it was, as he afterward told jack, a good man-sized sneeze, and made noise enough to waken the seven sleepers. instantly the voices stopped. poor bob was in a quandary as to what to do. he knew that it would be useless to beat a retreat as they would be sure to hear him and be upon him before he could much more than get started. so he lay perfectly still hoping that they would attribute the sound to some animal. but, in his heart, he knew that the hope was futile. these men knew perfectly well the sound made by any animal in the maine woods and would know that the sneeze came from a human throat.
“by gar! dat some man close here,” he heard one of them say.
“oui, i tink you right,” the other replied. “we better find heem queek.”
bob hoped that they had no light but this hope was almost immediately dashed to the ground as the light from an electric torch began to play through the thick woods. he was lying behind a thick clump of bushes and he tried to worm himself into the midst of them hoping they would conceal him.
the two men were now making no pretense of keeping quiet but were crashing this way and that through the underbrush and the boy knew that unless the unexpected happened it was only a question of a few minutes before they would find him. he was debating whether it would not be better to get up and show himself and had decided on making the move when he felt his foot grasped by a powerful pair of hands and he was yanked violently out of his hiding place.
“me got heem,” his captor called as he grabbed him by the shoulder and jerked him to his feet.
the other man was only a few feet away and in another moment had joined them.
by the light of the torch bob saw that he had been correct in his thought regarding the identity of one of the men. the other was much smaller and, to the best of his knowledge he had never seen him before.
“what you do here, huh?” the big man demanded still retaining his hold on bob’s collar.
“i seem to be just standing here,” bob replied pleasantly.
“oui. you stand here now, but what for you stand here?”
“you ought to know that,” bob grinned “you seem to have been responsible for it. i was lying down until you came along.”
“i tink you follow us. try hear what we say, oui? you know what we do to spies here, huh?”
“i’m a pretty good guesser,” bob replied with an ease which he was far from feeling. “but what makes you think i’m a spy?”
“you tink we one fool?” the man cried angrily. then turning to his companion, he said,
“we tak’ heem wid us. come.”
still keeping a firm hold on bob’s collar he pushed the boy in front of him and ordered him to march. knowing that it was useless to resist at present bob did as he was commanded. he could tell by the sound that the smaller man was following close on the steps of his captor. the going was very rough as the underbrush was thick. bob’s mind was working rapidly. he knew that if he did not escape it was almost certain to go hard with him and he was by no means sure that his life was not in danger. they had proceeded but a short distance, though it seemed to bob that they had been walking a long time, when he bumped into a log which was lying across their path and some eighteen inches from the ground. as he climbed over it a plan flashed into his mind. it was a chance and he determined to risk it. he stepped over the log and his captor followed still keeping a firm grasp on his collar. as soon as the man was clear of the log he stopped and said to his companion,
“look out dat log.”
bob waited a moment until the man ordered him to go ahead. then with a sudden jerk he wrenched himself free and turned so as to face his captor. the frenchman, taken by surprise, stepped back at first and then, with a cry of fury, reached for the boy. and at that instant bob struck. it was too dark for him to see more than the outline of the man’s head but, trusting to luck, he put all the strength of his vigorous young body behind the blow. and it landed just where he had hoped that it would, squarely on the point of the chin. with a grunt the man fell backwards, staggered for a moment, and then crashed over the fallen log carrying the smaller man down with him.
bob waited but an instant to learn the result of his blow. he heard the men go down and then turned and made his way as rapidly as he dared through the forest. he had gone perhaps a hundred feet when he tripped on a root and plunged headlong on his face. fortunately, however, the ground was not hard and he was not hurt. as he scrambled to his feet he heard a great crashing in the underbrush behind him.
“guess i didn’t knock him out after all,” he thought as he started off again.
his heart sank as he realized that, with the aid of the flashlight, they would be able to make faster time than he dared attempt so rough was the going. indeed he had not gone more than a couple of hundred feet farther before he knew that they were but a very short distance behind him and he realized that it was a matter of but a few minutes before they would be upon him.
should he submit to capture a second time or should he make a fight for it? he thought of climbing a tree but dismissed the thought as he knew that such a move would at best only delay his capture.
“you better stop queek or we keel you,” big pierre panted now only a few feet behind him.
“i won’t give up till i have to,” he thought as he scrambled up on to a large rock which he had ran into.
having gained the top of the rock at the expense of a severe bruise on his right shin he started to go down the other side when suddenly his feet flew from beneath him and he felt himself falling. down, down he went until, just as the thought flashed through his mind that it was taking him an awful while to reach the bottom, he struck water.
the fall was all of thirty feet and he was carried far beneath the surface. fortunately he struck feet first and so was not at all hurt. he felt very thankful that he had struck the lake instead of the hard ground and that the water was deep.
as soon as he could he began to swim for the surface and in another moment his head emerged. shaking the water from his eyes he saw a beam of light fall on the water only a few feet away. doubtless the men had heard the splash as he struck the water and had thus been warned in time to avoid following him into the lake. drawing in a long breath. bob sank again beneath the surface and swam out into the lake. he kept beneath the water as long as he could hold his breath and then cautiously allowed his head to emerge. almost at once a beam of light struck full in his eyes and the vicious bark of a revolver, followed by a slight splash only a few inches from his head, caused him to dive once more.
