THE GREAT DISCOVERY
"I'll bet that light's a signal light," whispered Joe Hardy to his
brother.
The boys watched the yellow gleam among the trees. Then, slowly, the
light began to move. It swung to and fro, as though it was being
carried by some one, and finally vanished.
Frank led the way down the path. In a few minutes they heard a snapping
of twigs that indicated that the two men were not far ahead. The path
dipped sharply, down a rocky slope, sparsely covered with underbrush.
Then the brook came into view.
They could see the pair clearly now. One of the men was carrying a
lantern; the other bore the long poles and the bag. Drawn up on the
side of the brook, below the rocks and just above its mouth, the boys
distinguished a small boat.
They crouched in the shelter of the bushes, and watched as the man who
carried the lantern put the light down and strode over to a clump of
trees from which he presently emerged, carrying a pair of oars. He
dumped them into the boat with a clatter, which aroused the wrath of
his companion.
"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded fiercely. "Want to rouse
up everybody from here to Bayport?"
"I forgot," the other answered apologetically.
"Don't forget again."
"There's nobody around, anyway."
"Don't be too sure."
He fitted the oars in the rowlocks quietly, and the pair pushed the
boat out into the brook.
"What shall we do?" whispered Joe. "Tackle them?"
"Wait a minute."
Hardly were the words out of Frank's mouth before he heard a rustling
in the bushes almost immediately behind him. He looked around,
startled, and saw a shadowy figure flit among the bushes, then another
and another. He was so astonished that he almost cried out. Where had
these newcomers appeared from? Who were they?
The Hardy boys pressed close to the ground as the three figures passed
so close by them that they could almost have reached out and touched
them. Not a word was said. The three men made their way silently past,
in the direction of the brook.
"All right," said one of the men at the boat. "I guess we can start out
now."
At that instant, the three newcomers sprang out from the depth of the
brush.
There was a wild yell from the man bent over the boat.
"Come on, boys!" shouted one of the attackers. "We got 'em!"
Trembling with excitement, the Hardy boys looked on. They saw the three
men close in. One of the fellows at the boat made a dash for liberty
but he was tripped up and flung heavily into the brook. The other
fought back, but he was quickly overpowered. The struggle was sharp but
brief, and in a few minutes the two men were prisoners and were taken
out into the moonlight.
"You came once too often, Jed," said one of their captors. "We've been
watchin' for you."
"You ain't got anythin' on us," said Jed.
"Oh, yes we have! Caught you red-handed. Any of your pals around?"
"Just the two of us."
"Boat, lantern and everything, eh? You were too sharp for us most of
the time, Jed, but we were bound to catch you sooner or later."
Greatly puzzled by this dialogue, wondering who the newcomers were and
wondering why Jed and his companion had thus been captured, the Hardy
boys rose slightly from their hiding place to get a better view of
proceedings.
Just then they heard a heavy footstep in the bushes immediately behind
them.
They dropped again to the earth, but it was too late. They had been
seen.
"Who's there?" growled a husky voice, and some one came plunging in
through the bushes toward them.
Frank got to his feet and scrambled wildly for safety. Joe did
likewise. The man behind them gave a loud shout.
"Here's some more of 'em!" he called.
Joe tripped over a root and went sprawling. In the darkness it was
almost impossible to see a clear way to safety. Frank paused to help
his brother to his feet, and their pursuer was upon them. He seized
Frank by the coat collar.
One of the other men came crashing through the underbrush.
"I've caught 'em!" announced their captor. "Two more."
The newcomer emerged from a thicket and pounced on Joe.
"Good work!" he said exultantly.
The Hardy boys were hauled roughly out of the bushes and down into the
moonlight, where the two captives were being held.
"Caught 'em hiding right in the bushes," said the man who had
discovered them, tightening his grip on Frank's collar.
"Boys, eh?" said the leader, coming forward and peering closely at
them. "Since when have you had boys helping you, Jed?"
The prisoner called Jed looked at the Hardy boys suspiciously.
"I never saw 'em in my life before," he growled.
"What are they doing here, then?"
"How should I know?" asked Jed. "I tell you I don't know anything about
them."
"Why were you hiding in those bushes?" demanded the leader, of Frank.
"We were watching those two men," Frank returned promptly, indicating
Jed and his companion.
"Watching them? Helping them, you mean."
"We don't know yet what they were up to. We were watching the Shore
Road for automobile thieves and we saw those men going down into the
woods, so we followed them."
The boys were still completely mystified. Just what errand had brought
Jed and the other man to this lonely place at that hour of night, and
just who were their captors, remained a puzzle to them.
"You didn't come here to spear fish?"
"Spear fish?" exclaimed Frank.
"Don't be so innocent. You know Jed and this fellow were coming down to
spear fish by night-light, and it's against the law!"
The whole situation was now clear. Frank and Joe felt supremely
foolish. Instead of trailing two automobile thieves, they had merely
been following two farmers of the neighborhood who had been engaged
in the lawless activity of spearing fish by night. This explained the
mysterious conversation and their allusions to fearing capture. The
other men were nothing more or less than game wardens.
"We didn't know," said Frank. "We thought perhaps they were the auto
thieves."
The game wardens began to laugh.
"You were on the wrong track that time, son," said one. "I guess
they're all right, Dan. Let them go."
The man who had stumbled on them in the bush released Frank reluctantly.
"They gave me a start," he said. "Hidin' there so quiet. I was sure
they were with this other pair."
"Never saw either one of them before," repeated Jed.
"Well, if you stand up for them, I guess they're telling the truth. You
boys beat it out of here and don't go interfering with our work again.
You might have scared these two away if they'd caught sight of you."
"I wish we had seen 'em," said Jed. "We wouldn't be in this mess now."
"You'd have been caught sooner or later. You've been spearing fish in
the brooks and ponds around here for the past three weeks, and you know
it. You'll stand a fine in police court to-morrow."
The Hardy boys did not wait to hear the rest of the argument.
Sheepishly, they left the group, thankful to be at liberty again, and
retraced their steps up the trail through the wood until they again
reached the road. Neither said a word. This inglorious end to the
adventure had left them crestfallen.
They mounted their motorcycles and drove back to Bayport. The house was
in darkness. Quietly, they went up the back stairs and gained their
bedroom.
"Spearing fish!" said Frank in a disgusted voice, as he began to unlace
his boots.
He glanced at Joe, who was grinning broadly. Then, as they thought of
their cautious pursuit of the two fishermen and of their certainty
that they had found the automobile thieves at last, they began to laugh.
"The joke is on us," snickered Joe.
"It sure is. I hope the game wardens don't tell any one about this."
"If Chet Morton ever gets hold of it we'll never hear the end of the
affair."
But Chet, who had a way of picking up information in the most
unexpected quarters, did hear of it.