Ned and Frank stood in the shadow behind a protecting rock and peered down into the moonlit canyon for a long time. At first there was no one in sight below, but presently a man came out by the fire, which was burning low now.
It appeared to the boys that he must have crawled out from under the chimney rock itself! He appeared so suddenly that they knew that, at least, there must be an underground hiding place in which he had been concealed when they had first come in view of the canyon and the rock.
The man mended the fire, gathering up the ends of the logs and limbs which had burned through in the middle and placing them back on the coals. Then he opened a box which he had brought from some out-of-sight place and took out canned food and cooking utensils. He was evidently going to get an early breakfast.
Presently a second man joined the first arrival, and they sat down by the fire to wait for water in a great pot to boil. At least, the boys supposed that they were waiting for it to boil.
"I'd like to know what they are talking about," Frank said. "I'm going to see if I can get close enough to them to find out."
"I was just thinking of that myself," Ned responded, "so we may as well be on our way. Keep your gun handy, but don't shoot unless one of them seizes you."
"I'll take good care they don't get hold of me," Frank answered. "Say," he went on, "if Jimmie is there, he must be in some hole under that rock—the one they came out of! If they turn away, I may be able to get in there and see."
"Wait until there is little danger of detection," Ned advised. "We don't know how many men there are in the party, remember."
The boys walked softly back to the north, keeping ridges and outcropping rocks between the canyon and themselves, and then crept softly down the slope so as to come out at the north end of the little cut. The men they were watching were frying bacon and boiling coffee now, and appeared to be thoroughly occupied with their tasks.
In a few moments both boys were within hearing, distance. The men were not talking much, however. In fact, they both seemed to be harboring a grouch, from the infrequent low, grumbling complaints which the boys overheard.
"I'm through with the bunch after this!" one of the men said. "I'm not going to do all the work and let some one else draw all the money."
"It is time we got out of here anyway," the other said. "Those fresh boys were around here this afternoon."
"Why didn't you plug them if you knew they were here?" demanded the other.
Frank nudged Ned in the side with his fist.
"Cheerful sort of people!" he said. "I'm looking to see something start soon."
"I didn't know at the time that they were here!" the man replied, with a snarl. "I'm no Indian sleuth. After they left I started through the grove and found their tracks. Good thing for them that I saw their tracks instead of their heads!"
"Well," the other grunted, "if we are agreed that it is time for us to get out, why don't we get out? I'm not going to take all the chances! Why don't the others come? They won't come, and that's all there is to it. They're waiting for us to do the job! Then they'll claim the pay."
By this time the bacon was crisp and the coffee was simmering fragrantly in the pot and the two men fell to with an appetite. Frank watched them eat with an appetite of his own, rubbing his stomach and trying to show how near the point of starvation he was, although it had been only a short time since he had eaten a hearty meal!
"They don't trust us!" one of the men muttered, at length.
"We haven't got a thing on them, if they see fit to welch on us," the other admitted.
"But if we obey orders, they will have so much on us that we won't dare say a word, even if they make us walk back and buy our own meals on the way!"
"Is it agreed, then, that we're going to cut it?" asked one. "If it is, we may as well go now as at any future time."
"All right."
"Now?" asked the other.
"Why not? It will soon be daylight."
"Good idea, for we can't be seen trailing that kid along with us in the broad light of day," was suggested. "Let's move right now!"
"Now," whispered Frank, "do they mean Jimmie, when they speak of the kid, or some one else? And if they are speaking of some one else, here's a question: Is it the prince, or is it Mike III.?"
"It seems to me," Ned whispered back, "that I've heard something like that before."
"Well, get the kid out and feed him!" one of the men commanded. "We've got to keep him with us until we get pay for what we have already done."
"Now we'll know!" Frank suggested, as one of the men turned toward the rock. "If it is Jimmie we'll soon know it. What?"
They were not long kept in doubt. Jimmie shot out of a hole under the rock like an arrow in full flight and squatted down by the fire. Frank snickered when he saw the boy, and turned hastily away toward a ledge which showed back to the north.
While Ned was wondering what the boy was up to, the long, vicious whine of a wolf reached his ears. The call died away slowly, and was followed by silence, then by the snarling call of the pack!
The men by the fire started to their feet and seized their revolvers. Jimmie jumped away from the blaze and held up his hands, bound tightly together.
"Cut me loose!" he cried. "Are you going to let the wolf come and eat me?"
"There are no wolves in these mountains," declared one of the men."That was a signal of some kind!"
"I've seen wolves since we came in here," Jimmie declared, telling the exact truth, at that, only the wolves he referred to belonged to the Wolf Patrol, Boy Scouts of America! "They're fierce wolves, too!" he added.
Frank crawled back to Ned's side and lay laughing at the commotion the signal had caused in the little camp. The men hastened their packing, and one of them who had been about to give Jimmie his breakfast snatched the bread and bacon away and put them in a pack he was making up.
"Here!" the boy shouted. "You give me the eats! Think I'm going to travel over these mountains with me tummy abusing me for not doing the right thing by it?"
"You're lucky to have any tummy!" snarled one of the men.
"Aw, give the kid his breakfast!" commanded the other.
The men quarreled and growled at each other while the packing was going on, and Jimmie sat looking around for some sign of the Boy Scout who had given the signal. In half an hour they were ready, and then Jimmie was ordered to move on.
"If you try to run away," he was informed, "you'll be chased by a bullet. We have no time to fool with you! Just keep a pace or two in advance, and march straight ahead and you'll have no trouble. Get along, now!"
