Chapter XVIII: Searching the Woods

As the party did not know how long they would be away, they took a lunch with them. A number of the cadets were curious over their departure.

“Wonder where they are bound?” said Ritter to his cronies. He met them at the end of the campus, striding along at a rapid gait.

“Oh, it’s one of Strong’s object-lesson walks, I guess,” sneered Coulter. “He’ll show them how some plants grow, and get some specimens of rocks, and all that.”

“Humph! that’s too dead slow for me,” drawled Ritter. “I’d rather skin down to Dollon’s in town and play pool and have a smoke.”

“You’re right,” said Paxton. “Only, I haven’t any money with which to pay for such fun.”

“I heard something at breakfast,” went on Reff Ritter, as the three cronies walked down to the lake. “Jack Ruddy is going to get his sloop back soon, and he is going to arrange for a regular race with that new Pornell boat, the _Ajax_.”

“I hope he loses,” growled Coulter.

“Ditto here,” joined in Paxton.

“He will lose—if I have anything to do with it,” continued Ritter in a whisper, so as not to be overheard.

“What do you mean?” came from both of his followers.

“I mean just this, and I have no hesitation about telling you, for I expect you to stand by me. It will be a chance to get back some of the money we lost.”

“I think I see your plan,” said Coulter. “You want to fix it so Ruddy loses the race.”

“Exactly, and I think it will be dead easy, too.”

“How?”

“Will you stand in with me if I tell you?”

“Most likely we will,” said Paxton. “Of course we don’t want to do something and get found out.”

“Nobody will be found out. We can make Ruddy lose, and if we lay some good bets on the Pornell boat we can make all kinds of money—win back what we lost and make a pile besides.” And then the three cronies went out on the lake, to row and to talk over the plan that Reff Ritter had in mind to carry out.

“That bicycle race has made Ritter and his crowd as sour as lemons,” said Andy, as he and Stuffer walked on behind the others, on the way to the Chetwood cottage. “Every time they pass me they glare at me like wild animals. They don’t pretend to be the least bit civil.”

“You’ve got to be on your guard, Andy. If they have anything up their sleeve you want to be ready for them.”

“I think they are down on Jack more than on any of us.”

“That’s because he is major of the battalion, I guess. Ritter said once that he thought there ought to be a change of officers every month. I reckon he wanted to carry a sword for a change.”

“I don’t believe the cadets will ever elect him—he hasn’t friends enough.”

“Oh, he might be able to buy up some votes—among the fellows who love to be taken out for a good time. He has lots of spending money.”

“Not now. He lost about all he had, so I understand, on the bicycle race.”

It did not take the party headed by Mr. Strong long to reach the Chetwood cottage. They found the cripple there and also the working man, Jake Dengert.

“I expect my folks by noon,” said Nat Chetwood. “Then I’ll find out if the men took anything valuable from the trunk.”

“I believe you said they took a vest,” said George Strong.

“Yes, but that wasn’t of much account, although it did belong to a suit.”

The cripple had seen nothing further of the strange men and had no idea what had become of the pair. The hired man had tramped out into the woods for a short distance, but had been unable to get on their trail.

“Perhaps we’ll not find them either,” said George Strong, with a sigh. “But we can try it anyway.” He did not deem it necessary just yet to mention the fact that he thought the men might be his relatives.

With the cadets beside him, the teacher struck out into the woods, in the direction Jack and Andy pointed out. They passed a fine spring and stopped long enough for a drink. Then they took to a trail that led up a small hill away from the lake. On either side of the trail were trees and dense brushwood.

“I think they must have come along this trail—or else they lost themselves in the woods,” declared the young major.

“It is a wonder they have not hopelessly lost themselves before now,” said the teacher. “How far is it from here to the spot where you met them the day your bicycle broke down?”

“Must be all of three miles,” answered Andy, and Pepper nodded.

“They must keep more or less to the woods,” continued George Strong. “Otherwise more folks would see them and spread the alarm. I asked that man at the cottage and he said he had heard nobody mention them.”

“They must have some hiding spot in the woods, where they lay off their masks and hoods,” said Stuffer. “They must fancy themselves regular highwaymen.”

“If they are my relatives, and I capture them, I’ll take good care that they do not get away again,” said George Strong.

The boys tramped on with the teacher until all calculated they had covered fully a mile. Then they came out of the woods at a point where a babbling brook ran over some rocks. Here was a good-sized clearing and at the farther end a hut that had once been used by lumbermen or charcoal burners.

“They may be in that hut!” cried George Strong. “Let us spread out and surround the building. Use no violence if it can possibly be avoided.”

They scattered as he advised, and approached the lonely hut from all sides. The door stood wide open and with great caution George Strong looked inside. Much to his disappointment nobody was present.

“But they have been here!” cried Jack, as he and his chums entered the dilapidated structure. “See, there are the remains of a fire and of a roast chicken.”

“Must have been living on the contents of some farmers’ hen-houses,” murmured Pepper. “This looks as if they had been here last night if not this morning.”

“Here is the looking-glass that was stolen,” cried Andy, pointing to the object, hanging on the wall.

All searched the old hut with interest and came across a collection of curious objects such as only two crazy men would think of collecting. There were several pots with the bottoms knocked out, a tufted easy chair with the back gone, three shoes for the right foot and none for the left, a bundle of at least forty old neckties, several articles about airships cut from Sunday newspapers, a box of face powder, four hammers, three plumb lines, a dictionary with the words beginning with B and M cut out, and six broken ice skates. Around one skate was a watch chain that appeared to be of solid gold.

“That’s one thing of value,” said Jack. “If it is solid gold it ought to be worth forty or fifty dollars.”

“It is certainly a very fine chain,” answered George Strong. “And unless I am very much mistaken, it belongs to Mr. Callax. It runs in my mind that he used to wear just such a chain as this. They once tried to take it away from him for safe keeping, but he raised such a row they let him keep it.”

“Perhaps they’ll come back to this hut this afternoon or to-night,” suggested Stuffer.

“It is possible. I hope they do,” answered the teacher.

They searched the woods until the middle of the afternoon, stopping only long enough to eat their lunch, which they washed down with a drink from a spring. Then they went back to the hut. Here it was arranged that Pepper, Andy and Jack should go out to the other side of the woods, while the teacher and Stuffer remained at the hut, to await the possible coming of the crazy men.

The three chums soon reached a portion of the woods overlooking a fair-sized stream that flowed into the lake. They were seeking for some means of crossing the brook when Jack suddenly pulled Andy and Pepper back into the bushes.

“What is it?” whispered the Imp.

“I just saw somebody standing on the other side of the brook,” answered the young major.

“One of the crazy men?” queried Andy.

“No, I think it was somebody we wish very much to meet—and in just such a place as this.”

“Who?”

“Will Carey.”