"There is Monkey Rae," declared Pepper.

"And Sam and Red," added Jack, "but I don't know who the man is."

"Boat, ahoy!" shouted the colonel.

"What do you want?" snarled the man.

"You!" shouted the colonel. "Lay to until we come alongside!"

"Come on," responded the man, "and you will get more than you are looking for!" at the same time displaying a pistol, which he pointed toward the larger boat.

"Drop that!" commanded the colonel, going forward and covering the man with the gun, while Rand took the helm. "If you make any attempt to use that pistol I will disable you at once."

With a muttered imprecation the man let the pistol fall and, seizing the oars, began rowing for the sh.o.r.e.

"Shall we follow him?" asked Rand.

"There is a sand-bar there, I think," replied the colonel. "If you pull up the centerboard, perhaps we can slide over it. It's no use," he added a moment later as the boat fell off, "we shall have to go round."

By this time the small boat had been pulled in close to the sh.o.r.e, where the man, picking up a package from the bottom of the boat, sprang over the side and, followed by the boys, ran up the sh.o.r.e and disappeared in the woods, leaving the boat to drift.

"Shall we follow them?" asked Rand.

"I don't want them," said Donald.

"Better let them go, I think," added the colonel.

"Well, I hope I have seen the last of Monkey Rae for a good while,"

went on Pepper.

"Then as Dogberry says: 'Let us call the watch together and thank G.o.d we are rid of a knave,'" quoted Rand.

Picking up the drifting boat the Scout was headed down the river and in a few minutes they were off the colonel's landing. Here, the boys would have taken their boat and rowed home, but the colonel insisted on carrying them down to Creston, which was quickly done in the bracing breeze.

"Remember, as soon as you are ready," he said as he left them, "I will swear you in as Scouts."

CHAPTER X

LOOKING FOR A CLUE

"h.e.l.lo, Jack," called Rand, meeting the former on the street the following morning, hurrying along in his usual fashion, "what's the latest?"

"About what?" asked Jack in turn.

"About everything. Anything new about the robbing of Judge Taylor's office the other night?"

"Haven't heard much yet," replied Jack. "I was just going around there to see if they had found out anything more."

"Looking for clues?" questioned Rand.

"Not so much for clues as news," responded Jack. "Perhaps I can pick up some of both. You never can tell when they'll pop up. Don't you want to go along?"

"And see how you do it," laughed Rand. "I don't mind if I do.

Written up yesterday's story yet?"

"About your heroic rescue of a lovely maiden from the angry waves.

Of course; did it last night. Want to see it? I was going to put a head on it: 'Heroic Rescue by a Creston Boy.'"

"You don't mean it, Jack Blake!"

"Wait until you see it on the first page, double leaded, with a scarehead."

"Really and truly?"

"Really and truly."

"Please don't, Jack."

"Why, don't you want it?" asked Jack in mock surprise. "I thought you would be delighted to see your name in print."

"You know I don't want to be made ridiculous!"

"All right," responded Jack, "I'll kill it if you say so, but it would have made a sensation."

"I don't doubt that," laughed Rand, "but I'd rather not be the victim. I wonder," he went on musingly, "if we will ever see them again."

"Who?"

"The Whildens."

"Hardly likely," replied Jack. "If we do they will probably have forgotten us."

"Still I'd like to know how she came out."

"Oh, she came out all right," replied Jack lightly. "A little cold water won't hurt her. You know, the doctor said she was out of danger.

"It's a curious thing how they got in," he went on after a little pause, his thought turning on the robbery, which was uppermost in his mind just then.

"I don't see anything curious about it," returned Rand.

"You don't!" cried Jack. "Maybe you can explain how they did it then."

"I don't know as it needs any explaining," retorted Rand. "They got in a trough of the waves, and--"