“that was a little too close for comfort,” he thought as he started to swim.
when he was forced to come up this time he turned on his back and floated with only his nose and eyes out of water.
“i’ll give ’em as small a target as possible,” he thought.
he was now so far out from the shore that he had little fear of being hit, even should they be able to locate him with the flash, and he very much doubted their ability to do this. by carefully bending his head he could see the slim pencil of light playing over the water, but not once did it reach him.
feeling now fairly safe he began to swim slowly in a direction at right angles to the way he had pursued under water and which he judged was toward the camp. he was careful to make no noise which might reach the ears of his enemies on the shore. glancing back from time to time he could still see the beam of light as they tried to locate him. but soon it vanished and keeping perfectly still he heard them crashing through the underbrush as they made their way back from the lake.
“guess they’ve given it up as a bad job,” he chuckled as he started to swim more rapidly now.
he swam for what seemed a long time hoping that he was keeping to the right direction as he had nothing to guide him. finally just as he was beginning to feel tired his feet touched bottom and in another minute he was sitting on a rock close by the shore.
“it can’t be very long before it begins to get light now,” he thought.
he had decided that it would be best to wait there until it was light enough to see before trying to find his way back to the camp. he had lost all sense of direction and knew that the chances were that he would take the wrong way should he start in the darkness. and there was always the chance that he might blunder into the hands of his recent captors.
fortunately it was a warm night and although he was not very comfortable sitting there in his wet clothes, still he minded it but little.
“it’s a good deal better than being in their power,” he told himself.
his watch had stopped, the water having worked itself in under the case, and he had no means of knowing the time. he sat with his back propped against a tree and despite the uncomfortable position it was not long before he fell asleep.
he did not know how long he slept but it could not have been very long for when he awoke with a sudden start dawn was just breaking in the east.
“well a little nap was better than none,” he mused as he rose and stretched himself.
he waited a few minutes longer until the light had increased enough to enable him to see his way and then started off along the shore of the lake. he could only guess how far it was back to the camp but he knew that if he followed the shore far enough he was bound to reach his destination sooner or later. but he was in fact much nearer than he thought for inside of twenty minutes he saw the cabin, which he had left a few hours before, looming up through the trees.
“i wonder if jack has missed me,” he thought as he took the door key from his pocket and silently pushed it into the key hole.
he stood and listened a moment as he stepped inside the room and could hear the deep regular breathing of his brother from the little bed-room.
“bet he hasn’t opened his peepers,” he chuckled as he quickly slipped out of his wet clothes and jumped into bed.
he was asleep almost instantly and the next he knew jack was shaking him vigorously by the shoulder.
“make it snappy there,” he cried. “the breakfast horn blew some time ago and if you don’t hurry up you’ll get left on the eats.”
bob was out of bed in an instant and began to pull on his clothes.
“for goodness sake, bob, what’s the matter with your duds? they look as though you had slept between wet sheets in them,” jack declared as he gazed in amazement.
“they do look kinder out of press, that’s a fact,” bob agreed with a broad grin.
“i’ll say they do. what’s the answer? they didn’t look that way last night.”
“wait till after breakfast and i’ll tell you all about it. it’s rather a long story,” and bob, now fully dressed led the way to the dining-room followed by a very much bewildered jack.
the latter noticed that bob looked up quickly with an anxious look on his face each time the door opened. he bolted his breakfast as rapidly as he could. they had been at the table not more than ten minutes when he whispered:
“for goodness sake. bob, are you going to eat all day?”
“just because you have been eating as though you thought your life depended on how much you could stow away per minute you mustn’t think i’ve been doing the same,” bob smiled. “but i’ll be through pretty soon.”
jack waited with what patience he could muster until bob announced that he had finished.
“now spring it and for goodness sake make it snappy,” jack ordered as soon as they were back in the cabin.
so bob told the story of his adventure interrupted many times by exclamations of surprise from his brother.
“you know what p-i-g spells,” the latter declared as soon as he had finished. “’pears like you want to have all the fun yourself. why didn’t you let me go with you?”
“well you see, when i started out i didn’t have an idea that i’d be gone more than a few minutes, and i didn’t want to pull you out of bed on a wild goose chase. of course if i had known what was going to happen i would have taken you along.”
“i suppose so,” jack grunted. “but are you sure that it was the fellow who tried to buy the wheels?”
“certainly i am. i got several good looks at him.”
“well, what’s the next move?”
