Bob was about to make some remark when he checked himself and halted in a listening att.i.tude.
"I think some one is coming!" he exclaimed, in a low tone. "I"m sure I heard voices. Let"s duck into the underbrush, quick!"
They were not a moment too soon, for they had hardly reached a place of concealment behind a great fallen tree when two men appeared around a bend in the path. One was the same whom they had followed a few hours before, while the other was a stranger to them. This man was of a desperate and unprepossessing appearance, and a bulge under his coat suggested the possible presence of a weapon.
The boys congratulated themselves that this formidable looking personage had not arrived half an hour sooner, for they were of course unarmed and would have been hard put to it had they been caught in the cabin.
They lay snugly hidden in their retreat behind the fallen tree until the voices of the two men had died away in the direction of the lonely cabin. Then they returned cautiously to the path and hastened toward the main road. This they reached without meeting any one else, and set out for camp at a pace that caused Jimmy to cry for mercy. But the shadows lay long athwart the path, camp was still an indefinite distance away, and they hurried the unfortunate youth along at a great rate in spite of his piteous protests.
"It will be the best thing in the world for you, Doughnuts," said Joe unfeelingly. "What you need is plenty of exercise to take that fat off you."
"Besides, think of what a fine appet.i.te you"ll have when we reach camp,"
laughed Bob.
"I"ve got all the appet.i.te now that I know how to have," groaned Jimmy.
"You fellows haven"t a heart between you. Where other people keep their hearts, you"ve all got chunks of Vermont granite."
"Flash a little speed, and don"t talk so much," advised Herb. "Be like the tramp that the fellow met going down the street one day with an expensive rug."
"Who wants to be like a tramp?" objected Jimmy.
"You do, when you want to loaf all the time," retorted Herb. "But now I"ll tell you a good joke to make the way seem shorter. Jimmy got me started, and now I"ll have to get it out of my system."
"Is it about a tramp?" asked Jimmy suspiciously.
"Yes. And it"s a pippin," Herb a.s.sured him. "It seems this tramp was running down the street with an expensive rug over his shoulder, and somebody stopped him and began to ask questions.
""Where did you steal that rug from?" asked the suspicious citizen.
""I didn"t steal it," answered the tramp, trying to look insulted. "A lady in that big house down the street handed it to me and told me to beat it, and I am.""
"Say, that"s a pretty good joke, for you, Herb," said Bob, laughing with the others.
"Oh, that"s nothing. I"ve got others just as good," said Herb eagerly.
"Now, here"s one that I made up myself the other day, but I forgot to tell it to you. Why----"
"Suffering tomcats!" exclaimed Joe. "Don"t tell us anything that you made up yourself, Herb! Or, at least, wait until we get back and have supper, so that we"ll be strong enough to stand it."
"That"s what I say," agreed Jimmy. "I"m so hungry that I can"t think of anything but supper, anyway. I know your joke is as good as usual, Herb, but I wouldn"t be able to appreciate it just now."
"It"s discouraging to a high-cla.s.s humorist to have to throw away his choice offerings on a bunch like this," said Herb, in an injured voice.
"Some day, when I am far away, you"ll wish you had listened to those gems of humor."
"I"d like to believe you, but that hardly seems possible," said Bob.
"Can you imagine the day ever coming when we"d actually want to sit down and listen to Herb"s line of humor?"
"My imagination isn"t up to anything like that," replied Joe. "But, of course, you don"t really ever have to ask Herb to spill some of those jokes. The hard thing is to keep him from doing it."
"Oh, all right," retorted Herb. "Only, remember that it is "easier to criticize than to create.""
For some time after this they plodded along hoping to reach camp before it got entirely dark. Bob was the first to see a distant point of light through the trees, and he emitted a whoop that startled the others.
CHAPTER XX
ON THE TRAIL
"I can see the lights from the camp!" Bob exclaimed. "Use your eyes, fellows. A little to the left of us, through the trees."
"Well, it"s about time," groaned Jimmy, as they all looked in the direction indicated. "I was just getting ready to lie down and die peacefully. I couldn"t travel another mile if you paid me for it."
"Oh, buck up, Doughnuts, and get a move on!" exclaimed Bob. "You never know what you can do until you try. Come on, let"s take it on the double."
He and Joe and Herbert broke into a lively trot, and rather than be left behind Jimmy overcame his reluctance for further effort, and with much puffing and blowing and fragmentary complaint managed to hold the pace until they arrived at the mess house.
Luckily for them, supper had been delayed owing to the failure of some supplies to arrive on time, and the lumbermen had just started eating when the radio boys burst in through the door.
The lumbermen stopped eating long enough to welcome their arrival, and they found their places set as usual.
"Glory be!" exclaimed Jimmy, as he slid into his chair. "If there were a pie-eating contest on to-night, I could show you fellows some real cla.s.s. I feel empty right down to my toes."
"It"s lucky we got a head start, Champ," remarked one of the men, with a grin. "Pa.s.s everything down this way, you amateurs. There"s a professional here wants to show us some fancy eating."
By this time Jimmy was too busily occupied to make any answer, and the other radio boys were also showing good appet.i.tes. The long trip and the excitement of their discovery of the secret code had sharpened their naturally keen appet.i.tes until for once they all felt on equal terms with the lumbermen. Jimmy surpa.s.sed himself, and great was the admiration expressed for his ability as a trencherman.
After supper the boys sought out Mr. Fennington and told him of their discovery in the lonely cabin. Then Bob showed him the copy he had made of the code, and Mr. Fennington studied this a long time with knit brows.
"There seems little doubt that you boys have unearthed an important clue, and one that may easily lead to the discovery of the crooks who stole my merchandise," he said, at length. "I suppose I should put this information in the hands of the police. And yet perhaps we had better say nothing until we learn something further. With your radio outfit you may be able to catch another code message that would give us more definite information, and then it would be time enough to call in the police."
"I think that would be the best thing to do, Dad," agreed Herb. "As soon as we get back home we"ll fix it so one of us will be at the set a good part of every afternoon and evening, and we"ll be almost certain to catch some more messages like the last one."
His father nodded, and was still considering the matter when there came a knock at the door. Herb crossed over and opened it, and he and his friends uttered exclamations of astonishment and delight as they recognized the visitor. He was none other than Frank Brandon, the government radio inspector.
On his part, he was no less pleased to see them, and they all shook hands heartily, with many questions and explanations, after which the radio inspector was introduced to Mr. Fennington.
"I suppose you"re all wondering what I"m doing up here," he said, after the greetings were over.
"Yes, in a way," admitted Bob. "Although we know that your position calls you all over, and we may expect to meet you almost any old place."
"Yes, that"s a fact," replied Brandon. "I"m up here on the same old business, too. Somewhere in this neighborhood there"s an unauthorized sending station, but in these thick woods it may prove a rather difficult place to locate exactly. However, it will only be a matter of time when we nail it."
The boys glanced at one another, and the same thought was in all their minds. They remembered the radio apparatus they had seen in the lonely cabin, and had little doubt that this would prove to be the unauthorized station of which the radio man was in search.
He must have read something of this in their expression, for he looked searchingly from one to another.