lie.

"I wonder how we could get into the place and examine it."

"You mustn't think of such a thing," said Captain Hardy. "If there is
a wireless outfit there, you may be sure that it will be as effectually
secreted as the one in our rooms is, and you would never find it. But
you would certainly alarm the people in the house, and the Chief warned
me that under no circumstances should we alarm the people we are
watching. We must get a complete case against them before any move is
made."

"But if this is a wireless station, how are we going to know it unless
we search the house?" demanded Roy.

"We shall have to keep a watch on the house itself and try to trail
everybody who goes in or out. And we shall keep up our wireless watch.
If messages are coming from here we shall run them down just as we
intended to run down the Hoboken messages. This place is so much
better for spy work, being near the forts as well as the waterways,
that we'll drop Hoboken and centre our efforts here. But I don't know
just how we'll do it. I'll have to let the Chief outline the plan. We
may have to move down here. But in the meantime you boys can keep the
place under observation very easily from some of these thickets."

The three went on down the road and passed out of sight of the house,
laying their plans as they went. Arrived at the road to the ferry,
they separated, Captain Hardy continuing on down to the wharf, while
Willie and Roy turned about and retraced their steps. While Captain
Hardy was speeding back to Manhattan to consult the secret service men,
the two young scouts made their way to a turn of the road whence they
could barely see a gable of the house on the cliff. They had not met a
soul. They left the highway and scrambled up the slope to a dense
thicket of underbrush. Screened by this, they cautiously approached
the house and made their way unseen into the little stand of pines they
had previously noted.

The cover was good. The pines on the outer edges of the stand, where
the light was ample, branched close to the ground, making a dense
hedge. Behind these protecting branches the two boys could move freely
without fear of discovery. By mounting upward a little distance, they
had a perfect view of the house they were watching, and could see all
who entered or left it. They found some limbs where they could sit
comfortably and took up their vigil.

"Captain Hardy said we must trail anybody who came ou