Elmer again began to advance a foot at a time, meanwhile keeping close watch on all that was going on ahead. They had the situation well in hand, their line covering the ground, with the water cutting off escape in one quarter.

Even without those serviceable guns the seven boys might have proven themselves master of the game, for clubs could serve in lieu of better weapons. As it was, Elmer felt positive things must go their way.

Just then, Hen, in turning to reach his supply of bait, chanced to see that line of creeping figures in khaki. The mingled expressions that crossed his face told what a flutter the sight must have brought to his heart.

Elmer instantly put a finger on his lips, and made a gesture warning Hen not to betray them. Perhaps it was just as well, for the poor fellow seemed on the point of crying out in his mixture of joy and fear. He did succeed in making some sort of sound that attracted the attention of the man, who raised his head to growl:

"What ails you now, you young fool? I'm almost sorry I went to the bother of trying to save you from the clutch of the law. What are you complaining about, I'd like to know? Get another fish, if you expect to stave off your hunger; the first of the spoils always goes to the boss."

"I caught my finger on the hook, that's all, Joe," stammered Hen, perhaps telling the truth, too, for in his sudden shock of excitement at seeing his chums he could very well have done such a thing.

"Well, suck it, and get busy doing your work, that's all, while I cook this fish, and perhaps another you may take. Yes, and while you're about it just pray that my appet.i.te will be stayed with this one; for if it isn't, you'll have a small chance for a bite unless they come in faster than they've been doing."

Well, the crisis had pa.s.sed, and there had been no discovery; but then Elmer was really caring very little now. He only wanted to post his backers a shade better so as to cut off all chance of escape, when he intended opening up the game himself by springing a surprise on the man.

One thing he did mean to look out for, and this was a possible move on the part of the escaped jail bird to lay hold of Hen. Such a man would think first of all how he could use the boy for a shield, while he made terms with the enemy. It was an old trick, which Elmer had known to be used with more or less success when up on that Canadian cattle ranch, where bad men were occasionally met with, who gave lots of trouble before they were rounded up.

Two, three minutes pa.s.sed.

Elmer did not believe it would be good policy for them to continue to advance any further. He did not wish to get so close to the man that the other could by a sudden rush reach them before they were able to do anything.

By a low hiss he warned his comrades that the critical time had arrived, when every scout would be expected to do his duty.

Then slowly he got up, first on his knees, and then on his feet. Every fellow duplicated his move, so that the entire seven were now standing there, forming a line slightly inclined to resemble the new crescent moon.

And there was Hen Condit turning his head around to stare at them, his face as white as the chalk they were accustomed to use upon the blackboard in school. His eyes were as round as circles, while upon his strained countenance hope, fear, expectation, almost a dozen emotions struggled for the mastery.

"h.e.l.lo! Joe!" called out Elmer, without the slightest warning.

Up rose the head of the man who was busy cleaning the fish. When he saw those seven khaki-clad figures standing there, with two shotguns bearing directly on his person, he was to all appearances struck dumb for the moment. His eyes stared and his mouth fell open. Fish and knife dropped from his nerveless hands.

"Caught, by thunder! and by a bunch of boys at that!"

These words burst from his lips, after which he started to use some pretty strong language until Elmer put his foot down sternly.

"Stop that kind of talk, Joe!" he ordered. "We've got you rounded up, and there's no use kicking. If you make a move to run, or jump this way, we'll fill you full of bird-shot, do you hear?"

"Both barrels in the bargain, Joseph, mind you!" added Lil Artha, still burning with indignation as he recollected how they had seen the beast cuff poor Hen; and perhaps deep down in his boyish heart actually hoping the other might take a notion to try and get away, when they would be justified in peppering him, after he had run possibly thirty or forty yards.

"Oh! I guess the jig's all up with me, boys," said the man, with a look of sheer disgust on his face. "I've had a little run for my money, but the stone jug seems to be yawning for me. I was a fool to bother with the kid, it seems; but when the scheme came to me at first I thought it too fine to drop. Here's where I get paid for being a silly gump. What do you want me to do, boys? I'll obey with as much cheerful alacrity as I can, seeing that I'm starving to death just now."

"First of all," said Elmer, who had it all mapped out, "lie down on your face and put both hands behind you. We're going to tie you up, and wait for the Chief with his posse to come along. Do you get that, Joe?"

"Sure I do, and since it's Hobson's choice with me here goes. I suppose you fellows must be Boy Scouts. I once organized a troop of the same, but never dreamed I'd be arrested by the khaki crowd. It's all in a day's work, though."

He, accordingly, stretched himself flat on the ground. When they could see that he had his hands held behind his back, and conveniently crossed at the wrists, four of the boys advanced.

"Keep your gun aimed at him, Lil Artha," commanded the scout-master, "and if he tries any funny business let him have it in the legs. Here, Landy, you and Chatz sit on him while I secure his hands."

The man attempted no resistance, for he realized the folly of it. He did groan, however, when Landy squatted down on his legs, and the other fellows could hardly blame him for grunting. It was like a thousand of brick dropping from a second story building, as Lil Artha afterwards described it.

