The Banner Boy Scouts Afloat | Page 5

lumber piles. But I'm going to tell my
father about it, all the same. Seems to me he ought to have some one
like Hans stay here every night. Some of those hoboes will set fire to
things, either by accident, or because they are mad at the town for not
handing enough good things out to suit their appetites."
They walked on, and in another minute were at the office door. There
they sat down on the stoop to rest and talk; but only a few minutes had
passed when they heard the sound of approaching footsteps; and a
small but very erect figure appeared, carrying an old-fashioned musket
of the vintage of '61 over his shoulder.
"Hello! Hans, on time all right, I see!" called out Jack.
"Dot is me, I dells you, every time. I am punctuality idself. I sets me

der clock, undt figure dot all oudt, so I haf yust der time to valk here.
Der sooner you obens der door, Misder Jack, der sooner I pe on der
chob," was the reply of the little man who had been hired to watch the
mill, and those strange boxes, during the night.
Evidently Hans was "strictly business." He had been hired to watch,
and he wanted to be earning his wages as quickly as possible.
So Jack used his key, and the four entered the office. It was quite a
good-sized room. The windows were covered with heavy wire netting,
and it seemed strong enough to resist any ordinary degree of force.
After that attempt to rob his safe, Mr. Stormways had taken precautions
against a similar raid.
The watchman also carried a lantern, which he now lighted. No sooner
had this been done than Bobolink uttered an exclamation.
"I reckon now, Jack, that these three big boxes are the ones the
professor wants watched?" he observed, pointing as he spoke to several
cumbersome cases that stood in a group, occupying considerable space.
Tom Betts, also looking, saw that they were unusually well fastened. In
addition to the ordinary nailing, they were bound along the edges with
heavy twisted wire, through which frequent nails had been driven.
When they came to be opened, the job would prove no easy one.
"Yes, those are the ones; and Hans is to spend most all his time right
here in the office," Jack went on to say. "I'm going to ask my father if
he ought not to hire you to be night watchman right along, Hans. This
plant of ours is getting too big a thing to leave unguarded, with so
many tramps coming along the road in the good old summer time. I
suppose you'd like the job, all right?"
"Sure," replied the bustling little man, his eyes sparkling. "I always did
enchoy vorkin' for Misder Stormways. Undt it habbens dot yust now I
am oudt off a chob. Dot vill pe allright. I hopes me idt turns out so.
Undt now, off you like, you could lock der door some. I stay me here
till somepody gomes der mornin' py."

"Oh! you keep the key, Hans," replied Jack. "You might want to chase
out after some one; but father told me to warn you not to be tempted to
go far away. You see, he's storing these cases for a friend, and it seems
that somebody wants to either get at 'em, or steal them. They're what
you're hired to protect, Hans. And now let us out, and lock the door
after we're gone."
Anxious to get to the church before the meeting could be called to order,
the three scouts did not linger, although Hans was such an amusing
little man that they would have liked nothing better than to spend an
hour in his society, listening to stories about his adventures--for the
Dutchman had roamed pretty much all over the world since his
boyhood.
"Shucks! I forgot to examine those boxes," lamented Bobolink, when
they were on the way past the end of the lumber yard.
Jack was glancing sharply about, wondering whether that tall, skulking
figure they had glimpsed could be some one who had a peculiar interest
in the boxes stored in the office of the mill until Professor Hackett
called for them; or just an ordinary "Weary Willie," looking for a soft
board to sleep on, before he continued his hike along the railroad track.
But look as he would, he could see no further sign of a trespasser. Of
course that was no sign the unknown might not be within twenty feet of
them, right then. The tall piles of lumber offered splendid hiding-places
if any one was disposed to take advantages of the nooks; Jack had
explored many a snug hole, when roaming through the yard at various
times, and