy, the stout boy grappled cautiously for the wallet. It was tantalizing and delicate work.
But after taking an infinity of pains, he finally succeeded in getting it fast.
Tubby at this moment had difficulty in suppressing a shout of "hooray!"