The Banner Boy Scouts Part 34

They stood in a group, listening eagerly. The night wind stirred the tops of the tall forest trees softly, and even this gentle sound boomed on their strained nerves like the strokes of a ba.s.s drum.

"Oh! there! Didn't you hear it that time?" whispered Bobolink.

"I guess we did," replied Paul; "and you're right in saying it is somebody shouting. But all the same I don't feel sure it was a call for help. Let's remember, fellows, that Ted and his crowd must be somewhere about up here. And you know from past experiences what dodges he's up to when he wants to play a trick on anybody."

"Do you mean he'd like to draw us off by shouting that way, while some of his fellows went along to the farmhouse, and got the lost boy?" asked William.

"That would be just like Ted. He's as full of tricks as an egg is of meat," Jack took it upon himself to say at this juncture.

"Well, what are we going to do about it, boys?" asked Wallace.

"I leave it to Paul; whatever he says ought to be good enough for me,"

replied Wallace.

"And me," came from the others without hesitation.

"Thanks, fellows. I hope that my plan will prove the best after all. But don't blame me if I should make a mistake. Let's head for the road, which I take it ought to be somewhere over yonder," remarked Paul, pointing through the darkness.

"The road, eh? I see, you mean that once we get on that we'll have it easy all the way to the pond. That suits me all right. Count William in."

"Yes, seeing that our lanterns are out, and not a match in the crowd, I guess the sooner we get our feet planted on the highway, the better for our noses. I've barked mine already against a tree, and another dose will spoil my cla.s.sic beauty," grunted Bobolink, rubbing tenderly at the spot in question.

"Then come along, the rest of you," said Paul, starting off.

"Seems to me it's getting lighter," announced Wallace, presently.

"Mebbe our eyes are used to it, that's what," Bobolink remarked.

"Mine are closing up right fast, I warn you, fellers," said William; "and before long it's going to be a case of the blind leading the blind. That branch took me across the face. Hey! ain't that the same old shout?"

"Sounds like it; but much nearer," returned Paul, with a vein of uncertainty in his voice, as if he might be commencing to doubt whether they were doing the right thing in paying no attention to the calls.

"Oh! I guess I know what it means," remarked Jack; "I've been trying to make it out all along. That's sure a different voice. Some of Ted's crowd have got separated, and they're just trying to get together again. You've heard quail calling, after being flushed and scattered. How, Paul?"

"Perhaps you've struck it, Jack. Anyway, we are on the road here, and had better push straight along to the pond first."

"Right enough," uttered Bobolink, as he broke through a cordon of brush, and jumped out on the highway, though it might be only an apology for a road after all, being scantily used; "and after that experience it's going to be something big that drags me into the woods again."

The little group stood there for a minute to recover their wind, which had been more or less exhausted in the last desperate push through the dark woods.

"Ready to move on, fellows?" demanded Paul, who had apparently not changed his mind, and was more than ever bent on covering the last lap lying between themselves and the pond.

Jack and Wallace fell in on either side, and the march was begun. Since the other pair did not wish to be left behind, they were forced to accompany themselves to the movements of the trio.

Thus they walked perhaps a full hundred yards along the winding road, with the stars showing overhead, and the black mysterious woods flanking them on either side.

The shouts had apparently ceased; at least none had been heard since the five lads reached open territory.

Again it was Bobolink who caught a sound of some sort.

"Tell me again I'm hearing owls, will you, fellows? If that ain't a gasoline wagon climbing a hill ahead there I'm off my guess," he whispered.

"Chug! chug!" came the plain sound, as the air current veered more toward the point toward which they were heading.

"I know that hill," Paul observed, as if talking to himself; "it's just this side of the mill pond. That means the car is coming this way. The two gentlemen are separating themselves from their dear friend, Solus Smithers. Why, I wonder? Would Mr. Pender have anything to do with it?"

"Wow! did you see that?" gasped Bobolink, proving that his plaint about his eyes closing up could hardly be based on solid ground.

"Somebody struck a match, and it went out! Whoever it is, he's on the road just ahead of us, fellows!" whispered Jack.

"Back up into the scrub here. Quick! for perhaps he's got another match!"

said Paul, following up his words by instant action.

They managed to cower down in the brush, though Bobolink muttered something to the effect that he had received another jab in the neighborhood of his wretched eyes.

"Look! he's done it, Paul, just as you said he would!" whispered Jack.

"Yes, he's s.h.i.+elding it from the breeze till it gets strong. There--well, what d'ye think of that, fellers?" gasped William.

"It's Ted!" muttered Wallace, staring hard at the figure that seemed to be huddled up on the road a little distance away.

"What do you suppose the silly goose is doing on his knees?" came from Jack.

"He's found something, and he's looking at it. See, now he's managed to open it up. Seems to me like a leather bag, boys," Wallace managed to wedge in with.

"Just what it is, old cat eyes. A hand bag! Now, however did that thing happen to be lying there in the road? n.o.body ever comes up here but Solus, and he isn't the one to own a bag like that."

"The red car," said Paul, as Jack seemed to hesitate.

"That's it, as sure as you live. Dropped out of the machine; and by jinks! the fellers are comin' back to look for it. Never missed it till Sol got home!" his chum declared.

All this talk between the five boy scouts was carried on in the lowest of whispers. The sound of their voices would not have carried twenty feet; and the kneeling Ted was several times that distance away.

Besides, he seemed to be so fascinated by what he had discovered in the leather grip that he had eyes and ears for nothing else just then.

"The motor is coming closer!" remarked Wallace, as the sound of the engine was borne more distinctly to their ears.

"Sure. She's just at the top of the rise, and now it's down-grade. Reckon she'll be here in a minute. Push back further, fellows."

"Look! Ted hears it now! He's jumped up! Seems like he just don't know what to do, cut and run with the bag, or wait till the car gets there.

Hey! watch that, will you?" gasped William.

"He threw the bag as far as he could into the woods!" said Jack.

"That looks like he meant to try and keep it," suggested Jack; "I imagine that the leather grip holds something that took Ted's fancy. But all the same I reckon it isn't going to be easy sledding for him. Will he run, fellows?"

"He's debating that same question now; but it's too late. He waited just half a minute too long," Paul remarked, as a sudden flash of dazzling light shot around a bend a short distance ahead, and the red car with the khaki-colored top came into view, making fairly fast time.

They could dimly see the inmates apparently surveying the road ahead with the utmost eagerness, as though anxious to make a discovery. The loss of that bag must have rather upset their plans, and given them a jolt.