CHAPTER XVIII.
BOB AND JACK GO ON A HUNT.
"Say, Jack, I've got an idea," said Bob that night after they were inbed.
"All right, fire ahead, I'm listening. You do say something sensibleonce in a while and I'm willing to take a chance."
"Well, I believe we could find that house where I was shut up."
"Think so?" asked Jack, full of interest now.
"Of course I'm not sure, but I recognized a house not more than sevenor eight miles from it, and if we go there on the wheels, we couldsearch the country pretty well in a short time. Let's try it tomorrow.What do you say?"
"I say yes, that is, if father will let us, and what's more, we'llfind it, too, if they haven't lugged it off. We have to be mightycareful though, for those fellows may be in hiding there."
At the breakfast table, the next morning, Bob announced their plan,but Mr. Golden shook his head.
"I'm afraid you'll get into trouble," he declared.
"But," argued Jack, "we ought to do something toward finding thosefellows and, if we can locate the house, we can have it searched byofficers and have them nabbed if they are there."
Mr. Golden finally consented, but made them promise that they would bevery careful and not run any risks. Getting the cook to put them up agood lunch, they were soon ready to start.
"That house," explained Bob, as they rode along side by side, "can'tbe many miles this side of Oakland. We'll go to Waterville first andthen cross over to Oakland, then we'll take the road to Norridgewockand look for that woods road. I suppose we might go by the way ofNorridgewock. It would be shorter, but I guess the roads are betterthe other way."
The road to Skowhegan was rough and mostly down hill, and they did notdare to run very fast, but once outside the latter town, on the roadto Waterville, they let the machines out and reached the city inforty-five minutes from the time they left home. As they rode throughthe city, people stared in amazement at them as they failed to hearthe customary chug-chug of the engine.
They made no stop and were soon in Oakland, a little village aboutthree miles to the west of Waterville. Here they stopped at a drugstore for a glass of soda water, as the ride had made them thirsty.When they came out, they found that several people had collected andwere examining the wheels.
"Say, bub, what kind of an engine you got here?" asked one man.
Now neither of the boys liked being called "bub," but they had beentaught to be polite, and Jack explained that it was an electric motor.
"Well--well, I want to know! How do you run it?"
"Oh, that's a secret," laughed Bob, as they got into the saddles androde off.
In about fifteen minutes they reached the house which Bob hadrecognized, and turning to his brother, he said:
"Now, Jack, here's where our search begins. It can't be very far fromhere and as it's only ten o'clock now, we've got several hours tohunt."
"Wouldn't it be a good plan to inquire at the house and see if theyknow anything about the place?"
"Not a bad idea," agreed Bob, getting off his wheel and running itinto the yard. Telling Jack, who had followed him, to hold the cycleshe knocked on the door. A slovenly looking woman answered the knock,and when he explained their errand, she gave a sudden start and saidrather gruffly:
"No, I don't know of no such place," and shut the door in his face.
"I'll just bet my old hat that she does, all the same," declared Bob,as he rejoined his brother, then as the latter agreed with him, headded:
"I guess we better not make any more inquiries round here; some ofthese people may be in league with those fellows."
Mounting, they proceeded and had gone only about a mile, when theycame to where the road forked.
"Any idea which is the right road?" asked Jack, as he stopped hiswheel and dismounted.
"Not an idea. Guess we'll flip a penny. Heads to the right, tails tothe left, here goes."
Heads it was, so they started off to the right. It was a fairly smoothroad, so they made pretty good speed for about three miles, when Bobsaid:
"Now we'd better slow up a little and begin to look carefully. Ifwe're on the right track that road can't be a great ways from here,and it may be nearer than I think."
"Do you know which side of the road it is?"
"Yes, it's to our right. Now let's ride on slowly and keep our eyespeeled."
Much of the way was through thick woods, and as they rode slowlyalong, they closely scanned the woods to their right, watching for awoods road. They had gone on in this way for several miles, whensuddenly, they came out of a thick piece of woods. So far, they hadseen nothing that in anyway resembled what they were after, but, abouta mile farther on, Jack spied a rough road leading through a field tothe right.
"Suppose that's it?" he asked, bringing his wheel to a stop.
"No, that can't be it, because I'm sure that it was in the woods, forI remember hearing the branches hit the top of the car all the wayalong till we got out where we turned into the main road, and anotherthing, I remember just before we turned, the car giving a terrificlurch as though we had crossed a good-sized gully beside the road, andyou see, there's no such place here. No, this is not the road and wemight as well go on."
They rode on for several miles, part of the time passing throughwoods, when they went slowly, and again through the open, where theyspeeded up. Finally, about eleven-thirty, Bob stopped his wheel andsaid:
"I guess we've taken the wrong road and might as well go back and trythe other one."
To this Jack agreed, and by the time they reached the forks of theroad, it was noon, and as they saw a small spring near the roadside,they decided to eat their lunch before going on. They had justfinished, when they saw a farmer, followed by a huge mastiff, comingtoward them.
"Gee, Bob, just look at the size of that dog, will you?"
"He sure is some dog all right," replied Bob. "I wouldn't want to meethim when he wasn't feeling in a good humor."
By this time the man was within speaking distance.
"Say, young fellers, what yer want round here?" he asked in a harshtone, while his manner was most offensive.
"Why," asked Bob, pleasantly, "do you own this road?"
"Now don't you get gay with me, young feller."
"No one's getting gay; you asked me a question and I asked you one.Now, as you asked yours first, I'll answer it and then you can do asyou please about answering mine, but I think we have a right here inthe public road without being growled at. Now then, we are taking aride on our wheels seeing the country."
The farmer looked rather uneasy while Bob was talking.
"Huh, mebby so, but yer the fellers what stopped at my house down theroad here a bit, 'bout two hours ago, and was asking the old womansomething about a house what was hid in the woods, hain't yer?"
"Yes, we did stop and make an inquiry," replied Bob. "Anything wrongabout that?"
"Mebby not, only they hain't any sech place round here and yer needn'tgo to hunting for any."
"Well," asked Jack, laughing slightly, "if there's no such placewhere's the harm in our looking for it?"
The farmer perceived that he had made a slip, and grumbling somethingabout fool kids poking their noses round where they had no business,he started off up the road to the right, the dog following closebehind.
"Well, well, the plot thickens, as the hero says in the play. Jack,that man knows something about that place, and what's more, he don'twant us to know anything about it."