NED PLAYS THE MIND-READER
Jack stood in the little cabin in the valley and looked Ned
expectantly in the face.
"Tell me," he finally said, "tell me why they painted this boy?"
"To get us off the trail of the prince," replied Ned.
"But it seems that they failed," suggested Jack. "You know?"
"I suspected from the very first," Ned answered. "Yesterday afternoon
I knew."
"Well, it may be all right," Jack muttered, "or the man who brought
him here may need a new wire on his trolley, but I can't see why they
should bring this counterfeit prince here at all."
"They knew that we were coming here," Ned explained, resolved to give
his chum a full understanding of the situation. "They knew we were
coming here in quest of the prince. How they knew I can't make out,
but they knew."
"They might have heard more than we supposed from the attic over the
clubroom," Jack suggested.
"If the story of the maid and the coachman is straight," Ned
continued, "they heard little that night. But they knew! They might
have bribed some of the servants. I don't know. They might have been
in that room before that evening.
"At any rate, when the Boy Scout Camera Club started for West
Virginia by way of Washington the friends of the abductors knew what
was going on. Now, it is my opinion that the prince had been headed
for the mountains before the conspirators became aware of our
connection with the case."
"I begin to see daylight!" Jack cried.
"Well, the prince being on his way to the hills and we having a good
idea as to the locality of his place of hiding, the conspirators
conceived the idea of giving us a false little prince to play with!"
"They're no fools!" Jack exclaimed. "No fools at all!"
"Now," Ned went on, "some of the conspirators knew Mrs. Brady's son
in Washington. They knew of his many promises to his mother to return
to the mountains. They knew of his recent promise to her to come home
and bring the boy with him. They were doubtless very intimate with
Mike Brady, Senior, for they knew all the little details of the life
his mother was living.
"So they got him to permit them to bring the boy to his grandmother.
They knew he would be looking for a prince in the hills, and so they
gave us a false one to engage our attention! Rather clever, that,
Jack."
The old lady was now regarding Ned with eyes which expressed awe as
well as wonder.
"How did you find it all out?" she asked. "How do you know what took
place in the minds of those wicked men?"
"After they took possession of the boy they began bribing him to play
the part he has played here so imperfectly. They taught him cheap
little French phrases from the dictionary, and touched up his already
dusky complexion so as to make him look darker than ever. Yesterday I
saw Bradley at work on his face with a brush!"
"And the lad played his part!" the grandmother declared. "I don't
know how Bradley led him along, but the boy was willing to do as he
was told. I never saw such a wild little chap so thoroughly subdued
before. He wouldn't even tell me the truth when I took him in my old
arms last night and talked to him."
"But he evidently told Bradley what you said to him," Ned continued,
"for he got the child away in the night. Then he came to camp this
morning to see if he could find out how much I knew. He's probably
tied up by this time!"
"You have had him arrested," asked the old lady. "Then he'll never
tell where the boy has been hidden, and he'll die of starvation--die
almost within sound of my voice."
"We'll find him," Ned answered, grimly. "We can make Bradley talk, I
imagine."
"And while this has been going on," Jack said, "the true prince, the
boy we came here to find, has doubtless been carried to some other
part of the country?"
"I don't believe it!" Ned replied. "The conspirators would naturally
expect us to shift our search for him back to Washington, or Chicago,
or New York, wouldn't they? As soon as we discovered that this boy
was not the person we sought, they would expect us to leave the hills
at once, wouldn't they? Well, if they anticipated such a move on our
part, what is more natural than that they should take advantage of
this alleged idea on our part and leave the prince right here?"
"That is just what they would do!" cried Jack. "That is just what
they have done. I wondered why you told Bradley we were going out! I
had no idea that you knew so much about the case."
"Bradley knew that I knew the boy to be an imposter," Ned went on.
"He intended we should make the discovery in time--after he had
watched the grandson for a few days, sized up the situation
generally, and dropped out of sight. He intended me to know in a
couple of weeks, after he was out of harm's way. But I discovered the
trick too quickly for him."
"When did you first suspect?" asked Jack.
"That first morning. The boy's French was from the back of the book,
and there was too strong an atmosphere of Washington about him--an
atmosphere which does not savor of the quiet life of the prince of
the blood. Then when I watched him closer I saw that he had been
painted. Oh, it was all plain enough."
"So you think the prince is here--in these hills?" asked the old
lady.
"I can't say, now," Ned replied. "I am sure that he was here
yesterday. I think I saw him! But the escape of the two men who
captured Jimmie mussed things up a lot. I wanted to put them through
a little examination.
