"You see, here's the battery," laughed Rob, making good use of the lantern again, and everybody gasped as they saw what he was pointing at.
Apparently, when the men in hiding had failed to fire the mine and realized that their terrible plot had "missed connections" in some strange way, they must have been suddenly overwhelmed with a panic, for they had fled in such haste that no attempt had been made to carry off their belongings, and so the fine little battery was abandoned to its fate.
There was no longer the shadow of a doubt in the mind of the wary lieutenant. He forgot that he had mistrusted these boys in the beginning, and suspected that they were trying to gain some glory, without any real basis for their wonderful story. All this Rob understood when the other impulsively grasped and squeezed his hand, at the same time exclaiming:
"I am proud to meet you, my brave young chap. I only regret that you are not a Canadian like Donald here. You have done us a tremendous favor by your energy and your Yankee smartness. I am going to ask you to help us still further. If only we could capture those villains, it would complete this wonderful night's work. Will you accompany me with several of my men, while we try and cut them off before they can recross the line and find refuge in the States?"
"Oh, Rob!" cried Andy; and that was all he said, but there was a world of entreaty in those two words.
The scout master, whose indignation had been fully aroused because of that late near-tragedy, in which his country would have been undoubtedly involved, did not take ten seconds to make up his mind.
"Yes, we'll gladly coöperate with you to try and round them up, sir; three of us at least will go with you, and the sooner we start the better chances we'll have for success."
He immediately understood that Rob did not mean to include _him_ in the party that was to try and cut the invaders off before they could recross the boundary line. Really, Tubby did not know whether to be glad or sorry. To be sure, he always wanted to have a hand in everything patriotic that was going on, which might reflect credit on the scout uniform; and in one way he would have dearly delighted in being present, should those unknown plotters be brought to book. But then it promised to prove an arduous undertaking, since all possible haste must be made; and this would necessitate driving through the brush with utter disregard as to who was tagging along at the rear of the procession, a place Tubby occupied about ten times out of ten.