"I am, eh? Well, that"s my affair. I tell you to keep away from here."
"But why?" insisted Bart. "This--well, of course it isn"t public property, though no one has ever been stopped from coming here after flowers."
"Some one"s going to be stopped now," and Sandy grinned as he looked at his rifle, and then back at his tent.
"We"ve got as much right here as you have," went on Ned.
"No, you haven"t."
"I say we have. Mr. Bender"s no relation of yours."
"I didn"t say he was."
"But you act so," said Bart, "standing guard on his property."
"I may be standing guard, but I"m not working for Mr. Bender," Sandy answered. "I tell you that you can"t go past, and you"d better not try it. I"ve got a right for what I say, and you"ll find out if you try to cross."
"Do you mean to say you"d shoot us?" asked Frank suddenly.
"Well--er--I--You haven"t any right here and I order you off!" exclaimed Sandy, getting rather tangled up.
"You can"t order me off!" exclaimed Frank. "I"m going to cross this clearing. If you point that gun at me, Sandy Merton, I"ll lick you so hard you can"t stand up for a week," and he started forward.
"Don"t get rash," counseled Bart in a low voice. "No use looking for trouble. We"ll let the mean little cub alone. I guess there are flowers somewhere else."
"But he hasn"t any right to make us keep off," complained Frank. "I s"pose he"s got permission from Bender to camp here and he thinks he owns the place. I"ll show him he doesn"t. I"ll whip him!"
Frank again started forward, but Ned took hold of his arm.
"Don"t do it," he urged. "Sandy might not mean to, but the gun might go off by accident, and it isn"t worth the trouble. I guess we--"
Ned"s remarks were interrupted by the sight of a man, who suddenly appeared from the bushes back of Sandy and stood beside the boy. His first move was to grab the gun away from the youth and then he called out:
"I"m sorry to have to ask you young gentlemen to withdraw, but this is private property and you are trespa.s.sing. Will you kindly go?"
"There never was any rule against going through here before," said Bart in respectful tones.
"That may be," the man answered, "but it is different now. I am acting for Mr. Bender."
"Of course we haven"t any right here," observed Frank, "and we"ll go if you say we must. But it made us mad to have that little sneak Sandy order us off."
"I"m not a sneak, and I"ll punch your face for saying so!" cried Sandy.
"Come on over, you"ll have all the chance you want," fired back Frank.
"That will do," said the man coolly. "Perhaps Sandy was a little hasty, but what he said was true. He has been hired to watch this property, but I don"t believe he needs a gun. I did not tell him to use one."
"I had to protect myself," whined Sandy.
"Ho! Don"t worry! You"re too mean for us to bother with!" exclaimed Ned.
"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 fashion. "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."