ly several times, as though he wished Frank would make some sort
of a move, he hardly cared what its nature so long as it meant action.

But although Andy could not see it at that moment, there were lively
enough times ahead of them to please even his impetuous nature. And the
passage of every minute brought the crisis closer and closer.

Once Frank believed he heard loud voices inside the farmhouse; and at
the same time some one was certainly hurrying back and forth. But then
possibly that might be only Sallie, obeying another call from the
kitchen, where the good woman was so busily engaged with her canning
operations.

Something like twenty minutes must have passed since the boys made
their change of base. To Andy it was much longer, for he felt the time
pass as though it had leaden wings.

Then Frank, watching, saw some one come hastily out of the front door,
pass quickly down to the path, and move away in the direction of the
lane.

"He's going off, Frank!" exclaimed Andy, all excitement, just as though
he half expected that his companion would give the word that meant an
immediate pursuit.

"Yes; keep quiet, Andy!"

"But he'll give us the slip, don't you see?" persisted the other.

"Let him, then; we can't help it. You can see that he's made quite a
change in his looks, as though he's thrown the mask off, and doesn't
expect to play the part of a collegeman and a bug collector any more,"
Frank whispered.

"That's so, he hasn't got the brown glasses on, and that old butterfly
net is missing; but Frank, just notice, won't you, how he hangs to that
little camera-like black box. Say, perhaps I was right after all;
perhaps Casper Blue is carrying all that stuff cribbed from the
Bloomsbury bank, inside the same."

The two boys crouched there behind the woodshed and by cautiously
peeping around the corner could watch the late boarder of the Hoskins
hurrying down the lane, as though he had received a hasty summons from
the president of his college demanding an immediate return.

He seemed uneasy and suspicious, for several times he turned his head
and looked this way and that, as though half expecting to discover some
person ready to dispute his departure. And Frank also noted the way one
of his hands had of keeping in the pocket of his short coat; just for
all the world as though he might be grasping some sort of pistol that
was concealed there.

CHAPTER XVII

SALLIE RIDES BAREBACK

"And now wha