"But where's the prince?" asked Frank. "I thought we were going to find the royal prince here!"
"The prince of what?" asked Ned. "The prince of the slums or the prince of a little patch of ground over the sea?"
"Blessed if I know," Frank commented. "See me throw a scare into those bums!"
The men stopped still in their tracks when the ugly snarl of a bear came to them out of the darkness. Frank did himself proud in the manner in which he put out the bear talk. The men were surely frightened.
"Now there's a bear!" wailed Jimmie, although Ned thought he caught a note of fun in his voice. "Don't you know these hills are full of bears? We saw some at our camp last night," he added, "eating bread and honey!"
"Bear nothing!" shouted one of the men. "There ain't a bear within a hundred miles of this place! This is some trick!"
Again the fierce, angry snarl of the bear! Ned caught Frank by the arm to keep him quiet, but the boy finished the bear talk he had begun.
Then Jimmie hastened matters by breaking away and running toward the rock from which the sound had proceeded. Both men took after him, but a shot from Frank's gun caused them to halt. They stood still for an instant, their figures tense and tall, and then turned and ran, almost tumbling over each other in their fright!
They did not stop at slight declivities. They leaped gulleys and almost fell into canyons which split the summits. In vain Ned called to them to halt, that they would not be injured. They ran like race horses, and were soon out of sight. Frank and Jimmie were rolling on the ground in their delight.
Ned looked grave and annoyed. Without speaking he looked over the camp where the men had cooked the breakfast and then returned to the boys.
"I am sorry for that," he said, mildly. "I wanted to put those men through the third degree! We should have held them up and put on the handcuffs."
"You didn't say so!" observed Frank sheepishly.
"No use to talk about it now," Ned declared. "Perhaps Jimmie knows what we expected to learn from them."
"All I know is that the bums got me at the cave and tied me up,"Jimmie said.
"How many men have you seen in the party?" asked Ned. "Just those two. They were always talking about some one else coming in, but I never saw any one else."
"What did they talk about?" asked Ned.
"They were trying, most of the time, to make me admit that the CameraClub was a secret service organization," laughed the lad. "Of courseI denied it!"
"What did they say about a child?"
"Not one word! I kept my ears open for that kind of talk!"
"Did they have a boy with them at any one time?" asked Ned.
"This afternoon, or yesterday afternoon, rather, I saw a kid moving about on the slope. I was cooking, and built two fires so as to make a signal. Did you see it?"
"Yes, we saw it," answered Ned, "but did not reply to it for the reason that we feared discovery. We wanted to come here in the night and release you and capture the two outlaws! But what sort of a child was it that you saw?"
"Why, it was the kid from the cabin. Say, Ned," he added, with a wink at Frank, "is that the prince, or is it Mike III.?"
"Cut it out!" roared Frank. "We've heard enough of that."
Ned laid a hand on the shoulder of each boy.
"That shot attracted attention," he whispered, "or the runaways are coming back. I hear some one tramping over rock, and a moment ago I caught the gleam of a gun barrel."
"Then it's me for a hole to crawl into!" whispered Jimmie. "I've had troubles of my own for the past few hours! Say, but I'm hungry, boys."
The boys left their place of retreat just as a couple of bullets spattered on rock.
More shots were fired, but the boys were soon out of range. A flush of pink was showing in the sky now, and the sun would be up in half an hour. Jimmie looked longingly toward the camp, and Ned turned his footsteps that way.
"Speaking of quitters," Jimmie said, as they moved along, "the two men who geezled me take the bun! They quarreled all the time because some one else didn't come and do something they wanted done! No wonder they ducked when one shot was fired!"
"About the boy you saw yesterday afternoon," Ned asked. "Are you sure it was the lad who was brought to our camp?"
"Of course it was!"
"Dressed just the same?"
"Just exactly."
"Why didn't you take a picture of him?" asked Frank.
"Huh, don't you ever think I didn't," was the reply. "I've got it in my camera now. When we get to camp I'll develop it and print some. I've got pictures of the men, too, and about everything around the hole in the ground where they hid me."
"That is as it should be!" Ned declared. "But how did you do it!"
"They are easy!" was all the reply Jimmie made.
A quarter of a mile away from the chimney rock Ned paused and looked back.
"I can't understand where those men went to," he said.
"My friends do you mean?" asked Jimmie with a grin. "They're going on a hop yet."
"No; the men who did the shooting," said Ned.
"Well," Jimmie went on, in a minute, "there is a place somewhere near the rock where some friends of the men who ran are camping. I heard them talking together."
"You little rascal!" Ned exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me that before?"
"Oh, you won't find them there now!" Jimmie advised. "I'll bet they ducked when we got away. They won't remain around here now."
"Are they counterfeiters?" asked Frank.
"They're bums from the city, brought here in connection with the abduction of the prince!" laughed Jimmie.
"How did you manage to cook and take pictures when you were tied up like a fish for shipment?" asked Frank.
"They didn't tie me up for a time, for I gave them a lot of talk about liking their society," was the answer. "They just watched me. When it came night and they wanted to sleep, they put the harness on!"
"That was careless of them," declared Frank, "not to tie you up tight."
"They're just cheap bums," Jimmie insisted. "They couldn't kidnap a bird in a cage."
The sun was up when the boys reached thecamp, and Teddy was getting breakfast.
