THROWING OFF THE MASK

"Do you think he saw us, Frank?" asked Andy, after they had found a place where they could peep around a corner, without being discovered.

"Well, that's more than I can say," the other replied. "We took every precaution, and unless he has mighty sharp eyes he couldn't have glimpsed us."

"And you think it's safe for us to stay here, eh, Frank?"

"Certainly," replied the other. "We're in a position to make a move any old way from here. There isn't one chance in ten of his coming around the corner; and if he does make a show of doing that, why we can be sitting here, playing mumble-de-peg, or something like that, just as if we didn't care whether school kept or not."

"Bully for that; who cares for expenses? Look, Frank, I was right, you see, for it was the little profess after all."

"Yes, sure enough. Careful now, Andy, and don't let him see you peeping. That'd give the whole thing away quicker than anything else."

They had both selected positions where they could see without attracting attention. And it was with considerable eagerness that they fastened their eyes on the figure of the small, wiry man who was sauntering along toward the farmhouse, carrying a butterfly-net across one shoulder, while with his other hand he held a queer-shaped black case, which, as Sallie said, contained his more recent captures in the way of beautiful and rare moths and insects.

"That's his stiff arm, Frank; see how he moves it—the one hanging down, I mean, with black box—good gracious! now, I wonder—"

"H'sh!" whispered Frank, "not so loud; he might hear you."

"Not with the roosters crowing like they are," said Andy confidently. "But just glimpse the black box would you, Frank?"

"I am looking," returned the other.

"He calls it the receiver for his new butterflies, but looks more like a kodak to me," Andy went on. "But d'ye know what I thought, Frank?"

"Tell me," whispered the other, still watching the professor, who had come to a stop at some little distance away, and seemed to be busily engaged looking back of him, as though laying out plans for an afternoon campaign among the bright winged butterflies.

"Why, how easy for him to tear out the inside works of a camera box like that, and make use of it for a better purpose, see?" Andy went on to say.

"Oh! now you've got a bright thought for a fact," Frank sent back, careful not to raise his voice above that cautious pitch.

"Well, it could be done; and I guess that little black box'd hold about all the money and securities that the bank lost. They say the thieves only picked out the papers they could dispose of, and left all the rest, which would indicate that the second yegg must have been in the banking line, some time or other, and knew what was what."

"H'sh! he's coming on again! Lie low, now; Andy!"

Accordingly both of them remained perfectly motionless as the professor advanced toward the house. Had he shown any disposition to head toward that particular corner Frank was ready to assume an attitude of indifference and appear to be engaged in some boyish game with his jack knife, tossing it up in the air, and causing the point of the long blade to stick upright in the ground.

But the small man with the brown glasses and the butterfly net made straight for the front porch of the house, and passed in at the door, just as though he felt perfectly at home there.

"Well, what next?" remarked Andy.

For reply the other beckoned, and started hurriedly to gain the shelter of the woodshed near by.

"What's this for?" questioned Andy, when they were once more crouched down, in a position where they could not be easily seen.

"Stop and think," answered the other; "if he just happened to look out of a window on this side of the house he'd see us easily and our suspicious actions would tell him we were on to his game. Now even if he looks he won't see anything."

"Huh! and do we stay here all afternoon just doing nothing; while p'raps he's taking a nap indoors?" grumbled the other, who wanted to be moving, and was never satisfied when not in action.

"Wait!" was all Frank would say.

Perhaps he could see further ahead than his cousin, and guessed something of what was likely to occur. They had not taken pains to warn Sallie or her mother to keep from mentioning the fact of their happening around; and chances were, that as soon as Casper Blue heard that the Bird boys had dropped in, he would become immediately suspicious.

On questioning the girl he would be apt to learn how curious Frank and Andy had seemed about him; and Sallie might even admit that they had asked to see his wonderful collection of rare and costly butterflies.

Well, if such a thing did occur, of course the keen-witted man would immediately know that the cat was out of the bag. Realizing that there must be a great hue and cry throughout the entire county just then, with reference to the yeggs who had looted the bank, he could easily imagine what had brought these boys here.

