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140 lively conversation was going on between Dan Baxter and the former teacher of Putnam Hall, but they were too far off to catch anything of what was said.

"What do you propose doing next?" asked Sam, after a pause of several minutes. "It's mighty cold here."

"We may as well retreat, Sam. We don't want to expose ourselves, do we?"

"I don't suppose it would do any good—although I'm not afraid of Baxter, or Grinder either."

"It isn't that. If they know we have arrived here, they will do all they can to locate that treasure first. We want to keep dark and get ahead of them."

"But how shall we turn?"

"We'll have to go back to where we found the two trails crossed and then try the other one. I don't know of anything else to do."

"Wouldn't Dan Baxter be surprised, if he knew we were so close?"

"Well, we won't let him know."

"Why not?" demanded an unexpected voice from the rear.

Both boys started and turned around, to find themselves confronted by Lemuel Husty, the man Dick had seen in company with Baxter at Cedarville.