The arrival of Jimmie was hailed with manifestations of joy, as may well be supposed. The boys clustered around him excitedly, and even Uncle Ike, from the corral, sent forth a he-haw greeting. The breakfast Teddy prepared for him was a wonder!
The meal was scarcely finished when Bradley came sauntering into the camp. He stopped suddenly when he saw Jimmie. Watching him closely, Ned saw that he was dismayed as well as astonished. However, he soon came forward with a set smile on his face and took the boy by the hand.
"You're lucky," he said, "to get out of the clutches of the counterfeiters so soon. I was afraid something serious might have happened to you. How did you do it?"
"Ned came after me," was the only reply the boy made.
"We've decided to go away," Ned explained, "and so they gave him up, after a short argument."
"With a gun!" whispered Jimmie to the others.
Bradley loitered about the camp for a long time, asking questions and talking of a great many things which did not interest the lads at all.
"And so you are going out to-morrow?" he asked, arising to go.
"We expect to," Ned replied soberly.
"Perhaps I'll meet you outside somewhere," Bradley laughed.
"I hope so!" Ned replied, whispering an aside to Frank.
Frank walked away toward the tent, and directly, while Bradley's face was in clear outline, Ned heard the click of a shutter and knew that the snapshot had been made.
When Bradley at last started away Ned called the boys together and asked them if it wouldn't be a good idea for them to take a prisoner—just to equalize things!
"Bradley?" asked Frank and Jimmie in chorus.
"That's the man," laughed Ned. "Do you think you could head him off and hide him in some out-of-the way hole in the ground?"
"What for?" demanded Jack. "I don't see what you want to do that for."
"Just for the fun of it!" Jimmie exclaimed. "I'll guard him after he is taken!" he added, with an appealing look at Ned.
"Well," Ned went on, nodding at Jimmie, "I have an idea that if two of you work down the slope and come out ahead of him you can coax him to throw up his hands easily enough."
"Then, after that, if you leave it to me," Jack continued, "you'll go down to the cabin and get the prince and start away with him!"
"You're sure it is the prince?" asked Ned.
"Of course! I should think any one with sense could see that. Just see how suspiciously the kid is watched! Of course, if you want to take the abductor along too, why that will be all right, but I'd get the prince first!"
"That's good advice," Ned declared, seeking to conciliate the boy, "and I'll go down to the cabin now and look after that end of the game!"
"If things work this way," laughed Oliver, "I guess wewillget away to-morrow!"
"Why don't you let me go with the boys and help capture that stiff?" asked Jack, speaking to Ned. "He may be armed and perfectly willing to shoot."
"We have messed things up a bit here," Ned answered, "so whatever we do must be done at once. I have another little errand to do while they capture Bradley!"
"Oh, we'll get him, all right!" Frank insisted.
"You bet we will!" Jimmie added. "I'll tie him up tight, too! He won't take no pictures while he is my prisoner."
"Perhaps he won't have a baby camera hidden under his coat! laughedFrank.
"What are you going to say to him, boys, when you take him?" askedTeddy.
"We ain't going to say anything," Jimmie answered, "We're just going to get him!"
"Be careful, boys," was all Ned said as Frank and Jimmie left on their dangerous mission. "Be careful!"
After they had disappeared up the slope Ned turned to Jack.
"You saw one act of the play yesterday," he said to him. "Suppose you come with me now and see another act."
Jack came forward with outstretched hand and downcast face.
"Say, Ned," he said, "I'm sore at myself!"
"What's that for?" Ned asked, shaking the hand heartily and lifting the boy's face by taking him by the chin. "Why are you sore at yourself?"
"Because I acted like a dunce when we left chimney rock without signaling to Jimmie," was the reply, "and because I grumbled like a bear with a sore head when you suggested that Bradley be captured."
"You had a perfect right to express your opinion, my boy," Ned said.
"Yes, but I might have known that you knew what you were about. To be honest, I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw you bringing Jimmie back."
"The least demonstration on our part at that time," Ned said, then, "might have caused the men who were guarding Jimmie to shift their quarters. Besides, I wanted Bradley in the toils before I made the final break."
"But he wasn't when you released Jimmie," Jack suggested.
"He will be before the final card is laid down," Ned replied. "But come," he went on, "we must be moving if we get to the cottage before the trouble begins."
"I'm all in the dark," Jack said, "but I'm willing to take your judgment now."
Ned and Jack hastened away, traveling down the slope to the west and south so as to get to the cottage in the quickest possible time. When they came in sight of the structure they saw Mary Brady sitting in the doorway, her head bent forward, her face buried in the palms of her hands.
She arose at the sound of their footsteps and advanced with outstretched hands to meet them. There were tears on her face and her manner was excited.
"You came too late!" she cried, wringing Ned's hand. "They have taken him away."
"When?" asked Ned, leading the old lady into the cabin.
"Oh, I don't know when! Sometime in the night. I awoke and saw that the bed was empty and called to Bradley. He arose and has been looking for him ever since."
"He was just up at our camp—looking!" Ned said, with a wink at Jack.
The old lady now went to a cupboard and brought forth a glass in which a dark fluid rested. A small black brush stood against the side of the vessel.
"I found this for you, as you asked," she said.
Ned examined the contents of the glass and made a mark on a white paper with the brush. The color transmitted to the paper was a light brown, not black.
"You washed the boy, as I asked you to?" Ned then enquired.
"I tried to," was the reply, "but Bradley said he would take him out and give him a swim in the run down in the valley. He wouldn't let me touch him."
"Well, what did the pillow case show this morning?"
