"Oh, you cinder path!" chanted his twin. "Wouldn't you like to do a
hundred-yard dash on this road?"

"It's not much farther," announced Jack. "I saw him heading for that
shack yonder."

The place he mentioned was a small building erected of rough boards,
with a galvanized roof. They neared the shack to find two men sitting
before it on a log smoking their pipes. They appeared somewhat startled.

"Did a young fellow just pass this way?" questioned Jack quickly.

The two men looked at the Rovers curiously, and then one shook his head.

"Don't think he did, Stranger. I didn't see anybody, did you, Tom?"

"No," was the positive answer.

By the look on their faces Jack felt that the men were not telling the
truth. Yet what he was to do he did not know.

"Maybe he went back to that garage," he suggested, pointing to a smaller
building in the rear.

"Look around if you think anybody is there," said the first man who had
spoken, and the boys hurried down to the garage, which stood open. As
they did this one of the men sauntered into the shack.

"Say, what's the meaning of this?" he demanded of Gabe Werner, who stood
hiding behind a door.

"I'll tell you as soon as they go away," was the answer of the former
bully of Colby Hall. "Don't let them come in here and see me."

"All right, they sha'n't come in," was the man's laconic reply; and then
he went outside again, to resume his smoking.

Having walked around the garage and peered inside, the four Rovers
walked again to the shack. The man who had just come out of the building
leered at them.

"Didn't find the fellow you were after, did you?" he queried.

"No," answered Jack shortly. He did not like the appearance of the man
in the least.

"Want to see him particularly?"

"I want to give him a good thrashing--that's what I want to do!"
exclaimed Jack. "And after that I might turn him over to the police, if
there is any such thing in this town."

"We haven't any police here. We run things to suit ourselves."

"What do you want to lick him for?" questioned the other man.

"He threw pepper in my eyes once, and he's done a lot of other things he
oughtn't to have done," returned Jack, and then turned back to the
hotel, and his cousins followed.

"Those two men were on the hotel veranda when we first went there," said
Randy. "I noticed them, and I did not like their looks at all."

"Do you know what I think?" returned Jack. "I believe Gabe Werner was in
th