"Then why should they skoot like that, I want to know?" Tubby inquired.
"Like as not they saw our scout uniforms," suggested Merritt at a hazard.
"That"s just what they did," Rob hastened to add with emphasis; "and from the shock the sight of the same gave the parties, I"m thinking they must have guessed we were soldiers who meant to arrest a couple of men driving a white nag!"
"Oh! I wonder now if that would explain the queer stunt?" Tubby ventured to say.
"Sounds pretty good to me, Rob," was what the corporal of the troop remarked as he stood there and stared at the spot where the pair of alarmed men had left the road and plunged into the thicket. "And maybe some of the rest of you noticed as I did that the taller one of the pair limped, as though he might have a bad leg or a sprained ankle."
"Yes, I noticed that, Merritt, and was waiting to see if any of the rest of you had used your eyes to advantage," Rob told him.
"I did, cross my heart if I didn"t!" reported Tubby.
"And I would have seen the same only the rest of you happened to be in my way," the fourth scout struck in, not wanting to have it appear that he was the only fellow to be so dazed by what had happened that he had failed in his duty as a scout to observe every little detail.
"And I want all of you to take notice," continued the patrol leader, "that just where they left the road and disappeared from our sight, there happens to be growing a white birch tree that hangs out at an angle of twenty-five degrees. Birches are not so plentiful around here but what we could easily find that same one again in case we wanted to try and follow up the tracks of the men."
"To give "em back their rig, you mean, Rob?" hinted Tubby.
"Either that or for some other reason," replied the other shortly.
"Well, I don"t hear any scrambling now," remarked Andy. "Probably they are so far away the sounds don"t carry."
"But how about that ride to town?" demanded Tubby anxiously. "Do we get cheated out of that just because a pair of sillies chose to get cold feet at sight of scout uniforms, and skedaddled like a dog with a tin can tied to his tail?"
"Yes, how about it, Rob?" continued Merritt. "Do we leave this horse and wagon on the road here, doing no good at all, while we trudge along over two miles of ground, carrying this heavy sack of sh.e.l.lfish? If you asked me now, I would say let"s borrow the outfit, and give thanks!"
"Ditto here!" exclaimed Tubby eagerly.
"Count me in," said Andy, "and that makes it three affirmatives; how do you vote, Rob? Say "yes," and make it unanimous, won"t you?"
The patrol leader laughed again at the appeal, and glanced around at the faces of his three chums.
"Well, it would be like looking a gift horse in the mouth to let this fine chance slip past us," he went on to say, much to the delight of his companions; for Tubby immediately threw up his campaign hat to signify his joy, while the others nodded their heads and looked pleased.
"Good for you, Rob," Merritt said, as he proceeded without more ado to pick up the sack of oysters, and, stepping over to the tail end of the wagon, toss them aboard. "So far as I can see, I don"t believe we"ll have any trouble about taking the rig, even if the men turn out to be honest, which I"m right sure they won"t. We can say they abandoned it on the road, and we thought we ought to fetch it into town to turn it over to the police; which we mean to do, remember, fellows."
"Sure, we"ll only be doing the right thing to deliver the outfit to the Chief," Tubby went on record as saying. "My Uncle Mark was telling me about something that happened to him as near like this as two peas; and it turned out that the men in the rig were a pair of desperate bank burglars, making off with the stuff they"d hooked from a town not far away. That was how he got his first thousand dollars, he says, that started him along the road to success, years and years ago. And Merritt, did you take a good look to see if there is any mysterious little package in that same wagon? Wouldn"t it be a queer thing now if history took to repeating itself, and this time Uncle Mark"s nephew was one of the bunch that recovered the stolen plunder? Anything doing, Merritt?"
"Well, you"ll have to make up your mind to being disappointed this time, Tubby," observed the corporal. "This wagon hasn"t a thing in it except a handful of hay, and I"ve pulled that around to make sure it didn"t hide anything. But we didn"t calculate to discover any jewelry or bank funds; the best we asked for was a chance to ride to Hampton; and we"ve got it. Pile in, fellows. This horse has come some way, and has been made to travel right lively, too. Why, he"s reeking with sweat! Somebody must have been in a hurry!"
They lost no time in clambering into the wagon. Tubby, being the slowest to get up, found the seat fully occupied.
