“Have you seen anybody?” questioned Randy.
“I thought I did, but I’m not sure whether it was some person or an animal.”
“When was that?”
“Nearly an hour ago.”
“Maybe it was the same person Ned Lowe thought he saw,” went on Randy.“He called out, but nobody answered.”
“If I see anybody again, I’ll shoot off my gun and call the corporal,”announced Codfish.
His whole manner showed that he was much disturbed. His post was along the edge of the wood beyond where Randy was stationed, but the latter saw that the sneak never walked very close to the trees and brushwood.
The time dragged heavily, and Randy heaved a sigh when he looked at his watch and found that it was only one o’clock.
The young cadet, as was the custom with many of the lads, had supplied himself with a thin cake of sweet chocolate, and to help pass the time he munched on bits of this. Then it commenced to rain, the scattering drops making quite a noise on the trees and fallen leaves.
Fortunately Randy had brought his raincoat with him. It hung on a bush about midway between the ends of his post, and, turning, he hurried to get the garment. He was just in time to see a figure sliding away between the bushes. This figure had confiscated the raincoat only a few seconds before.
“Come back here!” yelled Randy, in justifiable anger. “Come back, I say, or I’ll fire at you!”
“Fire, and be hanged!” came in a somewhat familiar voice. Evidently the speaker knew that Randy’s rifle contained only blank cartridges.
Randy’s blood was up, for he felt certain the raincoat had been taken by one of his fellow cadets, probably Werner or Glutts. Leaping forward, he cleared some low bushes at a bound, and then made after the figure skulking along among the trees.
“Drop that raincoat or I’ll crack you on the head with my gun!” he roared, as he drew closer to the fleeing fellow.
“Keep back, or it will be the worse for you, Randy Rover!” cried the other cadet, and now Randy recognized the voice of Gabe Werner quite distinctly.
The fun-loving Rover did not reply to Werner. Instead he hurried on faster than ever, coming so close presently that he was able to reach the ex-lieutenant with his gun. He swung the weapon by the barrel, and the stock caught Werner a severe blow on his right shoulder.
“Ouch!” yelled the big cadet, and his right arm dropped to his side and the raincoat slipped to the ground.
“You’re a fine rascal to steal my raincoat,” remonstrated Randy, raising his gun as if to give the ex-lieutenant another blow.
“Aw! can’t you take a joke? You Rovers didn’t think anything of smashing my flashlight.”
“You did that yourself, throwing it against your tent pole,” answered Randy.
“Huh! who told you that?”
“Never mind who told me—I know it’s the truth. Now, after this, Gabe Werner, you leave my things alone!”
“Bah! don’t talk to me, Randy Rover. If it wasn’t that you have nearly broken my right shoulder, I’d give you the licking you deserve.”
“And for two pins, Gabe Werner, I’d report you for being absent from camp without leave,” retorted Randy. “Now you get back to your tent just as fast as you can.”
“Rats! don’t you talk to me,” growled the ex-lieutenant. Nevertheless, he turned and walked through the woods toward the encampment, and then lost no time in hurrying to his tent.
Randy slipped on his raincoat, and then resumed his duty as a sentinel. Back and forth he tramped, occasionally exchanging a word or two with Codfish or with the guard at the other end of his post. Thus two hours more dragged by. For half of that time it rained steadily, and if his feet did not get wet, they at least got very damp. Then, however, the shower passed on, and presently the morning stars shone forth.
Randy was watching for the first streaks of the coming dawn and congratulating himself that his lonely vigil would soon come to an end, when an unusual sound broke upon his ears. From a distance came a curious clank! clank! followed by another sound that seemed to be the rattle of several chains.
“Hello! where does that come from?” he asked himself. “Somebody must be getting to work pretty early in the morning.”
The noises kept up for a minute or two, and then abruptly ceased. The young cadet listened for quite a while, and then resumed his tramp. But a little later the strange clanking and rattle of chains was continued, and once more he halted, trying to locate the direction of the sounds.
“Must come from somewhere in the woods,” he reasoned, and he thought this rather strange, for he was of the opinion that this portion of the forest was entirely uninhabited.
Several times after that he heard the strange clanking, and every time it was followed by a rattle as of chains. Then came a sharp tapping, as of a hammer on steel, and with this a curious humming sound, as if some big blowing machine was in action.
“Maybe it’s an airship, or something like that,” he said to himself.“That humming sound may be the propellers going around. Maybe they had an accident and had to come down for repairs.”
It lacked ten minutes of the time for the new sentry to go on duty when Randy, who had come to a halt to learn if the curious clanking was still taking place in the woods, saw a movement behind some trees at a distance.
“Must be either an animal or a man,” he said to himself.
With strained eyes he watched the location, and presently saw two slouch hats moving behind the top of some brushwood. Then for a brief instant he caught sight of the forms of two men as they disappeared in the distance.
“I wonder if those were the two men who were making all that noise?”he mused.
At such a distance it had been impossible for him to note anything of the features of the men. Both wore dark clothing and dark slouch hats, but beyond that he made out nothing concerning them.
