it).

"Oh, Johnny Twice!" groaned Earl Hamilton. "Don't spoil your good
deed of finding that note by springing any more of that stuff. You're
taking an unfair advantage of us, for we can't stop now to duck you in
a snowdrift."

The road was not broken all the way for good walking, so that the boys
were forced to put forth their best efforts in order to reach the
place of the plotted ambush on time.

Their pace therefore varied from a rapid walk to a run, according as
their "wind" and leg muscles supplied the needed endurance. Paul and
Jerry found it pretty hard to keep up with the other boys during the
last three-quarters of a mile, especially when they struck a poorly
broken snowdrift or a stretch of ground covered with rocks or rough
ice. They were quite elated, however, at their ability to keep their
feet in these rough places, after seeing two of the larger boys slip
and fall.

It was almost dark by the time they reached the vicinity of the "sand
stretch" referred to in the note found by "Johnny Two-Times." This
stretch was a sand bed of several acres in extent, between which and
High Peak was a large stone quarry. The road ran between the "sand
stretch," which, of course, was now frozen and covered with snow, and
the quarry. The approach to this was sheltered, fortunately for the
concealment of the boy rescuers, by a growth of timber extending down
the mountain slope to the road.

Ernie called a halt about two hundred yards from the point in the