"Where do I come in?" he asked rather plaintively, after the fashion of the unfortunate one who was usually being left out.
"Plenty of room back there in the wagon, Tubby!" chuckled Rob.
"Use the sack of oysters for a seat if you want to!" added Andy.
"Can"t you move over and make room for one more?" pleaded the fat scout.
"We might if it was for a Living Skeleton, but not for the Fat Boy of the Side Show," was Merritt"s reply. And so Tubby was compelled to climb into the body of the wagon, and sit down as best he could on the hard bed.
"Please don"t make the nag gallop, boys," he asked as a particular favor; "because if you do he"ll swing the wagon around every-which-way, and there"s no telling what would happen to me. I guess I"ve got feelings, if I do happen to measure a little more around the waist than anybody else present."
"A little!" jeered Andy. "You must mean as much as the whole three of us put together, don"t you, Tubby?"
"Forget it," mumbled the other; for already the vehicle had begun to move. As Merritt whipped the tired horse, it gave a jump forward that caused Tubby to roll over on his back the first thing, and then clutch wildly at the sides of the wagon, as though in mortal terror lest he be tossed out and left there on the road to walk home.
"This is something like a treat, after tramping along for a whole mile, and with that heavy sack into the bargain," Rob declared, as they began to make fair progress in the direction of the home town.
"Talk to me about your good luck," ventured Andy, who sat on the other end of the seat from the driver, "it seems to me the Eagles are always having things happen to them that never would come to other fellows."
"But not all of the same are favors by a long sight, Andy," Merritt reminded him. "Don"t forget how we had that boat spring a leak; and if the accident had occurred when we were out in the middle of the bay, chances are we"d have had to swim for the sh.o.r.e. The good luck came in its happening near land."
"Well, that"s what I mean, of course," persisted the other. "If we do have to run up against a snag, why something always turns up to help us out. Look back at lots of things that have come our way, and you"ll say I"m right. And you three fellows especially have had luck chase after you more than a few times."
"I guess that is about right," sang out Tubby from the rear; showing that although he might be having the time of his life holding on to the sides of the wagon as it clattered along the road, all the same he kept his ears wide open.
"Well," remarked Rob, with a laugh, "any lot of scouts who can have a rig like this handed to them without the asking, when they have several miles over a dusty road to tramp, ought not to complain. We"re on what they call "Easy Street" right now. And who knows but there may be a few dollars" reward offered for the recovery of a stolen outfit? It wouldn"t surprise me very much; because the way those men scuttled at sight of our suits makes me believe they couldn"t have been strictly honest. No decent party need fear the khaki uniform, whether of a soldier or a Boy Scout!"
"Look! what was it that flashed ahead there in the bushes?" suddenly exclaimed Andy. Half unconsciously, Merritt at the same time started to pull at the reins, so that the horse no longer galloped headlong as before, much to the relief of poor knocked-about Tubby.
The boy in the back of the wagon was just about to try and scramble to his knees in order to look beyond his mates on the seat, when, without the slightest warning, a very gruff voice full of authority called out:
"Pull in there and throw up your hands, every one of you, d"ye hear?
You"re all under arrest!"
Moving figures sprang out upon the white road, and the horse, finding his forward progress blocked, gladly came to a full stop. The occupants of the wagon sat there, hardly knowing what to make of this new happening.
One man caught the horse close to the bits, and two others hastened to advance to the wagon, as if to make sure that none of those who occupied the vehicle made a flying leap from the back and took to their heels.
CHAPTER IV.
WHEN SCOUTCRAFT WAS IN DEMAND.
"Looks like the rig, all right, Chief!" one of the men called out.
The tall man he addressed did not reply; for, truth to tell, at that particular minute he was staring very hard at the three scouts who sat there on the seat of the wagon. There was not a great deal of light, but evidently he had made a discovery that astounded him.
"Why, they"re a lot of boys, after all!" exclaimed the man who had advanced to the other side of the wagon, holding something up that glittered like a revolver.
"Yes, and wearing scouts" uniforms at that!" added the tall man whom one of the others had called "Chief." As he pushed still closer to the wagon he went on to say, "I think I ought to know this lad here. Is it you, Rob Blake?"
"Just who it is, Chief," replied the other soberly; "and you can hardly blame us for having our breath taken away on being held up so suddenly at the point of the pistol and told that we were under arrest!"