The old lady pointed to the white paper.
"It was stained like that," she said.
During this talk Jack had been standing looking from Ned to the old lady with all shades of expression on his face. Now he spoke.
"Say, Ned," he almost gasped, "what is the meaning of all this?"
"Wait a minute!" Ned said, facing the old lady again. "And you listened to their talk when they sat together last night?"
"Indeed I did, sir, and its the first time I ever played the spy!"
"What was Bradley saying to him?" asked Ned, then.
"He was saying French words over and over for him to repeat!"
Jack dropped into a chair and looked helplessly at his chum.
"Foolish little French phrases, like one finds at the back of any dictionary?" asked Ned. "He was repeating them so that the boy could say them after him?"
"Yes, sir, that is just it."
"Now, Jack, what about your prince of the royal blood?" asked Ned.
"I gather from what I hear that he was painted," said Jack, with a shamed look in his eyes. "Painted!"
"Sure he was!" cried the woman. "Painted and taught foolish littleFrench words to say! But he is Mike's boy! I know that!"
"This is like the Arabian Nights!" Jack cried.
"Worse!" Ned declared, "for all my plans have gone wrong with the disappearance of the boy."
Frank and Jimmie hastened down the slope to the west, after toiling up and crossing the broken summit, and soon caught sight of the man they had been instructed to take prisoner. Bradley was walking swiftly, his haste not at all matching the leisurely air he had affected at the camp.
"How do you feel now?" asked Jimmie, wrinkling his nose at Frank."How does it seem to be a bold, bad gunman?"
"I think it is a little shivery," Frank answered. "When I get back to New York," he went on, "I'm going to write a story for Dad's newspaper entitled: 'Desperate Desmonds I have Shot Up in the Hills.' That title ought to make a hit on the East Side, south of First street!"
"I feel like a second-story man, and a gopher-worker, and a train-robber, and a confidence operative all rolled into one!" Jimmie admitted. "This holding people up is new exercise for us! Say, will you agree to let me push the gun into his face?"
"We'll both have guns, you little highway-man!" Frank replied. "You needn't think I'm going to look on and miss all the fun!"
"Then you let me tie him up!" coaxed Jimmie. "I won't tie him very tight, just so he can't breathe, and so his blood won't circulate!" "You're the fierce little bandit!" declared Frank.
"Well, the gang he belongs to tied me up!" complained the boy. "I'm going to get even on this geek! We can walk right down on him at any time now. He'll never suspect that we're pirates."
"First," Frank observed, "I'd like to know where he is going so fast."
"He may go so fast that he'll get to friends before we harness him!" warned Jimmie. "Then we couldn't get him at all, but might, instead, get geezled ourselves."
"There seems to be a little sense left in that head of yours," Frank laughed, "even if your friends do think it is solid bone! So we'd better skip along and take him under our protection before we have an army to fight. Say, but won't he take a tumble to himself when he finds himself stuck up by two boys?"
Not withstanding their half-humorous talk concerning what they were about to do, the boys both realized that they were facing a serious situation. They had every confidence in Ned's judgment, still they had no knowledge of Bradley which seemed to them to warrant the bold step they were about to take.
Jimmie was under the impression that Bradley belonged to the coterie which had taken him prisoner, but he had no proof of it. Bradley had been, apparently, accepted by Mrs. Mary Brady, and that seemed a good recommend for him. Still, there were the instructions, and they were resolved to carry them out. Neither expressed to the other his secret thought on the subject.
"Where are we going to hide him, after we take him?" asked Jimmie, after a time, during which the lads had managed by hard work to decrease the distance between themselves and Bradley. "How about the old counterfeiters' den?"
"That's the first place his friends will look for him! No, sir, we've got to find a little retreat of our own, and one of us must guard him. Do you know how long Ned wants to keep him?" asked Frank.
"Don't know a thing about it," was the reply. "I don't even know why he wants him captured, or what proof he has against him."
The boys were now not far away from Bradley, and, hearing the rattle of broken rock behind him, he turned and looked back at the boys, who were swinging along with their hands in their pockets. He waited for them to come up.
"Taking a little walk, eh?" he questioned, as the boys came to the level space on the mountainside where he had paused.
Bradley seemed to be entirely unconscious of danger, for he turned his back to the boys presently, after a few short sentences had passed between them, and moved forward, as if to continue his way down the slope.
"Just a minute!" Frank said, sharply, and he faced them.
Two automatic revolvers were within a foot of his head, and the eyes of the boys back of them declared that the situation was not the result of a joke.
"Hold out your hands!" Jimmie ordered. "We want to see if you're toting any smoke-wagons! Push 'em out, Mister!"
Bradley did not hesitate a second. His hands went out like a flash. There was a smile on his lips as Jimmie removed his revolver, but his jaw was threatening.
"And so you are just common thieves?" he said.
"Aw, quit it!" Jimmie answered. "We're taking care of you so you won't fall over a precipice and hurt yourself."
"You'll find very little money on me," Bradley went on. "I've sent in to the city for a couple of hundred. You ought to have waited a few days."
"We don't want your money," Frank cut in, "all we want is the benefit of your society for a time."
Bradley flushed angrily when Jimmie adroitly snapped a pair of handcuffs on his outstretched wrists, but he made no protest.
"Now you can put down your hands," Jimmie announced. "They'll get stiff if you hold 'em out too long. Now, sit down and pick out your hotel. You may have a room in most any section of this district. Immaterial to us where we put you!"