Through association with Todd Pemberton, Casper must have learned a whole lot with regard to Frank and his cousin. Being an aviator himself he would naturally take an immediate interest in boys who had given such a good account of themselves in the field of aeronautics. The attempt to steal the hydroplane in the first place before they turned to Percy Carberry's biplane proved that they knew all about the Bird boys. And so, learning of their presence would immediately give Casper warning that his hideout was no longer a secret, but that the net of the law must be closing around him.

What then?

Would he, like a desperate man, attempt to capture these venturesome lads, so as to keep them from informing the authorities at Bloomsbury? Either that, or else he would think that, since the game was up, and they could no longer loiter in the neighborhood of the aroused district in order to carry out the second part of the great scheme, they had better take to the aeroplane and vanish from view, leaving no trail behind by means of which they could be followed.

Frank had said all this in his mind when he lay there and waited to see what would turn up. He felt that they could surely afford to linger for some time, if there was any chance of learning whether the yeggmen meant to change their plans, or proceed to carry out their original scheme.

All seemed quiet at the farmhouse.

Sallie had come out on the porch, and looked rather disappointed to find that the two boys had strangely vanished. She stood there glancing around in a puzzled manner for several minutes, and then with a pretty shrug of her shoulders, and a pout of her lips whirled about and went back into the house again.

"Wow!" said Andy in a low tone, "she's got it in for you, Frank, because you dropped out of sight without even so much as saying goodbye."

But the other was thinking of weightier matters than the humor of a little coquette. He wondered whether Sallie would run across the professor and ask him if he had met two boys down the lane; which remark would excite his suspicions, and lead to other questions, now on his part.

If nothing happened inside of half an hour. Frank was of a mind to try the plan that had come to him—sending Andy off to try and reach some other farm where they would have a telephone; while he himself remained to keep watch.

That might necessitate taking Sallie into their confidence, for they would need to ask questions, and perhaps borrow a horse. On second thought Frank was now a little sorry he had not seen fit to tell the girl all. She seemed to be fairly clever, and could possibly keep a secret. At any rate, the chances of discovery would not be nearly so serious as now, when in her ignorance she was likely to blurt out all about the boys having been there, without knowing that in so doing she might be assisting clever yeggmen to avoid arrest.

The seconds moved along and changed into minutes.

If the professor had come to a window on that side of the house to look anxiously around, he must have been careful not to expose himself, for though Frank had kept a keen lookout he had failed to see anything of him.

It was getting very much of a bore to Andy. He changed his position restlessly several times, as though he wished Frank would make some sort of a move, he hardly cared what its nature so long as it meant action.

But although Andy could not see it at that moment, there were lively enough times ahead of them to please even his impetuous nature. And the passage of every minute brought the crisis closer and closer.

Once Frank believed he heard loud voices inside the farmhouse; and at the same time some one was certainly hurrying back and forth. But then possibly that might be only Sallie, obeying another call from the kitchen, where the good woman was so busily engaged with her canning operations.

Something like twenty minutes must have passed since the boys made their change of base. To Andy it was much longer, for he felt the time pass as though it had leaden wings.

Then Frank, watching, saw some one come hastily out of the front door, pass quickly down to the path, and move away in the direction of the lane.

"He's going off, Frank!" exclaimed Andy, all excitement, just as though he half expected that his companion would give the word that meant an immediate pursuit.

"Yes; keep quiet, Andy!"

"But he'll give us the slip, don't you see?" persisted the other.

"Let him, then; we can't help it. You can see that he's made quite a change in his looks, as though he's thrown the mask off, and doesn't expect to play the part of a collegeman and a bug collector any more," Frank whispered.

"That's so, he hasn't got the brown glasses on, and that old butterfly net is missing; but Frank, just notice, won't you, how he hangs to that little camera-like black box. Say, perhaps I was right after all; perhaps Casper Blue is carrying all that stuff cribbed from the Bloomsbury bank, inside the same."

The two boys crouched there behind the woodshed and by cautiously peeping around the corner could watch the late boarder of the Hoskins hurrying down the lane, as though he had received a hasty summons from the president of his college demanding an immediate return.

He seemed uneasy and suspicious, for several times he turned his head and looked this way and that, as though half expecting to discover some person ready to dispute his departure. And Frank also noted the way one of his hands had of keeping in the pocket of his short coat; just for all the world as though he might be grasping some sort of pistol that was concealed there.