"Tell us where you think you saw them," the assistant scout master continued.
"Brady's--why, that's where we get our milk," spoke up Landy.
"Sure it is," declared Ty. "That's funny now; I never remember setting eyes on anybody answering that description; and I've been over there twice."
"Yeth," declared Ted, "and I can thay the thame thing."
"You think you can; but you're away off, Ted," grinned Ty, who never grew weary of nagging the other on that lisp, with which he was afflicted.
"When did you see them, Adam?" asked Elmer, paying no attention to any of these side remarks.
"Vy, berhaps you may remember, Elmer, dot dis very evening I vant to go py der voods vonce, und get dot milk. Vat ve haf, it did get sour by der heat, und Ty he say he haf a desire to dake der tramp again nix. So I volunteer py der game. You pet me I nefer dry to gross dot field py der pull. I dake der long vay, und pring der milk safely home. Iss it not so, Ty?"
"Well, we're drinking some of it in our coffee this meal, so that goes without saying," the other replied.
"Tell us about the men--where were they when you saw them, Adam?" Elmer went on.
"Py der parn," returned the German scout.
"Not prowling around like a couple of thieves, Adam?"
"Then what were they doing?" the patrol leader asked, impatiently; for it was a most difficult thing to draw the story out of the German, who seemed to want to be "pumped" step by step, as Landy termed it.
"Oh, then you mean they were apparently in the employ of Mr. Brady?"
"Dot iss so. Dey toss der hay oop to him py der stack, und he stow it avay."
"I believe the farmer is getting in a late crop of clover hay," remarked Elmer.
"Yes," broke in Ty, "and he was telling me this very morning when I got the milk, after my little adventure with that neighbor's bull, how his man had left him in the lurch, and everybody around was so busy he hardly knew just how he could get the big crop of hay that was stacked in the field, ready for the mow."
Elmer nodded his head as though, after gaining this knowledge, it was comparatively easy to put two and two together.
"That settles it," he remarked. "These two hoboes came along, and he offered them such big wages to help him over his trouble, that they just couldn't resist. But I know something about tramps, and the real article wouldn't work at any price."