"What does it mean?" demanded Bradley. "I presume you boys know what you are doing. There's law in this state, as wild as this country looks to be. You'll get years behind prison bars for this."
"Before I forget it," Jimmie asked, with a wink at Frank, "I want you to tell me something. Will you?"
"That depends. What is it you want to know?"
"This: Is the boy down at the cabin the prince, or is he Mike III?"
The eyes of both boys were fixed keenly on Bradley's face as the question was put. So far as they could see, it did not change a particle in color or expression.
"That's a queer question for you to ask," he said. "You'd better asked Mrs. Brady whether it is her grandson or not! And I don't know what you mean, talking about a prince. I haven't seen any prince about here—except the prince of the son of thieves!"
"So you won't tell, eh?" asked Frank.
"The boy I brought in is Michael Brady, son of the son of Mrs.Brady."
Sitting on the level space half way down to the outcropping ledge which held the workroom of the counterfeiters, Bradley looked anxiously in the direction of the canyon.
Jimmie noted the look and took out his field glass. People were moving about in the canyon, and down in the valley to the south, where the cabin stood, something out of the ordinary seemed to be going on.
"You are expecting friends?" asked Frank.
"They are liable to come any minute," was the cool reply.
"Then we'd better be going," Jimmie cut in. "There are men in the canyon, and in the valley, and they may be coming up here to find out why you don't meet them, as per agreement! Are they good waiters? If they are, you may find them still in the valley after you've served a couple of terms in a Federal prison!"
"Be careful what you say," warned Bradley. "I'm in your power now, but there'll come a time when I won't be. Remember that!"
Jimmie's glass showed him that the men below were starting up the slope.
"We'll go back toward camp," he said to Frank. "I guess the fellows down there are watching us through glasses. If you don't mind," he added, turning to Bradley with a provoking laugh, "we'll stow you away in a hole in the rocks somewhere until they get tired of looking for you!"
"Go as far as you like!" was the reply.
Frank and Jimmie stepped aside and conversed together in low tones, trying to make up their minds what to do with the prisoner. It had taken little trouble to capture him, but it seemed to them that it would be no easy matter to hold him.
"There's a cute little dip in the summit not far from the camp," Frank said, at length. "A boulder tumbled out of the slope, and there's a cave big enough to hide three in, only there is a part of it which has no roof."
"Don't mind that!" Bradley said, in a sarcastic tone. "We won't have a long residence in any place you select now."
"The summit is spotted with queer little openings where soft rock has been washed out," Frank said, "and we can locate not far from the camp if we want to."
"I suppose you boys are doing this under the orders of this Nestor boy?" asked Bradley. "When you get to him, kindly ask him to call on me. I want to know what all this means."
"Let's see, what was it you said about the child you brought in with you?" asked Jimmie, wrinkling his freckled nose until it did not seem possible to ever get it out straight again, "what was it you said his name was? Was it Prince Abductable or Mike the Third?"
Bradley scowled but said nothing. The boys now set off up the slope with their prisoner. Now and then they turned to look into the canyon and the valley below.
The men they had observed in the canyon were slowly ascending. There were four of them, and it seemed to the boys that they were examining every foot of the ground they covered. Bradley looked downward, too, and a smile came to his face as he did so. It was plain that he expected help from that quarter.
The boys walked as swiftly as possible, and soon came to the summit, where a view of the camp was had. The corral where the mules were feeding was also in sight, farther down, and Teddy was seen making friends with Uncle Ike.
The camp looked so quiet and deserted that Jimmie took out his field glass again and looked closely. The flap of the tent was up, and the boy could see for some distance into the interior.
Trunks and boxes were open, their contents scattered about the floor. A figure lay still on the floor, as if asleep. Jimmie could not see the face, but from the size and expression of the shoulders he imagined it to be Dode.
Oliver was not to be seen. Then, while the boy watched, with a premonition of approaching evil in his mind, he saw two men move out into the center of the tent. They were looking through handfuls of papers, or pictures, or something similar. Jimmie could not determine at that distance just what they were carrying.
"Look here, Frank," the boy said, "just take a look at the tent."
Not a word to arouse the interest of the prisoner was said. Frank looked and handed the glass back to his chum. Jimmie knew what his chum feared as well as if he had put that fear into words. Bradley was smiling calmly.
"They have raided the tent!" Jimmie whispered, and Frank nodded.
"And they are destroying our plates and prints," Jimmie went on, "and so we'd better be getting down there to see about it."
Jack stood in the little cabin in the valley and looked Ned expectantly in the face.
"Tell me," he finally said, "tell me why they painted this boy?"
"To get us off the trail of the prince," replied Ned.
"But it seems that they failed," suggested Jack. "You know?"
"I suspected from the very first," Ned answered. "Yesterday afternoonI knew."
"Well, it may be all right," Jack muttered, "or the man who brought him here may need a new wire on his trolley, but I can't see why they should bring this counterfeit prince here at all."
"They knew that we were coming here," Ned explained, resolved to give his chum a full understanding of the situation. "They knew we were coming here in quest of the prince. How they knew I can't make out, but they knew."
"They might have heard more than we supposed from the attic over the clubroom," Jack suggested.
"If the story of the maid and the coachman is straight," Ned continued, "they heard little that night. But they knew! They might have bribed some of the servants. I don't know. They might have been in that room before that evening.
"At any rate, when the Boy Scout Camera Club started for West Virginia by way of Washington the friends of the abductors knew what was going on. Now, it is my opinion that the prince had been headed for the mountains before the conspirators became aware of our connection with the case."