When the corporal of the guard came along to change the detail, Randy said nothing about the attempt of Gabe Werner to deprive him of his raincoat, but he did mention the sounds he had heard in the woods, and also the appearance of the two men.
“Oh, I guess they were a couple of lumbermen,” remarked the corporal, in an offhand way. “They occasionally come here, I suppose, to get a stick of timber.” And not thinking it of any importance, he dismissed the matter from his mind.
It was not until after the morning drill that Randy got a chance to speak to his brother and his cousins, telling them of the encounter with Werner.
“I supposed he would try to get square!” cried Jack. “I’m mighty glad he didn’t get away with it.”
Then Randy told of hearing the strange clanking noises and also the sounds of chains rattling and of some big blower in motion.
“That’s certainly curious,” remarked Jack. “From what Captain Dale said, I thought these woods had no one in them. In fact, I supposed they belonged to the government and were a part of the Camp Huxwell reservation, and that all outsiders were to be kept out.”
“I thought the blowing sound might be an aeroplane’s propellers,” went on Randy. “I was thinking a machine might have been disabled and come down, and the fellows on board might be trying to make repairs.”
“They couldn’t come down safely between those trees and on those rocks,” cried Andy. “They’d break their necks!”
“Well, I certainly heard something, and I saw two men.”
“Say, did those two fellows look anything like the two Germans Jed Kessler spoke about?” queried Randy’s twin quickly.
“I don’t know about that. I only got a glance at ’em, and they were a long way off. All I know is that they were dressed in very dark clothing and wore dark slouch hats.”
“I think it might be a good thing to mention this to Captain Dale,”said Jack thoughtfully. “The authorities are very anxious to get on th
e track of those two men who were seen around the ammunition plant. It won’t do any harm to have this matter investigated.” And then he and his cousin sought out the old West Pointer for that purpose.
Captain Dale listened attentively, and nodded his head several times while Randy was speaking.
“You are right, Captain Rover,” he said to Jack. “And I’m glad that you brought your cousin here to tell me this. I’ll go over to town this morning and report to the authorities. Of course there may be nothing in it, but as you remarked, it is a clue that should not be overlooked. Those two men with the wagon load of stuff certainly disappeared somewhere in this vicinity, and I know the forest is supposed to be a part of the government reservation, and no strangers would be permitted to go into it and cut down any trees. More than that, the strange sounds heard by your cousin Randy make it look as if something unusual was being done there.”
“Would there be any objection to our going into the woods and taking a look around?” questioned Randy.
“Not the least, Rover. But I think you had better go slow, because if those men we are looking for are really there, and they know the authorities are after them—well, that may make them very desperate, and you may get into serious trouble.”
“Oh, I guess we could take care of ourselves,” answered Randy quickly.“Of course, Jack and I wouldn’t go alone. We would take quite a bunch with us. There is generally safety in numbers, you know,” and he grinned.
“All right, you may go if you want to. Only take good care of yourselves.”
So the matter was arranged, and in less than half an hour later the four Rovers, accompanied by Spouter, Gif, and Walt Baxter, set off into the forest.
CHAPTER XXII
AT THE RIFLE RANGES
It did not take the cadets long to reach the place where Randy said he had noticed the two strangers. Here, to the surprise of the Rovers and their chums, they discovered a faint trail leading north and south through the forest.
“The men must have been following this footpath,” remarked Fred. “Now then, Randy, which way were they headed?”
“They were headed north,” was the reply.
They found that following the footpath was by no means easy. It led in and out among big trees and around various clumps of bushes, and more than once they found themselves in a hollow where going was exceedingly treacherous. Then in spots they had to climb over the rough rocks.
“Hello, here is something!” cried Jack presently. “Now, what in the world is it?” he went on, as he held up an object he had picked from between two of the rocks.
It was a curiously-shaped bar of steel, about a foot and a half long, round at one end and flattened at the other, with several square holes punched through the latter end.
“Looks like a piece of machinery of some kind,” said Spouter, after the thing had been passed around for examination. “You know, Randy, you may be right, after all, and that may be a piece from an aeroplane,” he added, looking the bar over critically.
Carrying the bar of steel, Jack continued along the footpath, followed by the others, and a few minutes later emerged on a much larger trail. Here were the marks of wagon tracks, and also horses’ hoofs.
“Hello, this proves that a wagon came this way!” cried Fred.
“Maybe it was the one those Germans were riding in,” added Andy.
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to say that,” returned Jack. “This may be a regular thoroughfare through this corner of the forest.”
They followed the wagon tracks, and soon found that the road, came to an end among some rocks overlooking Barlight Bay. Then they came back and walked in the other direction, and presently emerged on the highway along which they had marched on their way to the camp.
“That ends it, as far as following this trail is concerned,” said Jack. “Those men could go to almost anywhere from here.”
The cadets looked around for a while, and then went back to the spot where Randy had seen the men early in the morning. They looked for footprints, but were not successful in finding any they could follow for a distance.
