CHAPTER VIII.

THE EAVESDROPPER.


If the two masked highwaymen had been crouching in position for a
footrace to be started at the shot of a pistol, they could hardly have
sprung forward more suddenly or have sped down the road more rapidly.
One glance over their shoulders at what doubtless appeared to them to
be something like a regiment of armed men was pouring out of the
timber, as one of the boys afterward put it, was enough to make them
"hot-foot along hot enough to melt all the ice and snow in their
path."

All of the boys now produced the flashlights which they had carried in
their pockets and turned them on to their own faces, in order that Mr.
Stanlock might see who they were and have no doubt that they were
friends. This was according to one detail of their pre-arranged plan,
and worked successfully. The owner of the automobile recognized his
nephew, Clifford Long, and the Scout uniforms worn by the boys, and
realized at once that he had been rescued from the hands of a pair of
unscrupulous rascals by a company of real boy heroes. He threw open
the door, sprang out, and began shaking the hands of his rescuers in
grateful appreciation of what they had done for him.

"I don't know what all this means," he said; "but I've got wits