"I begin to see daylight!" Jack cried.
"Well, the prince being on his way to the hills and we having a good idea as to the locality of his place of hiding, the conspirators conceived the idea of giving us a false little prince to play with!"
"They're no fools!" Jack exclaimed. "No fools at all!"
"Now," Ned went on, "some of the conspirators knew Mrs. Brady's son in Washington. They knew of his many promises to his mother to return to the mountains. They knew of his recent promise to her to come home and bring the boy with him. They were doubtless very intimate with Mike Brady, Senior, for they knew all the little details of the life his mother was living.
"So they got him to permit them to bring the boy to his grandmother.They knew he would be looking for a prince in the hills, and so theygave us a false one to engage our attention! Rather clever, that,Jack."
The old lady was now regarding Ned with eyes which expressed awe as well as wonder.
"How did you find it all out?" she asked. "How do you know what took place in the minds of those wicked men?"
"After they took possession of the boy they began bribing him to play the part he has played here so imperfectly. They taught him cheap little French phrases from the dictionary, and touched up his already dusky complexion so as to make him look darker than ever. Yesterday I saw Bradley at work on his face with a brush!"
"And the lad played his part!" the grandmother declared. "I don't know how Bradley led him along, but the boy was willing to do as he was told. I never saw such a wild little chap so thoroughly subdued before. He wouldn't even tell me the truth when I took him in my old arms last night and talked to him."
"But he evidently told Bradley what you said to him," Ned continued, "for he got the child away in the night. Then he came to camp this morning to see if he could find out how much I knew. He's probably tied up by this time!"
"You have had him arrested," asked the old lady. "Then he'll never tell where the boy has been hidden, and he'll die of starvation—die almost within sound of my voice."
"We'll find him," Ned answered, grimly. "We can make Bradley talk, I imagine."
"And while this has been going on," Jack said, "the true prince, the boy we came here to find, has doubtless been carried to some other part of the country?"
"I don't believe it!" Ned replied. "The conspirators would naturally expect us to shift our search for him back to Washington, or Chicago, or New York, wouldn't they? As soon as we discovered that this boy was not the person we sought, they would expect us to leave the hills at once, wouldn't they? Well, if they anticipated such a move on our part, what is more natural than that they should take advantage of this alleged idea on our part and leave the prince right here?"
"That is just what they would do!" cried Jack. "That is just what they have done. I wondered why you told Bradley we were going out! I had no idea that you knew so much about the case."
"Bradley knew that I knew the boy to be an imposter," Ned went on. "He intended we should make the discovery in time—after he had watched the grandson for a few days, sized up the situation generally, and dropped out of sight. He intended me to know in a couple of weeks, after he was out of harm's way. But I discovered the trick too quickly for him."
"When did you first suspect?" asked Jack.
"That first morning. The boy's French was from the back of the book, and there was too strong an atmosphere of Washington about him—an atmosphere which does not savor of the quiet life of the prince of the blood. Then when I watched him closer I saw that he had been painted. Oh, it was all plain enough."
"So you think the prince is here—in these hills?" asked the old lady.
"I can't say, now," Ned replied. "I am sure that he was here yesterday. I think I saw him! But the escape of the two men who captured Jimmie mussed things up a lot. I wanted to put them through a little examination.
"After their escape I could not pose longer as a lad after snapshots!I can't say as I deceived the conspirators when I laid the capture ofJimmie to the counterfeiters. I think I did fool them when I said wewere going out of the hills in order to protect the captive.
"Well, when we released Jimmie and let the two guards escape, that part of the game was off. If I could have held the men it would have been different."
"Perhaps Bradley can be made to tell where the prince is," suggestedJack.
"I hardly thinks he knows," Ned replied. "He has not, I think, been taken fully into the confidence of the men higher up, any more than have the men who guarded Jimmie."
"He certainly knows where my grandson is," exclaimed the old lady, "and I'll tear his heart out but I'll make him tell me. He took him away!"
"I am not so certain of that, either," Ned mused. "I don't know just how far the criminal head of the conspiracy has trusted him."
"You'll do all you can to find my boy, won't you?" pleaded the old lady.
"Don't worry about the boy," Ned urged. "Well find him. If Frank and Jimmie have had good luck Bradley is under arrest now, and something will be brought out to lead to his discovery. Besides, with the disguise penetrated, there is no longer any motive for holding him, unless he knows too much, which is not likely."
"If his father was here he might help," suggested the old lady.
Jack, who had been looking steadily out of the window for some little time, now turned to Ned with a smile on his face.
"I know now what you wrote in your little red book!" he said.
"Are you certain of that?"
"Why, of course. You wrote the answer to the question: 'Is it the prince, or is it Mike III?' Didn't you, now?"
"Yes, I did!" was the reply. "I was almost positive before, but I knew that day."
"And now we are just where we began," Jack said. "We've solved one phrase of the case, but we haven't found the prince."
"That will come later," Ned declared, confidently. "Well," he went on, "we have finished our work here for the present. We have learned of the disappearance of the grandson and we have confirmed my previous belief, that the boy was sent in here to draw our attention from the abducted child. So we may as well go back to camp and see what the boys have been doing."
The old lady still clung to Ned piteously, begging him to restore her boy, and Ned promised to do all in his power to place the lad in her arms.
"If my son would only come!" the woman kept saying.
"If you'll give me his address," Ned promised, "I'll see him when I get back to Washington, if he is not already here or on his way here."