“Gee, I’m getting tired!” said Randy, with a yawn. “Please remember I did not get much sleep last night.”
“Yes, and I’m getting hungry,” added his twin. “I think we’d better go back to camp.”
The others thought so, too, and a few minutes later all set off. As before, the young captain took the lead, and he and Randy lost no time in visiting the tent occupied by Captain Dale.
“Well, this certainly is a find,” declared the old West Pointer, looking the steel bar over critically. “I agree that it belongs to some sort of machine, although what, I haven’t the least idea. If any of the authorities come here I’ll let them look it over.”
Several days, including Sunday, passed without anything new developing. Several of the local authorities had appeared, and also a Secret Service man from Camp Huxwell. All listened closely to what Captain Dale and the Rovers had to tell, and examined the steel bar critically. Then they went off, and that, for the time being, was all those at Camp Barlight heard of them.
“Hurrah! the girls are coming soon, and then maybe we’ll get a chance to run over to Camp Huxwell,” cried Fred, one day after the mail had been brought in.
“They say they will be over late in the week,” said Jack. He looked at his cousins. “We’ll have to lay plans to treat them royally.”
The young cadets had continued their drills and also their bayonet and other exercises. Now it was announced that target practice would start the following morning and continue until all of the cadets had proved what they could do in hitting the mark.
“Well, Fred, here is your chance to show what you can do!” cried Andy, after this announcement had been made. “You were the high man in our family last term.” He remembered that out of a possible score of 25 Fred had netted 19, while Jack had received 18, Randy 12, and himself but 10.
“Please don’t forget that I’ve got Lewis Barrow to shoot against,”answered Fred. Lewis Barrow had been the high man on the previous occasion, with a score of 20.
There were three targets to be shot at—one at short range, one at medium, and one at long range. It would be possible to score 20 points at each target, making a total of 60 points for each cadet.
In the past Gabe Werner had been a fairly good shot. He was in the habit of patronizing a shooting gallery in Haven Point, and the proprietor of this had given him many lessons in how to hold a rifle and how to take aim.
“I guess here is where I get a chance to show those dubs what I can do,” remarked Gabe to his cronies.
To make the contest more interesting for the cadets, Colonel Colby had authorized Captain Dale to put up six prizes; the first a gold medal, the second a silver medal, and the others various books of more or less value.
“Now, Fred, I want you to do your prettiest,” said Jack to his cousin.“You came out ahead of us last term, and this time I want you to top the whole school.”
“I’ll do my best,” answered the youngest Rover boy. “But, Jack, you’ve got to do your best, too.”
“Sure I will!”
The target practice lasted for three days, and the competition among more than half of the cadets was very keen. The others were such indifferent marksmen that they had no hopes of winning any of the prizes, and so they shot more because they were expected to do so than for any other reason.
“Well, I guess I’m keeping up my reputation!” cried Randy, with a grin, when his shooting had come to an end. “Twelve points at the first target, six at the second, and four at the long distance—a total of twenty-two points.”
“I’m a whole barrelful better than that!” answered his brother gaily.“I made twenty-three points. I guess we had both better open a school for target practice,” and he grinned broadly.
At the short-range target
Jack and Fred were tied with 16 points each, and, strange as it may seem, Lewis Barrow and Gabe Werner were tied with 17 points each.
“Say, Werner can certainly shoot,” remarked Spouter, who had made but eleven points. “I knew Barrow could do it, but I didn’t expect it of Gabe.”
“Shooting at the short-range target is his specialty,” announced Walt, whose score was also a modest one. “Remember, he has been doing a lot of practicing at the Haven Point shooting gallery.”
At the medium-distance target the scores were not so good, Jack making 10, Fred 11, Barrow 13, and Werner 14.
“Hello, what do you know about this! Werner is ahead!”
“He shot one point better than Lew Barrow.”
“I knew he could do it!” boasted Bill Glutts. “Just wait until you fellows get at the long-distance range! He’ll show you what’s what!”
The score now stood, Jack 26, Fred 27, Barrow 30, and Werner 31. The others had all dropped behind several points more.
“Say, you fellows have got to hump yourselves,” declared Randy, as he came up to his cousins. “Werner is four and five points ahead of you.”
“Well, I am doing the best I can,” declared the young captain. He would have resented such familiarity from anyone except his fun-loving cousin.
“And I’m doing the best I can,” asserted the young lieutenant.
At the long-distance range Lewis Barrow was the first of the four to show his skill. He was a young Westerner, and had a great familiarity with firearms. He shot quickly and neatly, making a score of 10.
“Hurrah! That gives Lew Barrow a total of forty points!”
“Good work, Lew! I guess that gold medal is yours.”
“Not much!” returned the Westerner, with a faint smile. “I didn’t do very well. I guess the wind was against me.”
The next to shoot was Fred, and to the amazement of many of those looking on, the youngest Rover made a score of 15, giving him a total of forty-two points.
“Good work, Fred!” cried Jack, grasping his cousin by the hand.
The Rover Boys Megapack Page 379