“Does a lalapaloosla make a noise like that?” Bob asked, as the last strain of the weird cry died out.

“Only the red ones, and they don’t raise that kind in Maine.”

“But what’ll we do next?” Bob turned to the Indian once more.

“We find good place watch cabin,” he replied.

“That’s a good plan, I should say,” Jack agreed. “We may find out just what we’re up against.”

Led by the Indian, they crept softly toward the lake, until they reached the edge of the forest.

“Here heap good place,” Kernertok announced in a loud whisper.

It was so dark where they stood that they could scarcely see each other when standing close together, but Kernertok told them that the cabin was only a few yards from them.

“White boys go sleep, Injun and Sicum keep watch.”
195

“Not so you’d notice it,” Bob insisted. “I know you haven’t got over that beating and you need the rest.”

Kernertok insisted that he was all right, but Bob wouldn’t listen to him. However, it was only after he told the Indian that he wouldn’t go to sleep anyhow and that if he sat up he would do the same that the old man finally yielded the point. Both Rex and Jack tried to get him to let them watch, but he was firm, and as usually the case, made them give in to him.

“Now stop your fussing and get to sleep like good children,” he said.

“But you’ve got to promise to call me at one o’clock,” Jack persisted.

“And me too,” Rex broke in.

“All right, I’ll promise.”

“I could eat a bit more supper if I had it,” Jack said, as he stretched out on the ground.

“That’s all right,” Rex added. “But how about breakfast?”

“Sufficient unto the day is the food thereof,” Bob grinned.

“Yes, but there wasn’t sufficient,” Jack growled.

“Well, there’ll be less to-morrow unless we strike something,” Bob assured him.

“There can’t be very much less than there is right now,” Jack retorted with a long sigh.
196

Bob called Rex and Jack according to his promise at one o’clock and reported that everything had been quiet.

“No more lalapalooslas howling around?” Jack laughed.

“Haven’t heard any.”

“Well, here’s hoping they will keep quiet for the rest of the night.”

“How still it is,” Jack whispered a little later, as he and Rex sat with their backs against a spruce tree.

“It’s so still you can almost feel it,” Rex agreed. “I’d give a good bit to know who’s in that cabin,” he added in a whisper.

“Well, we’ll probably find out before many hours. It’ll be light now in about three hours.”

“And I’ll bet they’ll seem like three years.”

“What did you think of that spook out on the lake?” Jack asked a few minutes later.

“It did look spooky for a fact, but I imagine that Bob’s explanation was about right. Things often look displaced in the night and especially in the moonlight, you know.”

“But what would anyone be doing out there at that time?”

“Ask me something easy. It’s quite evident that someone knows we are up here and is trying to throw a scare into us, and—”
197

“No doubt about that,” Jack interrupted.

“And there are two questions in my mind regarding it.”

“And I’ll bet I can guess them both first time.”

“All right, go ahead.”

“First you’d like to know who it is and second you’d like to know what they know about us, or rather what they think they know. How’s that?”

“You’re pretty near right on both counts. The main thing that’s puzzling me is whether or not Stebbins is mixed up in it.”

“What makes you think he isn’t?”

“I didn’t say I did think so, but as I was saying awhile ago, he’s not that kind of a guy.”

“Well, it seems to me—” Jack began, when he was interrupted by a sound which seemed to come from the direction of the lake.

“Listen,” he whispered.

“Sounds like a groan,” Rex replied after a moment.

“Let’s get up a bit nearer the cabin,” Jack suggested.

Followed by Rex he crept carefully forward on his hands and knees. It was very dark now, as the moon had set some time before and they had to feel their way as they advanced foot by foot.

“I think I can see the cabin,” Jack whispered, after they had gone a few yards.
198

The groaning had been repeated several times since they had first heard it, and now they were certain that the sound came from the cabin.

“Sounds as though someone was having a nightmare,” Rex whispered.

“What had we better do?” Jack asked, as he stopped a moment later. “We’re only a few feet away from the cabin now.”

“We want to be mighty careful for one thing,” Rex cautioned in a low whisper. “If we should get caught now all our work would probably go for nothing.”

“Let’s camp right here then.”

They stretched themselves flat on the ground behind a small clump of small cedars and listened.

“That’s no nightmare, if you ask me,” Jack declared, after a few minutes had passed and the sound still continued.

“Guess you’re right,” Rex agreed. “Who ever’s making that noise would have waked up before this if he was asleep.”

“My idea exactly. But somebody in there’s pretty bad off, unless it’s being done for our special benefit. The trouble is, we can’t tell which is right.”

“What do you think we’d better do?”

“I think we had better get back, if you ask me. It’ll be light in a short time now, and if we stay here much longer we may spill the beans, and it’s too much of a risk to do any investigating in the dark.”
199

So they crept back to their former position and waited with what patience they could summon until daylight stole over the forest.

