He seemed uneasy and suspicious, for several times he turned his head and looked this way and that, as though half expecting to discover some person ready to dispute his departure.  And Frank also noted the way one of his hands had of keeping in the pocket of his short coat; just for all the world as though he might be grasping some sort of pistol that was concealed there.

CHAPTER XVII

SALLIE RIDES BAREBACK

“And now what’s our next move?” demanded Andy, who generally found it very nice to let Frank do all the planning, though capable of taking hold himself when forced to do it.

Fortunately Frank had a great way of figuring out what he would do under certain conditions.  This gave some sort of assurance when difficulties arose; for there was little time lost in fixing things up so as to have a programme.

“No use trying to follow after him, to begin with,” he declared.

“Why do you say that?” his cousin wanted to know.

“First of all, it would be a bad business, because he’s on his guard, and a desperate man,” Frank went on to explain.  “You can see that he’s ready to pull out a weapon of some sort at the first warning.  And we settled that we didn’t want to fall into the hands of these two bad men.  So we’ll have to arrange things along a different line.  And anyhow there’s no terrible hurry, because I rather guess they’ve got the biplane hidden some distance away from here.  It would take half an hour, perhaps much more, before they could get out.  And we can reach our craft in a few minutes, if pushed.”

“Yes, that’s all so, Frank; but go on, and tell me the rest.”

“I was thinking that we ought to try and let our folks know how things are going with us, so that if we have to cut out after these yegg aviators they’ll know where we’ve gone.  Suppose, now, you hunt Sallie up, and try to explain it all to her just as fast as you can.”

“Who, me?  Oh! well, I guess I can do it, if I have to.  But what will you be doing all that time, Frank?”

“I want to write a message to either your father, or else Judge Lawson, whichever she can get on the phone,” replied the other, immediately hunting in his pockets for pencil and paper, which he made it a habit to carry around with him always.

“She—­say, do you mean Sallie, Frank?”

“No other.  You must coax her to saddle up a horse, and make for the nearest neighbor where they’ve got a phone; get that, Andy?”

“But do you think she will?” asked the other, dubiously.

“I’m dead sure of it,” came the confident reply.  “Sallie has a touch of romance in her make-up; and besides, shell be so mad to think of that man deceiving her mother that she’ll want to have him caught.  Get along with you, now, Andy, and fix it all up inside of ten minutes.  I’ll have the message written out by that time, so she can start, if there’s such a thing as any kind of a horse around this wreck of a farm.”