us for having our breath taken away on being held up so suddenly at the point of the pistol and told that we were under arrest!"
"But the white horse deceived us, Rob," hastily answered the other, who was really the new head of the Hampton police force, a man who had made it his business to get acquainted with every boy in town, believing that he could nip lots of impending trouble in the bud by letting boys know that he was interested in all they did, and ready to prove himself their best friend. "You see, we've been 'phoned that a couple of desperate men who escaped from the jail over at Riverhead had stolen a wagon and a white horse and were heading this way. So we came out to lay for the rascals. Sorry to have bothered you, boys."
"Well, this may prove to be the very horse and wagon they told you about, Chief," Rob went on to say; while the other two officers now crowded up close to catch all that passed.
"Just what it might!" added Andy, wishing to let everybody know that he was in the affair, if he didn't happen to be holding either the lines or the whip.
"Please tell us, won't you, Chief, whether one of the men that broke jail limped like he had a bad leg or a sprained ankle?" Tubby broke out, before Rob could get in another word.
"What's that you're telling me, my lad?" exclaimed the officer eagerly. "Now, I didn't think it worth while to mention the fact to you, but the truth is the taller man of the two did have a bad fall when he broke out, and he must have injured himself in some way. Do you mean that you've set eyes on that precious pair of rogues?"
"It was this way," Rob started to say, meaning to make his explanations as brief as possible. "We had been up the bay to get half a bushel of select oysters from old Cap. Jenkins over at his beds; and on the way home we had the misfortune to spring a leak, so that we had to beach the sailboat and start along the road, as night was coming on, and we wanted to get back in time for supper."
"That's right, supper was the main thing we had in mind, Chief, believe me," Tubby volunteered just then; after which he again relapsed into silence, and allowed Rob to finish his story.
"Of course we wanted to get a ride if we could, Chief, because the sack was heavy," the patrol leader went on to say, "and, well, boys always like to ride better than they do to walk. Pretty soon we heard a horse and wagon coming after us, and one of the two men aboard was whipping the poor beast dreadfully. Well, we lined up, and as soon as they came along all of us stepped out to ask if we could have a lift as far as Hampton; when, would you believe me, the men jumped out of the wagon as if they'd seen a ghost, and went back along the road as fast as they could tear, soon breaking into the scrub, and disappearing."
"Leaving you the rig; is that it, Rob?" asked the officer, laughing as he spoke.
"Just what they did, sir," continued the patrol leader; "and you may be sure we couldn't even get our breath together to call out and thank them before they'd vanished. Well, we got to talking it over, and made up our minds the men must have stolen the rig, and were badly frightened by the sight of our scout uniforms, thinking we might be soldiers meaning to arrest them. And after we had waited a little while, thinking they might come back, why, we just made up our minds there wasn't any use looking a gift horse in the mouth; but that we'd take the rig to town so as to turn it over to you at Police Headquarters. And here it is at your service, Chief."
"But I hope you'll let us ride to town in it?" Tubby struck in.
"Well, you've all done me a great favor, boys," the tall official went on to say; "and if so be you feel that you must get along home, why, take the rig and leave it in front of my office. But if you could put us in the way of nabbing that pair of escaped rogues, you'd be doing a great thing. They're a bad crowd, and the longer they stay loose, the worse it is going to be for the community."
"We can help you some there, Chief!" Rob hastened to declare.
"I should say we could!" added Andy with emphasis.
"We happen to know just where they left the road and plunged into the brush; and perhaps we might even be of some assistance to you in following their trail, Chief; because, you understand, scouts are supposed to know more or less about such things. Woodcraft comes under the head of a scout's education. What d'ye say, fellows; shall we turn around right now and take these officers to the place where the leaning white birch hangs over the road?"
Every voice came in a decided affirmative. Even Tubby, who had been amusing himself while holding on to the sides of the wagon by figuring out just how long he must wait until he could hope to find himself seated at the supper table, heroically pushed aside all such temptations, and proved that he could rise to an occasion like a true scout.
"Then that's settled," said Rob, proud of his mates of the Eagle Patrol; "and if you will wait till we turn the horse around, Chief, you can have my seat here."
Merritt quickly backed the wagon into the side of the road, and faced the animal in the direction from which he had just come.
Meanwhile Rob and Andy had crawled over the rear of the seat and joined Tubby, who seemed pleased when he found that he was going to have company. The Chief and one of his men occupied the seat, along with the scout who was doing the driving; while the other officer contented himself with sitting so that his legs dangled over the tail board.
In this fashion, then, they started to retrace the ground the boys had so recently gone over. Of course the Chief had a dozen questions to ask in connection with the actions of the two men, as to what they said and what they did.
"The only words any of us heard them say were: 'Holy smoke, looky here, Con!'" Rob told him. "But they made up for it by doing some tall sprinting, lame man or not, that would have won them a prize at an athletic meet."
"Well, right there you've settled the thing and clinched it into the bargain," the tall police officer remarked with a satisfied chuckle; "because, don't you know, one of the rascals went by the name of Con Keating. And if the taller of the pair has a broken leg, why we ought to be able to run them down, and bag him, anyway, even if the other gives us the slip. But I'm hoping he'll stick to his pal until we can come up with them."
"We ought to be nearly back to where we picked up the wagon, now, hadn't we, Rob?" asked Merritt, who was straining his eyes trying to make out a white birch tree leaning over the road on the left.
"One more bend and we'll be there," answered Rob, with such absolute confidence that every one of the other scouts knew he had been keeping tabs of the conditions, and could tell to a fraction just when they were drawing near the point that had been marked down in their memories.
A minute later and it turned out that Rob was perfectly correct; because Merritt discovered the landmark for himself.
"There it is, Chief, just ahead of us," he remarked, "where you see that white birch bending over. We made it a point to mark the place, thinking that p'raps you or somebody else would want to know about the men who ran away."
"A clever bit of business, my lad," remarked the other admiringly. And, indeed, what he had seen of these Scouts during the few months he had been in charge of the Hampton police had caused the Chief to entertain a very high opinion of their ability, and make him a firm advocate for the cause they represented.
The horse was pulled up close to where the white slender birch could be seen through the gathering gloom.
"Wait till I strike a match, and I'll try to find a piece of lightwood to make a torch," said Rob, jumping from the wagon.
"No use bothering that way, lad," called out the Chief; "because I've got something along with me that goes away ahead of any wood torch you ever saw."
"Then you must mean an electric hand torch," Tubby ventured to remark. "I know, because I've got one at home."
"Much good that does you," jeered Andy. "A torch, like a gun, is the kind of thing that when you do want it you want it badly."
"Well, how was I to guess all that would happen?" demanded Tubby indignantly. "Don't you think that if I had known we would get that hole in the boat, have a horse and wagon shoved on us this way, and be held up by the Chief and his men, I'd gone and made sure to fetch my little torch along? Sure I would."
"And if I'd known all that," chuckled Andy, always ready