As the door of the old house slammed, its echoes reverberating through the tangled, overgrown grounds, Jack Curtiss turned to his companion with a grin of satisfaction.
“Here’s the chance we’ve been looking for,” he exclaimed, wiping the sweat and dirt from his forehead,—for burrowing in long disused passages is dirty work.
“You mean a chance to get even?” asked Hunt in a puzzled tone.
“Yes. We can fix that Rob Blake up so that he’ll be in disgrace from this afternoon on.”
“I don’t understand,” rejoined Freeman, who, while he had chosen Jack Curtiss for a companion, had not a tenth part of the other’s evil ingenuity.
“Well, I do,” was the confident rejoinder. “It’s up to us to find this Jap and this Dugan, or whatever his name is. If we can do so, we’ve got Rob Blake where we want him.”
“I see now!” exclaimed Hunt, a light of comprehension showing in his eyes, “but do you dare——”
“Dare!” repeated Jack Curtiss scornfully, “I’d dare do anything to get even with Rob Blake, and,” he added prudently, “the best of it is, that there’s not a chance of it ever being traced to us. If we are only lucky enough to find those fellows they mentioned, they can do the dirty work, and we have the satisfaction of being even with those cubs.”
“But how are you going to find them?” asked Hunt, still hesitating.
“There’s only one road from that hut to this place. We’ll sneak through the grounds while they are all in the house, and nail this chap Dugan in time to put our plan into execution.”
An instant later, two grimy, dust-covered forms emerged from the bowels of the earth, as it seemed, and shoving their way through the dense clump of bushes, glanced cautiously about them.
“Coast’s clear,” announced Jack presently.
Together, Rob’s old enemy and Freeman Hunt, now his equally bitter foe, sped across the De Regny grounds and toward the road.
“You younkers are certain you are telling me the truth?”
Dugan, the treacherous private, paused, and, from his immense height, looked down into the faces of Jack Curtiss and Freeman Hunt.
“As sure as we stand here,” Jack assured him, “I’ve told you how we came to overhear what was said. If you want those plans, now is your chance to get them.”
“And don’t forget to beat Rob Blake up good and proper,” chimed in Hunt, who had lost all prudence in his eagerness to have his grudge avenged.