The address was given and the boys startedon the return trip to camp.
"Now, Jack," Ned said, when they were on their way up the slope, "do you know where the nearest telegraph station is?"
"There's one over on the south fork of the Potomac," Jack replied.
"You are good friends with Uncle Ike?" Ned then asked, with a laugh.
"Sure I am. Uncle Ike is a friend of every person who carries sugar in his pocket."
"Well, when we get back to camp I'll give you a night message. You must take the mule and get it to the station. You may not be able to get there to-night. If you can't, send it when you do get there. Wait for an answer. When you get it tell Uncle Ike it is important and get here with it as soon as possible. You've got a hard trip ahead of you, boy!" he added. "I'm game!" laughed Jack. "If there's any of this prince trouble leaked out," he added, "what shall I say?"
"Tell the old story. Say that we are in the hills for art's sake, and that we have been annoyed by counterfeiters! Nothing serious, understand? Not a word about our real mission here. You notice that even the men we are battling with want it understood that it is the counterfeiters who are trying to drive us out."
"There must be something mighty strange about this abduction game," Jack grinned. "No one will even admit that there is a prince in the case."
When the boys came to the vicinity of the summit, south of a point in line with the camp and the canyon where the counterfeiters had been discovered, they stopped and took a good survey of the landscape.
"We can probably learn more about what has been going on," Jack suggested, "by hiking straight for the camp. I'm anxious to be off on that trip. Uncle Ike will like it—not! But I'll make him like it! I'll give you a good imitation of a boy sailing over the mountains on the freight deck of a mule!"
"I was wondering," Ned said, composedly, though his eyes were troubled, "whether we had any camp left! If you'll look off to the north, you'll see four men crouching in a dent in the slope. Rough-looking chaps, eh?"
"I see!" Jack whispered. "Have they seen us? That's the question now."
"If they saw us," Ned continued, "they would either be making for us or trying to get out of sight. No; they are watching the camp. See! They are where they can look over the summit."
"If they haven't been to the camp I'll think ourselves lucky," Ned said.
"They probably haven't!" Jack cried. "But look there, they are going on a rush right now! Must be Bradley's friends. What?"
Bradley smiled cynically as he looked down toward the tent. He could not, of course, distinguish the figures as plainly as Jimmie could with the glass, but he knew from the excited manner of the boys that something unusual was taking place.
"You have visitors at the camp?" he asked cooly, as the lads motioned to him to move on. "I shall be glad to meet them, you may be sure."
He held out his manacled hands suggestively as he spoke.
"You're not invited!" Jimmie grunted. "We've got private date with those people. You might muss things up, if we permitted you to go with us!"
"Very well," Bradley replied. "They'll know where I am. But, for fear they'll not recognize me, at this distance, I'll just give them notice that I'm here."
Jimmie and Frank both sprang forward to prevent the promised outcry, but Bradley proved too quick for them. The cry that rose from his lips was long, shrill and significant in its insistance. It was finally stopped by Bradley being thrown to the ground, where he lay with the old sarcastic smile on his face.
"You've done it now!" Frank gritted. "You ought to be shot."
"You are none too good to commit a murder—to kill an unarmed and defenseless man."
"If you don't keep that twirler of yours reefed I'll tie it up!"Jimmie declared, with a threatening motion.
He might have gagged Bradley there and then only that Frank called his attention to the camp. The two men who had been seen inside were now hiding on the west side of the tent, and Teddy was coming up the slope from the corral. Oliver was nowhere to be seen, and the supposition was that he had been captured by the outlaws.
"We've got to tie this robber hand and foot and gag him!" Frank cried. "We've got to get down to the camp right away!"
"Perhaps," Bradley observed, with a provoking laugh, "you'll also tie and gag the men who are coming up the hill from the canyon."
The four men were now nearly half way up the slope from the cut, and having heard the cry, were making good time in the ascent. The situation looked anything but peaceful!
The boys were anxious and excited, and Bradley counted on this when he made the next move. The men on the west slope had of course heard his call, he reasoned, and were hastening up to his rescue.
Believing this, he took a desperate chance when he sprang away from the boys, dropped to the ground and went bumping over the broken slope, handcuffed as he was. Jimmie had his automatic out in a moment, but by that time Bradley was concealed by one of the boulders which lay on the declivity.
It was useless to try to recapture the fellow, for the men coming up the slope had seen something of what had taken place, and were now on the run wherever the nature of the ground permitted. Besides, they were already within shooting distance, and the boys would be directly under fire if they sought to bring Bradley back.
"It is a hopeless case!" Frank cried. "We can't get him!"
"The best thing we can do, then, is to get to the camp," Jimmie observed.
"Then duck low and cut away to the north!" Frank cried. "Perhaps we can make most of the distance under cover. Say," he added, as they moved along, northward on the slope toward the east, "did you ever see anything like that? That Bradley is some wise guy when it comes to a pinch!"
"He's daring!" Frank commented. "He will make us trouble yet!"
"I believe," Jimmie went on, "that he's the fellow that got into the attic over the clubroom of the Black Bear Patrol. When he was down on the ground, sitting looking over the country, I saw a scar on his head, a sharp cicatrice, three-cornered. You know how he got that?"
"The maid threw a large pair of shears at some one that night," Frank said. "You remember we found blood and a blonde hair on one of the blades."
"Just the sort of hair that gink carries on his dome!" Jimmie added.
