The boys eased their cramped positions.  A minute passed.  Then they leaped aside from the doorway, for the flood of white light from the car was again illumining the hut and the engine was humming loudly.  A moment of suspense, and the light swept past them, moved to the right, fell on a line of bushes and trees, turned back a little and bored a long hole in the darkness at the bottom of which stretched a roadway.  And then, with a final sputter of racing engine and a grind of gears, the car sprang away up the road, the light dimmed and blackness fell again.  The chugging of the auto diminished and died in the distance.  Amy arose stiffly from where he had thrown himself out of the light.

“Now, what the dickens?” he demanded puzzledly.

“I can’t imagine,” replied Clint.  “And I don’t much care.  What gets me is why we didn’t speak to them!”

“That’s so,” agreed Amy.  “Somehow, there was something sort of sneaky about them, though, wasn’t there?  Bet you anything they were robbers or—­or something.”

“Robbers don’t usually travel around the country at night in autos,” said Clint thoughtfully.  “But I felt the way you did about them, I guess.  I sort of felt that it would be just as well if we didn’t butt in!  One of them had a club that looked right hefty.”

“Let’s go out there and see if we can find anything,” suggested Amy.

“All right, but I don’t suppose we can even find the place in the dark.”

They went out very cautiously and tramped about where it seemed that the mysterious visitors had been, and Amy even got down on hands and knees and felt over the ground.  But nothing of moment rewarded their search, the only thing either of them discovered being a head-high bush into which Clint walked.  At last: 

“Well, this isn’t much fun,” said Amy.  “And I’m cold clear through.  Now we know where the road is, Clint, let’s get on it and walk.  At least it will warm us up.”

“All right.  I wish I knew what those fellows were up to, though.  Maybe if we waited until daylight—­”

“And froze to death!  Nothing doing,” chattered Amy.  “Curiosity killed a cat, and although I don’t feel exactly kittenish, I refuse to take any chances.  What time do you suppose it is?”

“About midnight, I guess.”  Clint drew out his watch, but he couldn’t even discern the outline of it.  “A fellow’s a fool to go without matches,” he muttered disgustedly.

“Bet you it’s a whole lot later than that,” said Amy.  “Anyway, let’s get going.  Which direction do you think Wharton is?”

They debated that for some time after they had reached the road, and in the end they decided that the town lay to their left, although, as Clint pointed out, the men in the automobile had gone in the opposite direction.

“They might be going to Thacher,” said Amy.  “Anyhow, we’re bound to get somewhere in time.  All I ask of Fortune is a bed and a breakfast; and I could do without the bed, I guess.  Somewhere in the world, Clint there are two cups of hot coffee waiting for us.  Is that not a cheering thought?”