“We’ll never find a place as safe as this.”
“Is that so? Ever since those two boys came snooping around here and asking Lester questions I’ve been suspicious. They’ve got their eye on this place, let me tell you. They were down at the railway station the day I slipped the package to Burgess, and I’m mighty sure they saw me.”
“Just a couple of kids. You’re too nervous.”
“Well, I’m going up on the hill and take a look at that log, as you call it.”
As it happened, there was a log lying in the grass close by Frank. But he realized that if Markel came up to investigate he would have no chance to evade discovery. They could not get up and run away—at least not until capture seemed inevitable. Frank’s heart sank. They had been discovered before they had a chance even to reach the mill.
At that moment relief came from a most unexpected quarter.
A dark cloud that had been creeping across the sky began to obscure the moon, and gradually the vivid illumination that bathed the hillside gave way to gloom and darkness. The cloud hid the moon completely.
“Now’s our chance!” whispered Frank, to his brother. “Head toward the willow tree.”
He scrambled to his feet and together the boys raced down the slope toward the willow tree back of the mill. Their feet made no sound in the deep grass. They were taking a desperate chance, they knew, for, in spite of the cloud that had fallen across the moon, Markel might be able to see them.
But Markel had just emerged from the mill and his eyes were not yet accustomed to the gloom. As the boys reached the shelter of the willow tree, the moon emerged from behind the cloud and slowly the hillside was again bathed in radiance.
Panting, the boys halted beneath the tree and looked back.
They could see the dark figure of Markel as he cut across the slope in a diagonal direction and they watched as he drew near the place where they had been lying.
They saw him stop, kick at something in the grass, then they heard him mutter as he turned away.
“Well, what was it?” called the other man from the doorway of the mill.
“It was a log all right,” admitted Markel in a disgruntled tone. “But I could have sworn I saw it move a while ago.”
“Better get your eyes tested.”
To this pleasantry Markel made no reply, but trudged on down the slope until he again reached the mill. The boys pressed close to the willow tree.
“You may think I’m being too careful,” they heard Markel saying. “But we’ve got good reason to be careful. You know what’ll happen to the whole crowd of us if we’re caught.”
“Sure. About twenty years in the pen. But we’re not going to be caught I tell you.”
“Don’t be too sure. We can’t afford to take chances, anyway. I’d rather keep my eyes open and get fooled by a few logs on the hillside than feel too safe and spend the rest of my life behind the bars.”
“I guess you’re right. Anyway, everything is all right tonight.”
“I’m going to take a trip around the mill, anyhow.”
“Your nerves must be jumpy.”
“They are,” snapped Markel. “My nerves are always jumpy when I think I see something moving down toward here from the woods—and I don’t care whether that was a log or not, I saw something move.”
“Oh, probably a sheep or a cow that strayed from one of the farms. Or even a dog.”
“Yes, it might have been a dog,” Markel admitted.
“We’d better get to work. Dock is waiting for us.”
“I’m going to walk around the mill once, anyway.”
“Go ahead. Go ahead, then,” said the other man. “I’ll be inside with Dock.”
The boys heard heavy footsteps as Markel left the doorway, and then they saw his dark figure in the moonlight as he came around the side of the mill.
They pressed close against the willow tree and lowered their heads so that their faces would not be seen. Both were wearing dark clothes and dark caps. They did not look up, for they knew that their faces would be grey against the surrounding darkness and that Markel might see them.
In an agony of suspense they heard the footsteps come closer.
Markel poked around among the rubbish at the side of the mill. It was plain that he was not yet convinced that he had been suffering from a delusion when he saw the moving forms on the hillside and he meant to satisfy himself beyond any shadow of doubt that there was no one lurking in the vicinity of the mill.
Nearer and nearer he came.
His body brushed against the overhanging branches of the willow. He was now only a few yards away from the Hardy boys.
Breathlessly, they waited. They stood, rigid and motionless, not daring to look up.
Markel’s footsteps came to a stop. He was standing but a short distance away, listening intently.
Had he seen them?
XXII
Through the Roof
The Hardy boys always said that the few seconds in which they stood in the shadow of the willow tree with the suspicious Markel almost within arm’s length of them, not knowing whether they had been discovered or not, were the longest seconds they had ever known.
It seemed hours before they finally heard Markel give a grunt of satisfaction and trudge away in the opposite direction.
Even then it was minutes before they dared move, before they ventured to raise their heads and look about them. When at last they did so, Markel was no longer in sight.
They heard him go around the other side of the mill and finally they heard his footsteps as he trudged up into the doorway.
The door banged at last.
Markel was back in the mill. They breathed freely.
“That was a close call,” whispered Joe, in relief.
“Not a sound,” cautioned Frank. “They may be listening.”
They waited in the shadows for a long time.