The men coming up the west slope had not yet reached the summit, and the men below were still hiding behind the tent. Teddy was approaching the fire.
"They'll get the kid in a minute!" Jimmie said.
"I don't know about that," Frank replied. "He seems to me to be getting suspicious. Notice how he stops and looks around—probably looking for Oliver or Dode."
It was clear that the men waiting behind the tent were becoming impatient, for they moved along and made ready to spring upon the boy. Teddy, however, was not advancing.
Something about the tent had warned him that it was in the hands of the enemy. With a shout of warning to Oliver and Dode, if they chanced to be free and within hearing, he turned and dashed toward the corral.
While the two men were getting under way in pursuit, Frank and Jimmie came out on an easier slope and moved rapidly downward. Teddy was soon out of sight, and then the men turned back.
At that moment a shot came from the summit, and the boys turned to see the four men whom they had observed on the slope heading down for the camp.
"They've found Bradley, of course!" Frank said.
"Yes," answered Jimmie, "there's no use of playing double now, for they know that we are next to their game."
"Shall we rush for the camp?" asked Frank.
"Nothing doing," Jimmie answered. "We can't do a thing there, and we are under cover here! Bradley has, of course, told them that we are here, but they won't be able to find us for a long time. If they get too gay with the things at the camp we'll send a few bullets down. Looks like things were coming their way now, eh?" he added.
"We can't hold the top hand all the time," Frank grunted. "Ned will come along directly and even things up a little. I wish he was here now!"
The four men were now scrambling along the slope, looking for the two boys as they walked, slid and jumped down. The two men who were at the camp had turned back from the pursuit of Teddy at the sound of the shot, and were now awaiting the approach of their friends.
"I suppose they'll burn the tent and drive the mules off!" wailedJimmie. "I'd like to have a machine gun up here a little while!"
"I reckon they won't!"
This from Frank as a shot came from the slope to the south. The men who were rushing from the camp paused and looked at each other.
While they waited, uncertain as to what they ought to do, another shot came, this time from the corral. Teddy was evidently getting into action!
"Just for luck!" Jimmie shouted.
He fired two shots as he spoke, and two more came from the south and one from the corral. The four men beckoned to their companions at the tent—if such they were—and made a break for the summit which they had just left.
"Whoo—pee!" shouted Jimmie. "Look at the racers!"
At sound of the voice one of the men turned and fired a shot at the rock against which the boy lay. It broke off a splinter but did no harm to the boys.
Frank left cover and ran up the slope.
"Come one!" he cried. "We'll get Bradley yet!"
Jimmie was not long in catching up with him. When they gained the summit the four men were losing no time in their journey to the canyon. They were on their feet only a part of the time.
The boys saw Bradley rise from a sheltering rock and start after them, but he fell in a moment. Handcuffed as he was, he could not keep pace with them. The fugitives paid no attention to his calls for assistance. It was every man for himself at that moment. Bradley sat hopelessly down to await the arrival of the boys.
Just as they gained the spot where he sat Ned and Jack came out of the jungle of broken rocks to the south and looked smilingly down at the prisoner.
"Good day!" laughed Jack.
Bradley forced a smile and turned away.
"You took that trick!" he said.
Jimmie stepped forward and put his fingers into the blonde hair of the captive.
"Where did you get this scar?" he asked, and Ned at once bent forward.
"I fell down and stepped on it!" Bradley answered, still smiling.
"I'll tell you how you got it," Jimmie went on. "You sneaked into a room in New York where you had no business to be and a girl threw a pair of shears at you!"
"That's a fine story!" snarled Bradley. "I never was in New York.
"Bring him along, boys," Ned said. "We'll go on down to camp and see what's been done to our tent and things by this man's friends."
When they once more came to the summit, Teddy was standing outside the tent with Oliver and Dode and the two outlaws were nowhere to be seen. After that Bradley complained at the rate of speed the boys insisted on.
"Your friends must have thought they had butted into an ambuscade!"Jimmie said to the captive. "Have they had much training in running?They bobbed along like professionals, it seemed to me."
"You'll see how fast they can run!" Bradley growled. "They'll go fast enough to send you all over the road."
"Now about this grandson," asked Ned, falling back. "Mrs. Brady wants to know where he is. No use for you to hide him, now that we all know he was disguised to look like the prince stolen from Washington. Why did you paint him if not to imitate this other boy we speak of?"
"I don't know anything about the boy," was the reply. "He was taken without my knowledge, and that is on the level. I was ordered to do the paint act."
They trudged on for some minutes in silence, and then Bradley asked:
"What is it about this prince you are always talking about? What is there about the prince? Where is he? Why is he supposed to be in this section?"
"You don't know a thing about him, do you?" asked Ned, laughing, "and yet you painted a boy to represent him?"
Bradley only scowled.
"When I find him," Ned continued, "I'll present him to you!"
When the boys reached the tent they found Oliver and Teddy mourning over the destruction of a large number of films and plates. Many pictures, developed and printed with great care, had also been torn or burned.
"Well," Jimmie declared, "they didn't get their hands on the films in my baby camera. I've got a few good ones left."
"Now, Jack," Ned said, "suppose you connect with Uncle Ike and make for the nearest telegraph office? Don't break your neck, and the neck of the mule, but get there as soon as you can. And get back as soon as you receive an answer."
"Why can't I go with him?" asked Jimmie. "I guess I want a mule ride."
"Go it, if you want to!" Ned laughed. "That will leave us one mule to run away on if things get too hot for us here!"