"After their escape I could not pose longer as a lad after snapshots!
I can't say as I deceived the conspirators when I laid the capture of
Jimmie to the counterfeiters. I think I did fool them when I said we
were going out of the hills in order to protect the captive.
"Well, when we released Jimmie and let the two guards escape, that
part of the game was off. If I could have held the men it would have
been different."
"Perhaps Bradley can be made to tell where the prince is," suggested
Jack.
"I hardly thinks he knows," Ned replied. "He has not, I think, been
taken fully into the confidence of the men higher up, any more than
have the men who guarded Jimmie."
"He certainly knows where my grandson is," exclaimed the old lady,
"and I'll tear his heart out but I'll make him tell me. He took him
away!"
"I am not so certain of that, either," Ned mused. "I don't know just
how far the criminal head of the conspiracy has trusted him."
"You'll do all you can to find my boy, won't you?" pleaded the old
lady.
"Don't worry about the boy," Ned urged. "Well find him. If Frank and
Jimmie have had good luck Bradley is under arrest now, and something
will be brought out to lead to his discovery. Besides, with the
disguise penetrated, there is no longer any motive for holding him,
unless he knows too much, which is not likely."
"If his father was here he might help," suggested the old lady.
Jack, who had been looking steadily out of the window for some little
time, now turned to Ned with a smile on his face.
"I know now what you wrote in your little red book!" he said.
"Are you certain of that?"
"Why, of course. You wrote the answer to the question: 'Is it the
prince, or is it Mike III?' Didn't you, now?"
"Yes, I did!" was the reply. "I was almost positive before, but I
knew that day."
"And now we are just where we began," Jack said. "We've solved one
phrase of the case, but we haven't found the prince."
"That will come later," Ned declared, confidently. "Well," he went on,
"we have finished our work here for the present. We have learned of
the disappearance of the grandson and we have confirmed my previous
belief, that the boy was sent in here to draw our attention from the
abducted child. So we may as well go back to camp and see what the
boys have been doing."
The old lady still clung to Ned piteously, begging him to restore her
boy, and Ned promised to do all in his power to place the lad in her
arms.
"If my son would only come!" the woman kept saying.
"If you'll give me his address," Ned promised, "I'll see him when I
get back to Washington, if he is not already here or on his way
here."
The address was given and the boys started
on the return trip to camp.
"Now, Jack," Ned said, when they were on their way up the slope, "do
you know where the nearest telegraph station is?"
"There's one over on the south fork of the Potomac," Jack replied.
"You are good friends with Uncle Ike?" Ned then asked, with a laugh.
"Sure I am. Uncle Ike is a friend of every person who carries sugar
in his pocket."
"Well, when we get back to camp I'll give you a night message. You
must take the mule and get it to the station. You may not be able to
get there to-night. If you can't, send it when you do get there. Wait
for an answer. When you get it tell Uncle Ike it is important and get
here with it as soon as possible. You've got a hard trip ahead of
you, boy!" he added. "I'm game!" laughed Jack. "If there's any of
this prince trouble leaked out," he added, "what shall I say?"
"Tell the old story. Say that we are in the hills for art's sake, and
that we have been annoyed by counterfeiters! Nothing serious,
understand? Not a word about our real mission here. You notice that
even the men we are battling with want it understood that it is the
counterfeiters who are trying to drive us out."
"There must be something mighty strange about this abduction game,"
Jack grinned. "No one will even admit that there is a prince in the
case."
When the boys came to the vicinity of the summit, south of a point in
line with the camp and the canyon where the counterfeiters had been
discovered, they stopped and took a good survey of the landscape.
"We can probably learn more about what has been going on," Jack
suggested, "by hiking straight for the camp. I'm anxious to be off on
that trip. Uncle Ike will like it--not! But I'll make him like it!
I'll give you a good imitation of a boy sailing over the mountains on
the freight deck of a mule!"
"I was wondering," Ned said, composedly, though his eyes were
troubled, "whether we had any camp left! If you'll look off to the
north, you'll see four men crouching in a dent in the slope.
Rough-looking chaps, eh?"
"I see!" Jack whispered. "Have they seen us? That's the question
now."
"If they saw us," Ned continued, "they would either be making for us
or trying to get out of sight. No; they are watching the camp. See!
They are where they can look over the summit."
"If they haven't been to the camp I'll think ourselves lucky," Ned
said.
"They probably haven't!" Jack cried. "But look there, they are going
on a rush right now! Must be Bradley's friends. What?"