There was the late occupant of the pine tree the man who
had stepped on Ned's fingers, applying a small telescope to
his eye and gazing in the direction of Tom Swift's home.
The man stood concealed in a screen of bushes with his
back toward Ned, and seemed oblivious to his surroundings.
He moved the glass to and fro, and seemed eagerly intent on
discovering something.
"Though what he can see of Tom's place from there isn't
much," mused Ned. "I've tried it myself, and I know; you
have to be on an elevation to look down. Still it shows
he's after something, all right. Guess I'll throw a little
scare into him."
As yet, Ned believed himself unobserved, and that his
presence was not suspected was proved a moment later when he
shouted:
"Hey! What are you doing there?"
He had his eye on the partially concealed man, and the
latter, as Ned said afterward, jumped fully two feet in the
air, dropping his telescope as he did so, and turning to
face the lad.
"Oh, it's you, is it?" he faltered.
"No one else;" and Ned grinned. "Looking for a good place
to fish, I presume?"
Then, at least for once, the man's suave manner dropped
from him as if it had been a mask.
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