At first glance one might have been inclined to believe the buildings
untenanted. There seemed to be no one stirring about the place, and some
of the unshuttered windows on the second floor were broken. The only
indications of recent occupation were a pile of kegs at the rear of the
house and near-by a heap of freshly opened tin cans. Near one of the
larger outbuildings, too, was a pile of chips and sawdust.
"There does not seem to be any one about," whispered Jane. "What do you
suppose they do here?"
"I can't imagine yet," said Fleck with an impatient shake of his head.
"The fact that this house is important enough for the Hoffs to visit
once a week makes it important for us to cautiously and carefully
investigate everything about it. It may be a secret wireless plant away
off here in the woods where no one would think of looking for it. It
might be a bomb factory where their chemists manufacture the bombs and
explosives with which they are constantly trying to wreck our munition
plants and communication lines. Perhaps it is just a rendezvous where
their various agents, the important ones engaged in their damnable work
of destruction, come secretly to get their orders from the Hoffs and to
receive payment for their hellishness accomplished."
"It's all so funny, so perfectly absurd," said Jane with a nervous
little laugh.
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