CHAPTER XVIII

ELMER HAS A PLAN

For a full minute nothing further passed between the two chums. Amos was slyly observing the newcomer, who continued to talk most eloquently, rattling along on some subject or other, and holding Wee Willie spellbound.

“Elmer!” finally whispered Amos.

“Yes,” came from the other, though Elmer did not desist from his occupation of making his trousers legs look more presentable, just as if it mattered in the slightest degree how creased or muddy they might be, off in the woods as they were, where no critical eye could ever detect the faults.

“I—guess—you’re right about that!” wheezed Amos.

“I’m getting more and more certain with every minute,” asserted the other. “I can see it in his shifty eyes, and his every action. Why, he’s as mad as anything, and has been playing a clever little trick on us. You must know these people who are out of their senses just love to imitate other folks, and make believe they’re Napoleon Bonaparte, General Grant, or some noted character in history. He chances to have a fancy for being the doctor at the asylum; perhaps he’s studied his ways, and can take the other off to the life. But we’re stacked up against a bunch of trouble, believe me, with _him_ in camp.”

“He’d be a dangerous man to tackle, I expect?” ventured Amos, dubiously.

“They always are hard to handle, I’ve heard,” Elmer told him. “Why, even a weak looking woman, if out of her mind, and violent, will be all four men can manage; and at that she’ll claw their faces something dreadful.”

“Whew! but we ought to get rid of him, some way or other,” continued Amos. “I wish I knew of a scheme to start: Elmer, how about you?”

Elmer did not reply immediately. He happened to notice that the furtive eyes of the man under suspicion chanced to be resting on them just then; and it was far from his wish to cause the other to suspect they knew his real identity.

Possibly Wee Willie asked some question just naturally, as he was deeply engrossed in certain things the “doctor” had been telling him; at any rate those searching eyes were again removed from the vicinity of the spot where Elmer and Amos sat close together.

“As force is out of the question,” said Elmer, softly, “why the only thing left is strategy.”

“Yes—go on, please, for I just _know_ you’ve got a scheme made up,” breathed Amos.

“Don’t look so hungrily at me while I’m talking, Amos,” he was told. “Try and grin, as if what I say might be funny. That man’s eyes are like those of a rat or a ferret, and can look right through you.”

It may have been but a wretched excuse for a laugh that Amos managed to emit; but at any rate such a sound would make it appear as though he were listening to some humorous observation on the part of his mate. Elmer, appeased by this, continued to “lift the lid,” as Wee Willie would term it, and explain what he had in mind.

“We’ll manage to break into the talk after a bit, understand, Amos,” he was now saying, “and don’t be surprised when I make a statement that isn’t exactly true. But those two guards _did_ say they hoped to run across us again while up here in this neck of the woods; you heard them, Amos?”

“I certainly did,” came the quick reply.

“All right then, a fellow is allowed to stretch things just a little when the circumstances are as desperate as they seem to be with us right now. Well, I’m meaning to remark incidentally that we kind of expect them to drop in on us before morning; in fact, that they may see the light of our campfire any old time, and show up. Get that, Amos?”

The other actually chuckled, this time without much of an effort.

“I’m on to your game, Elmer,” he announced, eagerly.

“Do you think it’s a good one?” demanded the originator of the scheme.

“Simply great, and that’s a fact. Of course, if he was the genuine article he’d act as if delighted to know there was a chance for him to meet up with the balance of the search posse again.”

“Oh! don’t fool yourself about that, Amos; he’s too smart not to act as if tickled half to death at the prospect,” resumed Elmer. “I expect all that to happen.”

“Then how are we going to know whether he’s the real, or counterfeit article, Elmer?”

“They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating of it, Amos. Lots of things in this world are different from what they seem to be on their face. No matter what his make-believe is, we’ll know the truth by his actions, when he thinks no one is looking.”

“You mean he’s likely to skip out before morning, eh, Elmer?”

“There’s a big chance that way, I reckon.”

“Oh! I hope so, I certainly do,” said Amos. “I never did like to run across any one who was out of his mind; they always made me feel queer. But I’ve just thought of something, Elmer, that might queer your fine game.”

“Is it—Wee Willie?” asked the other, quickly.

“How on earth did you guess so easily, I’d like to know?” gasped Amos, quite taken aback for the moment.

“Just because I had thought about him myself,” came the answer. “He’s sitting there, and drinking in everything that chap tells him as if he might be in a daze. Yes, I wondered how he would take it when he heard me say I expected those two guards to join us any old time now.”

“Gee! Wee Willie might blurt out something that would make him suspect you only said that so as to alarm him!”

