Crossing the road, Tom moved cautiously among the trees, probing here and there with his flashlight. From time to time, he turned off the light and paused to listen for the sound of footsteps or other movements. Suddenly Tom froze in the darkness as his ears caught the murmur of voices.
“We’ve got the guy scared now,” a man was saying. “Pretty soon, we should have our mitts on the Swifts’ plans. Then we’ll pass ‘em along to the right party 1”
CHAPTER VII
ANTITRUTH SERUM
TOM repressed a surge of anger and focused his attention on locating the men, whose voices he did not recognize. Where were they?
Tom swung his light in all directions. But the yellow beam revealed nothing except tree trunks and gloomy undergrowth. Suddenly he realized that he was making a target of himself.
“Oh-oh! Those fellows may be armed!” he reflected, snapping off the flashlight hastily.
But how to find them in the darkness? Scarcely a ray of moonlight penetrated through the leafy branches overhead. Then a plan occurred to Tom -an old trick which might fool his unseen enemies. He jammed his flashlight into the crotch of a tree and turned on the beam again. Then, moving silently as an Indian, he began picking his way toward the voices.
To Tom’s annoyance, the men had stopped talking. His keen senses enabled him, however, to hazard a guess as to their possible location.
54
ANTITRUTH SERUM 55
Tom was hoping they might launch an attack of some kind toward the flashlight and thus give themselves away.
So far, they had shown no sign of rising to the bait. The silence continued, broken only by the chirp of crickets and other night noises.