“I hate like the dickens to wake Bob and Kernertok so early,” Jack whispered. “But I feel it in my bones that something is going to happen before long.”

“What you call a hunch, eh?”

“Something of the sort.”

“You did just right, son,” Bob declared a few minutes later, after Jack had apologized for calling him and Kernertok so early. “We don’t want to lose a single bet now.”

After a brief whispered conference it was decided to separate two and two and keep a close watch at both the front and back of the cabin.

“Jack, you and Kernertok stay here where you can see the rear, and Rex and I’ll get round where we can see the front. If either sees anything the whip-poor-will call will be the signal. All right?” Bob asked.

“All right is right,” Jack nodded his head.
200

Bob and Rex crept slowly toward the lake and soon found a position where they had a fair view of the front of the cabin without much risk of being seen. They could hear nothing of the groans and Rex whispered that he hardly thought they would be able to hear them at that distance. For over an hour they watched, and both boys were beginning to get uneasy, when suddenly the door opened and a man stepped out, and a moment later he was followed by two others.

“I thought as much,” Bob whispered. “You remember them, don’t you?”

“Sure; it’s Jacques Harbaugh and his two friends.”

“And the plot thickens,” Bob whispered, as he bent slightly forward to get a clearer view. “But I must signal the others.” And the clear shrill call of the whip-poor-will floated out in the still air.

For ten minutes or a little more the three men stood in front of the cabin talking in tones too low for the boys to catch any of the conversation. Then they went inside and a few minutes later smoke began to pour from the chimney.

“They’re getting breakfast, and I guess we might as well go back and tell Jack and Kernertok who’s here,” Bob suggested.

“I had a good-sized hunch that those fellows were mixed up in the case,” Jack declared, as soon as he learned of the presence of the three men. “What do you make of it?”
201

“Well, of course, it’s largely guesswork, but my guess is that they have Stebbins in that cabin and are holding him prisoner for some reason or other, hence the groans which you heard,” Bob said.

“And I’ll say you’re some guesser,” Jack replied, casting a questioning glance at Kernertok.

“Him heap good at guess,” the Indian agreed.

“What’s the next move then?” Rex whispered.

“I guess it’s their next move,” Bob said. “You see, they’re all powerful as well as desperate men, and we don’t want to come to a showdown with them if we can help it, until we have bigger odds on our side. I tell you those fellows would put a bullet through one of us as quick as lightning if he thought his safety depended on it.”

“Then you think—”

“That we’d better lay low for a while in the hope that they’ll go away and give us a chance to see what’s inside that cabin without meeting them,” Bob interrupted.

“That heap good plan,” Kernertok nodded his head.

“Then we’d better get back where we were, I suppose,” Rex suggested.

“Right away I should say,” Bob agreed.
202

It was nearly eight o’clock before the three men again emerged from the cabin. This time they did not hesitate, but made their way at once down to the shore of the lake, and by parting the bushes in front of him, Bob saw that they got into a canoe and started swiftly down the lake.

“Come on,” he whispered to Rex. “Let’s get back and tell Jack and Kernertok.”

“So you think the coast is clear,” Jack said, as soon as they had told what they had seen.

“It is, so far as those three are concerned.”

It was quickly decided that Kernertok should stay outside and keep watch while the three boys went into the cabin.

“Me an’ Sicum keep heap good watch,” the Indian assured them, as they started off.

They paused to listen, as they were close beside the cabin, but all was still. The tiny windows were too high to permit them to peep in from the ground, and besides they were so covered with dirt that Bob declared it would be impossible to see through them even if they got up high enough. So they quickly made their way around to the front. The door was closed and fastened with a heavy padlock.

“No getting in here without breaking that lock,” Bob declared. “Let’s see what it looks like around back.”

But the prospect was not much more promising, as the small door evidently was fastened with a bar on the inside, and although they pushed against it with all their strength, they were not able to make the slightest impression on it.
203

“Guess we’ll have to try the windows after all,” Bob declared, as he stepped back after a final push.

“All right, let’s make it snappy,” Jack agreed, as he started around to the side.

Here there were two small windows, each of a single pane of glass about twelve by fourteen inches. Bob took a stand under one of them and in an instant Jack was on his shoulders.

“Can’t see a blamed thing,” he declared a moment later.

“Is it puttied on the outside?” Bob asked.

“No; it’s just set into the frame from the inside.”

“Then we’ll have to smash it, I reckon.”

“How about cutting it with this diamond ring?” Rex asked, as he pulled the ring from his finger and passed it up to Jack.

It was but the work of a moment to make a deep scratch on the four sides of the glass close to the edge. Then by hitting it lightly with his pocket knife, he soon started a crack, and a moment later the pane fell in with a loud smash. Eagerly the boy pushed his head in and looked about.

“What about it?” Bob whispered loudly.

“Not much,” Jack replied, as he withdrew his head and leaped to the gr............