teams ready.

It was then dark, and the boys were anxious to make the journey as
quickly as possible, for it was a task about which even they did not
feel wholly at ease.

In the carriage Bob and Ralph had just come in, were packed the tools,
provisions, sheet-tin, and such material as made a heavy load, while in
George's buggy, was the bedding and other light articles, which made up
a bulky load, but one in which there was but little weight.

After the three teams had been loaded, the house locked and barred as
carefully as if the inmates were yet within, and the stable door secured
by Jim, who barred it from the interior and then clambered out of the
window in the loft, Bob called his two partners one side for a private
consultation.

Without knowing why, Ralph felt decidedly uncomfortable at this secrecy.
It was true that he had no desire to be told all the details of this
somewhat questionable business, but it seemed to him as if he was in
some way the subject of their conversation--as if he had been and was
again to be duped, and Bob was explaining the scheme to his partners.

It was some time before the private portion of their consultation was
over, and then Bob said, sufficiently loud for Ralph to hear, much as if
that had been all they were talking of:

"Now remember. We are to keep close together until we get through
Sawyer. Then, if we are followed, you are to give me a chance to get
ahead, and you will keep straight on until you tire them out, if you
drive all night. Ralph," he added, "Jim knows the road and you don't, so
I am going to let him drive for you."

Then Bob got into the torpedo-wagon, Dick mounted the one that had come
from the new camp, Jim and Ralph clambered into George's team, and in
that order they started toward the highway, Bob driving leisurely, as if
to keep his horses fresh, in case they were called upon for any unusual
exertion.

The orders Bob had given aroused in Ralph's mind, now that it was too
late to make any objection, the suspicions that his pleasing manner had
lulled. He began to see why it was he had been hurried away before
George came.

The torpedo-wagon was the one that the authorities would attempt to
capture, if they saw it, and George's team, being in the rear, would be
the one that would most likely stand the brunt of the pursuit, in case
one was made. The other two teams being ahead, could turn from the road
into the woods, at a favorable opportunity, while