Boy Scouts on the Great Divide Part 28

"I haven't a doubt of it," was the angry reply.

"Then, like a good little boy, you chase out and find him."

"I'll find him quick enough," retorted Katz, advancing toward the spot where Wagner lay. "I'll find him too quick to please most of you fellows! Perhaps you can tell me who this man is."

The Boy Scouts gathered about the detective and Chester even sprang forward as if to defend his father from the officer's touch. It was Sheriff Pete, however, who prevented the actual arrest of the escaped convict at that time.

As the two detectives moved forward, attempting to brush the boys rudely aside, the sheriff seized Katz by the shoulder and swung him over to Sheriff Gilmore. Then he grabbed Cullen by the scruff of the neck and sent him spinning into the arms of Seth.

"What do you fellows mean by coming here and taking possession of our camp?" he thundered. "I'll teach you to get fresh around here! Put the handcuffs on the fellows, boys!"

One of the wounded outlaws raised himself from the floor and chuckled viciously as the two men were adorned with the manacles.

"Say," Katz exclaimed, trying to move toward the outlaws, "how did you get here? I've a great mind to put you both under arrest for your treatment of me a few hours ago."

"You're under arrest yourself!" laughed the outlaw pointing to the handcuffs. "You're a pretty skate to talk about arresting me."

"I protest against this, sir," exclaimed Katz, turning to Sheriff Pete.

"I am Joseph J. Katz, detective of Chicago, and this is Edward E.

Cullen, my a.s.sociate. We are here under protection of the laws of your state, in quest of a fugitive from justice and I protest against this outrage."

"Where are your extradition papers?" demanded the sheriff.

"We don't usually get extradition papers until we get the man," scoffed Katz. "You ought to know that, if you're an officer."

"I mean your authority from the Governor of Illinois," said Sheriff Pete angrily.

"You can wire to the Chief of Police at Chicago, and see if what we say is not true," Katz answered.

"But your papers," insisted the Sheriff.

"They were to be forwarded to us," replied Katz.

"I don't believe they're detectives at all!" Tommy cut in.

"I don't think they have any authority to make arrests," Will said, with a sly wink at the sheriff. "If they have, where are their badges?"

"They were stolen!" shouted Katz. "These Boy Scouts took mine, and those train robbers, who seem to be under arrest now, took Cullen's."

"You want to look out when you come down into Wyoming," said the sheriff with a chuckle. "I've known Chicago detectives to come down here and have their socks stolen off their feet!"

"Aw, they ain't detectives," argued Tommy. "They belong to this bunch of train robbers. I saw 'em talking with the robbers not very long ago. You just ask these robbers if these two men don't belong to their gang."

As Tommy spoke he turned to where the two robbers lay and gave a very grave and significant wink.

"They belong to our gang, all right enough," one of the outlaws stated, remembering various indignities they had received at the hands of detectives.

"That's a lie!" thundered Katz.

"Lie nothing!" replied the outlaw. "These fellows brought in two burros loaded with provisions for us, and we haven't been able to get to them yet. If you go back in the valley to the west, and travel north a few miles, you'll find where the burros and provisions are hidden away."

Tommy drew nearer to the outlaw and under pretense of picking something from the floor whispered in his ear:

"We'll see that you get a year off your sentence for that. We've just got to get rid of these imitation detectives."

"I don't believe you can make it stick, Katz," the other outlaw cried out, apparently in a very serious tone, although there was a wrinkle of humor about his grim mouth. "When we started out to rob the Union Pacific train you promised to see that we got provisions, and you didn't keep your word!"

The eyes of the two detectives stuck out, as Tommy afterwards expressed it, far enough to hang a coat and hat on. They almost foamed with rage as they stamped about the cavern, still linked together with the steel handcuffs.

"We're being jobbed!" Katz shouted.

"It's a frame-up!" echoed Cullen.

"Frame up nothing!" laughed one of the outlaws.

"Do you mean to say," said Sheriff Pete, turning to the two prisoners, "that these two men who claim to be detectives are actually connected with your gang?"

"That's what we'll swear to!" declared one of the outlaws.

"Two years off for that!" chuckled Tommy in a low tone.

"I tell you it's a frame up!" shouted Katz. "It's a dirty trick to get us out of the state without arresting this fugitive from justice."

"I'm sorry boys," Sheriff Pete said to them, with official gravity, although there was a twinkle in his eyes, "but under the circ.u.mstances, it's my duty to take you to Lander and give you a hearing before the grand jury. Personally, I have my doubts as to the truth of the charges made against you, but at the same time I've got to take ministerial cognizance of them. I'm sorry, but it's my duty."

"And in the meantime," yelled Cullen, "these Boy Scouts will get this fugitive from justice out of our reach!"

"I don't know anything about that!" said the sheriff, "but if they try to do anything of that kind, I'm afraid they'll succeed."

"Well," Gilmore, the Sweet.w.a.ter sheriff said, "I presume we'd better be moving along with the prisoners. If it's true that these two alleged detectives, who now turn out to be train robbers," he added with a glance at the boys, "have a camp with plenty of provisions at the north end of the next valley, we'd better take the whole bunch there and get the provisions and pack the whole outfit over to Lander with us."

"Are you going back to camp now?" asked Sheriff Pete, turning to Will.

"Just as soon as Tommy gets filled up on bear steak, I think we'd better be moving."

Sheriff Gilmore and the deputies now started away with the four prisoners and the boys watched them sliding and scrambling down the slope to the gully.

Will reached out and took Sheriff Pete by the hand.

"You're a brick!" he said. "You not only know how to do things, but you know how to do them right. If you ever come up to Chicago, don't forget to call on Lawyer Horton, and he'll tell you where we are."

"I'll not fail to do so," the sheriff answered, "but, in the meantime,"

he went on, "it ought to take about a week or two for these detectives to establish their innocence, eh?"

"I should say about two weeks," replied Will. "And see here," the boy went on, "I hope you won't be too hard on those train robbers. They're pretty decent fellows after all."

"They're the first men that ever held me up!" laughed the sheriff.

"Forget it!" exclaimed Will.