As the westering sun sank lower and lower, Thad himself began to grow anxious; and could be noticed listening intently every time the faint breeze picked up; for it was now coming exactly from the quarter whence the assistance they expected would come.
"There, that was sure an auto horn, tooting!" he exclaimed about half-past four in the afternoon.
Every one of them listened, and presently sure enough they agreed that it could be nothing else, though the loon out on the lake started his weird cry about that time, as though he considered it a challenge from some rival bird.
"Get aboard, and pull for the shore, Step-hen," ordered the scout-master; and as he had been expecting this, the long-legged scout pushed off.
They watched him paddling, and when he had almost reached the spot where Smithy and Bumpus, together with Davy Jones stood, a car came in sight, loaded with some four or five men in blue uniforms; Giraffe, and another, wearing ordinary clothes.
Step-hen brought two of the officers, and the extra man over, and then went back for another pair, while Thad talked with the Chief of the Faversham police, and the man whom he recognized as the guest they had given a cup of coffee to at the time the owner of the bear claimed his property.
The story was soon told, and it thrilled the scouts as they had seldom been stirred before. It seemed that the two men were notorious counterfeiters, known to the authorities as Bill Dalgren and Seth Evans. They had been surrounded by officers a month before, at a place where they were engaged in the manufacture of bogus half dollars; but had cleverly managed to escape with some of their dies and other material. One of them had been injured in the fracas accompanying this failure to catch them at work.
Since then their whereabouts had become a matter of considerable moment to the authorities at Washington, and one of the cleverest revenue officers was put on the case. He had disguised himself, and hiring the owner of the dancing bear, had gone around the country trying to get trace of the men, one of whom he knew wore a shoe with an oddly patched sole.
This gentleman, Mr. Alfred Shuster, assured the scouts that they were entitled to the heavy reward offered by the Government to any one giving information leading to the capture of the two bold rascals; and he declared that he would see to it that this amount was paid into the treasury of the Cranford Troop of Boy Scouts, as they had certainly earned it.
When the big rock was finally rolled away, with the aid of heavy wooden bars, the trapped men came meekly forth when ordered. All the fight seemed to have been taken out of them. Indeed, the one with the lame leg declared he was glad that he might now have the assistance of a doctor, for he had of late begun to fear that blood poisoning was setting in. In the place plenty of evidence to convict the two men was found.