CHAPTER XIX
ON GUARD
The radio boys had heard enough. Silently they tiptoed from theirvantage point, putting off the tremendous desire to exclaim about whatthey had heard until they had put a good distance between themselvesand the shack.
Then they overflowed with wonder and excitement.
"Say, wait till we spring this news on Mr. Salper!" cried Herb. "Theman will near go off his head."
"Gosh, you couldn't blame him," said Joe, in an awed tone. "I wouldn'tlike to have those three fellows after my hard-earned cash myself."
"Then he was right when he thought there was somebody after hismoney," said Bob, striding along so swiftly in his excitement thatpoor Jimmy had hard work to keep up with him. "We thought he was kindof crazy, but I guess he knew what he was talking about all the time."
"But I say, you got all the best of it, Bob," said Herb. "Why couldn'tyou let the rest of us get a glimpse of some honest-to-goodnesssharpers?"
"They weren't much to look at," said Bob, with a frown. "That man theycalled Mohun was one of the ugliest scoundrels I've ever seen."
"Was he any worse than Cassey?" asked Jimmy, curiously.
"If he was he must have been going some," added Herb, with conviction.
"I guess nobody could be much worse than Cassey," said Bob, frowningat the memory of the stuttering scoundrel's evil acts. "But he's justas bad. When he jumped at that big fellow with the bushy eyebrows Ithought he was going to bite him. He has teeth that stick away outover his under lip."
"Must be a beauty," commented Herb.
"I say," said poor Jimmy, fairly running in his effort to keep up withthe other boys, "you're not going toward the hotel, Bob. May I askwhere you are going?"
"Why, Doughnuts, you shouldn't have to ask," broke in Joe, before Bobcould respond. "Don't you know there is only one place where we couldbe going after hearing such rotten news as we've just heard?"
"We're going to the Salpers, of course," finished Herb, with acondescending air that irritated the plump and puffing Jimmy.
"Well, you needn't be so fresh about it," he grumbled, rubbing hisempty stomach ruefully. "It's nearly dark----"
"And it's dinner time," added Joe, with a grin. "How well we know you,Doughnuts."
"Well," grumbled Jimmy, grinning reluctantly, "I don't see why theSalpers can't wait till we can get something to eat."
"It won't take us long," said Bob, who had been thinking hard as theytramped along. "We'll just stop in and tell them what we've heard andthen go on. I don't suppose there is anything that we can do."
"I guess Mr. Salper will do all that's necessary when he finds hismoney threatened," said Joe significantly.
"I reckon he's had a hunch that something of this kind has been goingon for a long time--in fact, he as much as told us so," said Bob. "ButI guess these rascals were so clever he couldn't put his finger onthem."
"I wonder what kind of deal they were talking about," mused Herb.
"It was a crooked one, anyway," said Bob, decidedly. "All you had todo was to look at them to know that."
The little shack in the woods was a long way from the Salper place,and so, in spite of their hurry, the boys did not reach it until juston the edge of dark.
The entire family was gathered in the living room of the Salpercottage, even Mr. Salper himself, and the boys threw their bomb rightinto the midst of them.
Mr. Salper had seemed inclined, as he usually did, to draw apart byhimself, but at the very beginning of the boys' story, he evinced analmost fierce interest.
He questioned them minutely while the girls and Mrs. Salper listenedwonderingly.
"You said the name of one of the men was Mohun?" he asked, throwingaway the cigar he had been smoking and bending earnestly toward Bob."What did he look like?"
The disagreeable impression the man had made upon him was still sovivid that Bob had no trouble at all in giving a graphic descriptionof the fellow.
Mr. Salper's face grew blacker and blacker as he listened and hepulled out another cigar, biting off the end of it viciously.
"That's the fellow I've been suspecting all along," he said, finally."Slick fellow, that Mohun. Whenever a man gets too eager to do thingsfor you I've learned to suspect him. Yet, closely as I've watched thisman, I haven't been able to get a thing on him. As far as we couldfind out, he was perfectly square. But, by Jove, this puts an entirelynew face on things."
He paused for a moment, puffing hard on his cigar while the others allwatched him anxiously. The ill humor which had been hanging over himfor so long seemed magically to have vanished. Now that his suspicionshad been so unexpectedly justified, bringing with them the need foraction, the broker was a different man, entirely. His brow had clearedand there was an eager light in his keen eyes.
"You fellows have done me the greatest of possible services," he said,turning to the radio boys--he had forgotten up to that time to thankthem for what they had done. "If you could know what it means to me tohave this information----"
He broke off, running his hand excitedly through his hair, his eyesgazing unseeingly out of the window.
"I must act and act quickly," he muttered, after a minute. "There issurely no time to lose. You said this man Mohun was urging haste?" headded, turning to Bob.
The latter nodded. "Said he'd quit if they didn't get a move on, orwords to that effect," he told his questioner, and Mr. Salper smiled apreoccupied smile in response.
"Then Mohun will get what he wants. He has a way of getting what hewants," he said, again with that air of speaking to himself. "I'm gladto know it's Mohun--very glad!"
Although Bob had given as good a description as was possible of theother two men who had been in the shack with Mohun, Mr. Salper did notrecognize them.
"Probably a couple of dark horses," he said, and dismissed thesubject. Evidently, to him, Mohun was the most important of therascals and the one it was necessary to deal with at once.
After repeated thanks from Mr. Salper and outspoken gratitude on thepart of Mrs. Salper and the girls, the boys managed to get away.
They hurried on toward the Mountain Rest Hotel, talking excitedly ofwhat had happened.
"That was sure just dumb luck," remarked Joe as he sniffed of the coldbrisk air and began to realize that he was very hungry. "Our happeningon that little shack just as we did," he added in response to anenquiring look from Bob.
"You bet," agreed Herb. "That was the time our luck was runningstrong. It will do me good if those scoundrels get come up with,especially the one with the big teeth."
"Oh, stop talking and hurry up," begged Jimmy, who, in his eagernessto get back to the hotel and dinner, was actually leading the others."It seems ten miles to the house when your poor old system is cryingaloud for grub."
They laughed at him but followed his example just the same, for theyhad been tramping many hours and their appetites were never of theuncertain variety.
But just before they reached the welcome lights of the cottage theyrealized to their surprise that it was snowing again. So fast were theflakes coming that by the time they reached the door of the hotel theywere well powdered with them.
"Hooray!" shouted Herb. "We sure are getting our money's worth of snowthis winter."
"You bet," agreed Bob, adding happily: "And this one looks like a'lallapaloosa.'"
The Radio Boys at Mountain Pass; Or, The Midnight Call for Assistance Page 21