“There’s only one way to prevent that,” his comrade told him. “I’ll be sure to catch his eye just before I say anything, and give him the high sign. Wee Willie knows what that’ll mean; he’ll understand that he’s got to keep his lips tightly buttoned up,—just sit there and listen. You’ll see how lucky it is we had all those signals arranged long ago.”

“That was your doing, Elmer; why, if you’d looked ahead, and seen just such an occasion as this, you couldn’t have fixed things better. But won’t Wee Willie be eating himself up with curiosity, though? He’ll wonder what under the sun it all means.”

“I expect to find a chance to tell him what’s in the wind, Amos; in fact it’s more than likely he’ll make such an opening himself, so as to be in the swim with us.”

“There, he’s watching us again, Elmer; just as if he suspected we might be talking about him by ourselves off here.”

Elmer laughed, and went on to act as if detailing some choice bit of gossip concerning one of their home pals in Chester. Amos, stirred to action by the necessities of the case, also managed to look as if tickled over something, although merriment came hard with a fellow who for years now had been carrying such a load of anxiety and boyish sorrow on his shoulders, all connected with the episode of his father’s vanishing, and the constant sad face of his mother.

Elmer did not believe in hurrying things. He knew that many a promising plan of campaign has been ruined simply through an application of too much haste. The night was long; indeed, it would likely seem interminable to the three lads who found themselves face to face with such an unpleasant experience. So he would wait patiently; possibly luck might favor them, and the unwelcome visitor announce his intention of leaving, a happening that would make the carrying out of his cleverly arranged plan unnecessary.

The minutes dragged past.

“I saw him yawn right then, Elmer; he’s getting sleepy, I should say; which looks like he meant to stick by us to-night,” Amos whispered, after another quarter of an hour had crept by.

The talkative “doctor” must have tired himself out, or else his mood changed, for he had about quit speaking to Wee Willie. In fact, the latter was also beginning to display unmistakable signs of being ready to turn in, the heat of the crackling fire doubtless causing his eyes to grow heavy.

Elmer decided that the time was at hand for him to do something. Once their unwelcome guest lay down and went to sleep it would be too late.

First of all, he was watching to get the eye of the tall chum. Wee Willie on his part was suddenly surprised, and electrified as well, to see Elmer make a little movement with his hand which he easily understood to mean: “Don’t open your mouth to say a thing when you hear me make a statement; you’ll know all about it later on!”

Elmer repeated it so as to make sure the other understood, and when he saw Wee Willie make a similar movement he felt that matters were settled.

With that Elmer called out to the visitor:

“Of course you mean to bunk with us to-night, Doctor? Sorry we haven’t anything to offer you in the way of food, but we came away from our camp in a big hurry, anxious about our missing chum, and failed to fetch grub along. But after the storm, with the woods all soaked with water, I guess a fire feels too good to leave; how about that, Doctor?”

Elmer wisely made out to use that designation whenever possible; he fancied it might please the other, and allay any suspicion he might have been entertaining toward the speaker. Those wonderfully keen eyes seemed almost to pierce Elmer, as the other surveyed him closely.

“Thank you, that’s very kind,” he remarked, smoothly; “and I think I shall accept the invitation in the same spirit it is given. Yes, this fire does warm one up, after such a soaking; and it would be foolish for me to leave such good company.”

“There’s another reason why you ought to stay with us, Doctor,” continued Elmer, looking so innocent that Amos made up his mind the other was built for a clever actor.

“Indeed, what might that be, I’d like to know?” said the other, with a vein of sudden alarm in his voice.

“Why, the chances are we’ll be joined by two good friends of yours between now and sunrise,” continued the boy. “I mean Collins and Andrews, those fine fellows you brought with you from the asylum, when you came in search of that cunning Felix Gould!”

The man was silent for a full minute. He seemed to be pondering over something, for he frowned, and then forced himself to look pleasant.

“That is rare good news you are giving me, my young friend!” he burst out, though had he chanced just then to have turned his head and looked at Wee Willie, to note the expression of blank bewilderment to be seen on his freckled face, he might have felt less confidence. “What makes you think there will be a reunion of forces to-night? Collins and Andrews are great cronies of mine, whom I shall, of course, be delighted to meet again.”

“Why, they said they meant to put in the day searching the woods up here; and something seems to tell me they’ll surely drop in.”

“It is very kind of you to tell me such delightful news,” the other replied. “Yes, I’ll cuddle down here by your fire, and snatch a little sleep, of which I am in great need; though food is something I’d like to see before me as well.”

They all lay down as if to sleep, but it was a very alert group indeed, stretched out there, including the “doctor.”