lf again."

"Gee! I'm real sorry to hear that," Andy muttered.

"What? That he reformed?" demanded the cousin, in pretended surprise.

"Shucks! no; but about his having been a tramp; because, don't you see,
Frank, it makes things look black for Todd. Remember, don't you, about
what the Chief said when he spoke of the yeggs knowing so much about
things, that he thought they must have had inside information; and that
somebody familiar with Bloomsbury ways helped them figure it all out.
Looks bad for Todd, that's what, Frank."

To hear Andy talk you would think that the party in question must have
been a personal friend, at least, when, in truth, he only knew Todd
Pemberton to speak to, as he did a thousand other people in and around
the home town.

"By that you mean you're afraid he's fallen in with some old companions
in crime and been tempted, or forced to join them in this raid on the
bank?" was the way Frank put the matter direct.

"You've covered what I do believe, as sure as my name's Andy Bird."

"Well, let me say that I think the same way you do," Frank went on to
remark.

"Good!" cried Andy, in a delighted tone. "Sometimes we agree, and again
we have different minds; but in this case it looks like we might be on
the same raft."

"Take another good squint at the point, Andy, and see if you can pick up
that man again, the fellow who was doing all that tall Wigwagging."

"I'm looking, Frank."

"What d'ye see there now?" the other continued.

"Nothing--that is, there are stones, and moss, and trees, and perhaps
birds flying around this way and that; but never the first sign of a
human being can I discover anywhere, Frank."

"Still, we know there's one man there at least, perhaps a pair of them
hiding somewhere around that desolate place. Why, Norton's Point is, I
guess, about the meanest and loneliest place of all the Disston Swamp
lumber company. Nobody hardly ever goes there except to shoot snipe and
woodcock in the fall, and yet we happen to know there's one person
hiding out there, and that he knows Todd Pemberton, for they've been
exchanging signals through the wigwag code."

"Looks suspicious, Frank, don't you think?"

"Looks like it might pay to investigate a little closer, Andy."

They were by this time passing over the identical strip of country where
Andy had watched the signal waving. By looking almost directly down, he
could see between the tall trees as only an aviator ever has a chanc