the place and getting a glance at its occupants. At first they had thought that these were nothing more than a gang of tramps, but the name of the engineer, spoken

smartness about him. The other two occupants of the place were of a different type. One was heavily built and dark in complexion, almost a light coffee color, in fact. His swarthy face was clean shaven and heavily jowled. Seated next to him on an old hay press was

ing exactly the weakest points of the great dam?" the elder m

ed at the more slender

a has told you all

man struck in, "you recollect that I spoke to you

n, recalled to his mind something that sent a thrill through him t

ntioned as being opposed to Uncle Sam's plans on the Isthmus. What if-but not wishing to miss a word of what followed,

of his private papers I could. You see, it was common talk on the Isthmus that the place was alive with spies, and I figured out that anybody who was interested enough to hire spies must be mi

as bargaining with representatives of a foreign power that had good reason to dislike Uncle Sam; no question but that Mr. Mainwaring's plans, or at least copies of the

ould descend to such rascality as this was almost beyond belief. Merritt in his anger made a gesture of shaking his fist. It was an

n in the barn we

t?" cried Est

re full of them," rejoined Jared, striving to a

oked like a huge puff adder. "That was not a rat, amigo, that was a sp

"grab up everything and run for i

and odorous interior when the conspirators in the barn came rushing out, looking in every direction. In Alverado's hand something glittered in the sunli

was a big, red touring car drawn up close to the antiquated structure. But they had no time to wast

ado order, "we must find out if anyone has bee

of the car, which, the boys noticed in a quick, fleeting glance, bore no number, j

t's plain those chaps are thoroughly alarmed and

ully. "I'm a fine specimen of a Scout to make such

ll happen," rejoined Rob quickly. "Bu

e we goi

ying to

a chance that they

t little I saw of Mister Alverado he app

arching the

you can depend on it that when they've

eur on guard outside, too. Not a c

ere's anot

. Let's look. But we've

ouse and pointing over here,

d like an inverted V. The roof was covered with shingles. Apparently they were rotten, for in places the light came through. One side of the roof faced toward the abandoned farmhouse; the other faced ba

isper. He rapidly enlarged the opening till it was big enough to crawl through. Luckily the search party had paused

breathed Rob as soon as he

from view of the party now approaching the old smoke-house. It was a drop of not more than three fee

d. But they had to make a dash of some hundred feet across an open space. Somehow, just how

verado and the others