The job was quickly and neatly dispatched, Elmer wrapping his cord many times around the wrists of the prisoner. By this time Joe seemed to have recovered his nerve, and made out to consider the whole thing more in the light of a big joke than anything else.

Meanwhile, there was Hen standing near by, and hardly knowing whether to look delighted at seeing his cruel boss thus being tied up, or show the dreadful fear that was gripping his soul as he contemplated what must follow.

"Cheer up, Hen, old fellow," said Toby, stepping over to grasp his hand; but to his amazement Hen immediately broke down, and began to sob as if his heart were broken.

"You don't know the worst, that's what," he said, plaintively. "That stealing the money from my uncle was bad enough, but oh! will they really hang me for the other? I sure didn't mean to do such a terrible thing when I threw that stone and hit the tramp that day! I've had no peace of mind ever since he told me his pal had really died. He said he'd keep still about it if I'd go with him, and do everything he told me to. And I've just had to, even when I felt sick enough to want to lay me down and die."

"What's this yarn you've been giving the boy, Joe?" demanded Elmer, sternly, as he faced the man, who with his hands tied behind his back had been propped up against a convenient tree.

The man looked at Elmer and then burst into a derisive laugh.

"I knew he was a soft subject when I met him that day," he said, "and I made up my mind I'd work him for fair. He did throw a stone and hit a fellow I was with on the head. We chased after him but he was too speedy for us. Later on when I was all alone I set up that slick game on him, telling him my pal had actually died, and I'd buried him in the woods. Oh! it was almost too easy. He did just whatever I wanted him to. You'll find every cent of the money in my pocket, because I never had a ghost of a chance to spend any of it. That's all, son. Now you understand what ails the silly fool."

Hen Condit had listened to this, at first with that look of abject pain on his face. Then as the substance of the man's confession dawned upon his mind he began to exhibit fresh interest that caused another expression, that of wild hope, to swiftly take the place of despair on his countenance.

"Oh! do you mean then, Joe, that your pal didn't die after all?

Please, oh please, tell me that, and I'll forgive you for everything mean you've done to me!" he begged.

"The last I saw of the tramp," the prisoner told him, "he was settled in an empty freight car, and bound for the city. He was as frisky as ever then. I'd have joined him only I didn't want to pull up broke in the city; and I thought there ought to be some rich pickings for a clever crook around these regions. That's where I made my one big mistake. And now I'm going to take my medicine. That's all from me, you hear. Only I say, kid, you're lucky to have such a fine lot of chums to help you out of a bad sc.r.a.pe!"

CHAPTER XVI

CONCLUSION

"I can hardly believe it's true," muttered Hen Condit, helplessly, as he looked around him at the beaming faces of his seven loyal chums; "just seems to me as if I'd wake up and find it only a lovely dream."

"Well, it isn't, just the same, Hen," said Lil Artha, as he wrung the other's cold hand as though it had been a pump handle, and he the honest milkman; "the money's been recovered, every cent of it, and like as not there's some sort of a reward out for the recapture of this gent here, who broke jail with a pair of handcuffs on his wrists which he filed off weeks ago up in this same swamp. And if there is, you share with us in that, Hen, remember."

"But I didn't do a single thing to get him, and that wouldn't be fair!"

weakly protested the relieved boy, with his arm linked in that of Elmer, upon whom he seemed to lean in this dreadful crisis of his young life.

"Didn't hey?" snorted Toby; "I guess you _lured him along_; then again and helped to blind his eyes while we crept noiselessly closer and closer. Sure you deserve part of the reward, Hen, providing there is any up."

At hearing that unique remark, the prisoner burst into a hearty laugh.

Evidently, "Joe," having made up his mind that he was going back to the clutches of the law, could enjoy a good joke as well as the next one; he was undoubtedly a reckless sort of fellow anyway.

"That's fine for you, son," he told Toby; "luring the rascal on is a good one. That poor kid was almost too easy for me to work, for he fell into my trap as soon as I pulled the string. Why, I felt ashamed of myself sometimes, it was so much like taking candy from the baby.

But he isn't a half bad sort of a boy; and let's hope this'll be a lesson to him never again to throw stones at poor tramps. They're human as well as the rest of us, and have their feelings. That lump on his head pained Weary Willie Larkins as much as it would have done Hen here."

Having made sure that the desperate character whom they only knew as Joe could not escape, the boys built a jolly fire, and proceeded to cook something. Hen was so savagely hungry they had to lead him away while the meal was in preparation, for he vowed he was dreadfully tempted to jump in and devour his food raw.

And when a supply had been made ready, the scouts did not forget to feed their prisoner, who certainly seemed to enjoy it very much, indeed.

"You boys are a great bunch," he told Lil Artha, who was looking after his necessities in the line of food; "and after all, I'm not sorry you were the ones to get me, if it had to be. I'd never forgive myself if that fat Chief of Police down at Hickory Ridge managed to round me up, and him as ignorant about following a trail as a greenhorn."