“that’s the question before the house. last night’s expedition was sure a very unfortunate affair for us. you see, if those men are the ones we’re after they will know now that we are spying on them and it will make our work much more difficult.”
“i guess you’re right about that,” jack agreed soberly. “think we’d better call up the captain?”
“not yet. you see we haven’t really got anything to report. we don’t even know for sure that they are the men we’re after but i have a pretty good sized hunch that they are in the game all right. but we can’t report hunches very well and i reckon we’ll have to wait till we have something a little more definite. but one thing is certain and that is that we’ve got to look out for that fellow pierre. he’s sure bad medicine whether he’s mixed up in this business or not. it’s apt to go hard with us if he ever gets hold of us away from civilization.”
“i guess you’re right there but i don’t think much of this wait stuff. we might wait around here for a week of sundays without finding out anything.” bob smiled at his brother’s enthusiasm.
“i didn’t mean that we should remain inactive. all i wish to impress on you was the futility of going off half cocked. now i have a plan which has been growing in my mind. look here a minute.” bob took a large map from his pocket as he spoke.
“now,” he continued as he spread the map out on the table, “you see here’s where the border runs between the united states and canada. now it strikes me that our best bet is to try to find out the place where they bring the stuff across. of course it is possible that it is brought right through this camp, but i doubt it. you remember the captain said that they had watched here for a long time and he didn’t think that they brought it through here. it would be too risky.”
“but just how are we going to go about it?”
“well my idea is this. you know the boundary line is marked by stones at intervals of about a half a mile so we ought to be able to keep on it pretty closely. now we’ll tell the boss here that we’re going on a hike and get him to let us have some grub. then we’ll follow along the border and if we find a place that looks suspicious we’ll camp near it and see if anything turns up. oh, i know it’s taking a pretty long shot,” he added quickly as he saw a look of doubt on his brother’s face, “but it’s the best bet i can think of.”
“and it’s good enough for me,” jack said quickly. “i was only thinking about that big frenchman.”
“well of course there’s a risk to it but it won’t be the first time we’ve taken them and i fancy we’ll be able to steer clear from him.”
“sure we can. when do we start?”
“i suppose right away is as good a time as any other. you get the rolls made up and i’ll go see the boss about some provisions.”
as he spoke bob was moving toward the door and was about to open it when a loud knock sounded on it. as he swung it open he gave a slight start of surprise for big pierre harbaugh was standing just outside.
“good morning,” bob said after a moment’s pause.
“mornin’.”
it was evident that the man was putting forth an effort to speak pleasantly. this was very surprising to bob and at once put him on his guard.
“will you come in?” he invited stepping back into the room.
the big frenchman followed him.
“now what can we do for you?”
a broad grin lighted up the evil features of the man as he replied.
“i come ask pardon for las’ night. i tink you spy, oui. now i know you no spy. i geet mad las’ night. no mad now. you forgeeve, oui?”
“sure thing. that’s all right,” bob replied easily. “i get mad sometimes myself,” he added with a smile.
“dat ver’ bon. i got go to skowhegan and lak’ be friend with boys.”
“when do you start?” bob asked.
“ver’ queek.”
“well it’s all right so far as i’m concerned,” bob assured him and after a little more talk pierre took his departure again protesting his friendship.
“pretty thin, hey?” jack said as soon as their caller was out of sight.
“not even a good veneer,” bob laughed. “he altogether overdid it. but i have a hunch that he thinks he put it over on us.”
“oh, he swallowed it hook, line and sinker. there’s not a bit of doubt about it,” jack assured him. “but what do you suppose was his idea?”
“it confirms my suspicion that he’s one of the liquor runners. of course his object was to throw us off his trail.”
“and the plot thickens, hey?”
“it’s thick enough all right. and now i guess we’d better wait a bit and watch mr. pierre.”
for about a half an hour they watched from the window and at the end of that time were rewarded by seeing the frenchman come out from the office and start rapidly off on the trail toward jackman.
“he’s going somewhere all right,” jack declared.
“somewhere is right,” bob laughed. “only the word is rather indefinite.”
“well we won’t be apt to find out anything more by sitting here.”
“right, son. i’ll go get the grub and we’ll be off.”
bob had no trouble in getting what he wanted from the owner of the camp who showed no surprise at the request. such hiking trips were common at the camp and he was always prepared to outfit parties. the boys had brought with them their cooking utensils and their preparations were quickly made.
“reckon we’d better take the cells with us,” bob declared as he proceeded to remove the cell from his wheel.
“good thing you thought of it,” jack said as he followed suit.
they had kept the wheels in the cabin refusing the offer of the proprietor to keep them in an out shed.
“there, i guess we’re all ready now,” bob declared after he had added the cell to the contents of his pack.
a number of the guests of the camp, who were walking about the clearing as they started off, wished them good luck, but none asked them where they were going.
