as the short man had said, and underneath it were
evidently most of the treasures stolen from Baron Rosenthal. What was
the best thing to do? If he dug the treasures up and hid them elsewhere,
they would be safe, but then the thieves would probably escape. If he
went straight back to Freistadt by train and warned the police, Herr
Groos would think he was lost, and there would be such a hue and cry in
the woods that the strangers would probably hear of it and have their
suspicions aroused.

Then an inspiration came to him. He would telegraph to Hugo in cypher,
and then, even if Baron Rosenthal himself were not there, Hugo would
have the sense to arrange matters. It took him some time to concoct his
telegram, and put it into cypher. It ran as follows:--

'A tall man in grey and a shorter man in brown, with butterfly nets and
big specimen cases, will reach Freistadt station at ten-thirty. Have
them arrested, as their cases contain some of your father's silver, and
the rest is hidden in the woods.--FRANZ.'

Visitors were always allowed to use the telegraph at the Observatory on
the top of the hill, and so he decided to go there at once and send off
his message. Then a fresh danger occurred to him. The two strangers were
going to the little inn by the Observatory. If they chanced to see his
telegram, or even asked to look at it, he would arouse their suspicions
if he declined to show it, and yet, if the short stranger were as clever
as he professed to be, he would probably decipher it and learn
everything. So he wrote a companion message, using some of the same
words and figures as in the cypher one, but arranging them so that they
could not possibly be translated to make sense.

When he arrived at the top of the hill, he found the two strangers, as
he had expected, sitting at a little table outside the building.

'Hallo, youngster, have you caught your swallow-tail yet?' inquired the
tall one.

'I have not even seen one,' replied Franz, truthfully. 'I am afraid they
have all left the Hirsch-felsen since you were there. I gave it up at
last and came on here to send a cypher telegram to my friend.'

'Ah! the cypher!' said the fat man. 'Show me what you are going to say,
and I will warrant myself to read it.'

'Very well, but be quick, for I want to send it off,' replied Franz,
seeing that this would disarm suspicion.

He gave the strangers the copy he had specially prepared for them, and,
to his surprise, the stout