A BIG SURPRISE.
Time and weather had warped the boards of the structure till fair-sized
cracks gaped here and there. The boys made for one of these, with the
object of peering into the place and getting a glance at its occupants.
At first they had thought that these were nothing more than a gang of
tramps, but the name of the engineer, spoken with a foreign accent, had
aroused them to a sense that, whoever was in the old barn, a subject was
being discussed that might be of interest to their new friends.
Applying their eyes to two cracks in the timbers, they saw that within
the barn four persons were seated. One of these they recognized almost
instantly as Jared Applegate. By his side sat a youth of about his own
age, flashily dressed, with a general air of cheap smartness about him.
The other two occupants of the place were of a different type. One was
heavily built and dark in complexion, almost a light coffee color, in
fact. His swarthy face was clean shaven and heavily jowled. Seated next
to him on an old hay press was a man as dark as he, but more slender and
dapper in appearance. Also he was younger, not more than thirty, while
his companion was probably in the neighborhood of fifty, although as
powerful and vigorous, so far as the boys could judge, as a man of half
his years.
"You say that you have duplicates of Mainwaring's plans, showing exactly
the weakest points of the great dam?" the elder man was asking, just as
the boys assumed positions of listening.
Jared nodded. He glanced at the more slender of the two foreigners.
"I guess Mr. Estrada has told you all about that," he said.
"Of course, my dear Alverado," the dapper little man struck in, "you
recollect that I spoke to you of Señor Applegate's visit to me at
Washington."
Rob started. The name Estrada, coupled with a mention of Washington,
recalled to his mind something that sent a thrill through him taken in
connection with the words of the man addressed as Alverado.
Estrada,--José Estrada! That was the name of the ambassador of a South
American republic that had several times been mentioned as being opposed
to Uncle Sam's plans on the Isthmus. What if--but not wishing to miss a
word of what followed, he gave over speculating and applied himself to
listening with all his might. Jared gave a short, disagreeable laugh.
"You can just bet I got duplicates of all the plans," he chuckled, "I had
an idea that Mainwaring was going to fire me on account of--well, of
something, and so I went to work and copied off all of his private papers
I could. You see, it was common talk on the Isthmus that the place was
alive with spies, and I figured out that anybody who was interested
enough to hire spies must be mighty anxious to get at the real plans of
the canal, and willing to pay big for them, too," he added with a greedy
look on his face, which for an instant gave him a strong likeness to his
father.
Rob and Merritt exchanged glances. From even the little that they had
heard it was plain enough what was going forward in the barn. There was
no doubt now that Jared was bargaining with representatives of a foreign
power that had good reason to dislike Uncle Sam; no question but that Mr.
Mainwaring's plans, or at least copies of them, were in the hands of an
unscrupulous young rascal who was willing to sell them to the highest
bidder, without caring for what nefarious purpose they were to be used.
The Boy Scouts' blood fairly boiled as they heard. They had always known
Jared to be weak, unprincipled and dishonest, but that he would descend
to such rascality as this was almost beyond belief. Merritt in his anger
made a gesture of shaking his fist. It was an unfortunate move. A bit of
board on which one of his feet rested gave way with a sharp crack under
the sudden shifting of his weight.
Instantly the men in the barn were on the alert.
"What was that?" cried Estrada sharply.
"Nothing. A rat, I guess; old barns like this are full of them," rejoined
Jared, striving to appear at ease, but glancing nervously about him.
"A rat, bah!" exclaimed Alverado, puffing out his fat jowls till he
looked like a huge puff adder. "That was not a rat, _amigo_, that was a
spy. This barn is not as secret a meeting place as you led us to
believe."
"Come on, Merritt," whispered Rob, "grab up everything and run for it.
They'll be out here in a minute."
Swiftly they gathered up their paste, brushes and bills, and crouching
low ran toward what had been a smoke-house. Hardly had they darted within
its dark and odorous interior when the conspirators in the barn came
rushing out, looking in every direction. In Alverado's hand something
glittered in the sunlight. The two Boy Scouts peering out through a
knot-hole had no difficulty in recognizing the object, with an unpleasant
thrill, as an automatic revolver.
They now saw, too, something that they had been unable to perceive from
the back of the barn. This was a big, red touring car drawn up close to
the antiquated structure. But they had no time to waste in looking at the
car. The movements of the searching party engrossed their attention too
deeply.
"Scatter in every direction," they heard Alverado order, "we must find
out if anyone has been here listening, or if our ears deceived us."
There was no doubt but that the search was to be a thorough one. Even the
chauffeur of the car, which, the boys noticed in a quick, fleeting
glance, bore no number, joined in the search. They rushed about like a
pack of bloodhounds in every direction.
"This is getting pretty warm," whispered Rob; "it's plain those chaps are
thoroughly alarmed and don't mean to leave a stone unturned to find us."
"Oh, that unlucky board!" groaned Merritt remorsefully. "I'm a fine
specimen of a Scout to make such a mistake as that,--at such a critical
time, too."
"It was unfortunate; but accidents will happen," rejoined Rob quickly.
"But it's no use crying over spilt milk."
"What are we going to do?"
"I'm trying to think."
"Perhaps there is a chance that they will overlook us."
"No danger of that, I'm afraid. From what little I saw of Mister Alverado
he appears to be a very painstaking gentleman."
"They're searching the house now."
"Yes, that will take them some time; but you can depend on it that when
they've finished they'll search the outbuildings."
"Yes; and they've left that chauffeur on guard outside, too. Not a chance
of our getting out of here."
"Unless there's another door."
"Cracky! Maybe there is. Let's look. But we've got to hurry up. Hark!"
"They're coming out of the house and pointing over here," cried Rob the
next instant.
Both boys desperately sought to find some way out of the old smoke-house
other than by the door by which they had entered. But no exit offered.
Suddenly Rob had an inspiration. The smoke-house was roofed like an
inverted V. The roof was covered with shingles. Apparently they were
rotten, for in places the light came through. One side of the roof faced
toward the abandoned farmhouse; the other faced back upon some fields.
Rob thrust his fist with some violence against the shingles on the side
of the smoke-house roof that faced the fields. To his joy the shingles
gave way almost like rotten cardboard.
"Hurrah! We've found a way out," he cried exultingly, although he was
careful not to raise his voice much above a whisper. He rapidly enlarged
the opening till it was big enough to crawl through. Luckily the search
party had paused to examine a corn crib that lay between the smoke-house
and the farmhouse, so that the boys had a few seconds' grace.
"Now then, through you go!" breathed Rob as soon as he had pitched out
the bills.
Merritt scrambled through with Rob close on his heels. The apex of the
roof, of course, screened them from view of the party now approaching the
old smoke-house. It was a drop of not more than three feet to the ground,
for the walls were low, and Rob had, of necessity, punctured the roof
near the eaves.
Ahead of them lay a meadow with a patch of woods beyond. Rank brush and
tall weeds intervened. But they had to make a dash of some hundred feet
across an open space. Somehow, just how they never knew, they got across
it and plunged into the brush, making for the woods beyond.
At the same instant Alverado and the others entered the smoke-house.