sight in the woods, and I couldn't find 'em," answered the farm hand.
"Around here?" asked Dick.
"No, that was on the edge of the big woods back of Hope Seminary. I was driving along, with some crates of eggs for the girls' college, when I see 'em, sitting on a fallen tree, smoking cigarettes. I stopped my hosses and spoke to 'em, and then they up and run into the woods as fast as they could go! I looked for 'em, but I couldn't git on their track nohow."
"What can they be doing up around Hope?" murmured Sam.
"Maybe they are sweet on some of the girls," returned Tom. "I know they used to go up there, when they attended Brill."
"I hope, if they visit Hope, they don't speak to Dora and the others," said Dick, as his face clouded.
"Maybe we better warn the girls," said Sam.
"No, don't do that," said Tom. "You'd only scare them. They know Koswell and Larkspur well enough. Don't say anything." And so the matter was dropped.
Two days later came a special delivery letter from home that filled the three boys with intense interest.
