"All nonsense, Mr. Sheriff," spluttered old Artemus, who feared lest his case might be losing its grip, and that the officer would refuse to aid him even were the boy found. "He's trying to swing your sympathies around against my interests. Remember that you carry a warrant, and are sworn to serve it."
"I always does my duty, Mr. Rawson, don't you fear," replied the sheriff, with a frown; "but just now it's a part of my business to hear all I can concerning the way your nephew came to join in with these Boy Scouts. Now, just go on telling me what you started to say, my boy."
At that Allan picked up fresh courage. The sheriff was inclined to favor them, he realized, even at the expense of straining his "duty."
"Why, one of our number, Giraffe here," he said, "happened to be practicing the wigwag code outside the camp, in the darkness, using a brand he'd picked from the fire; when to his astonishment he saw answering signals from what seemed to be the sky. Well, when we made out the one word 'help!' you see our interest was at once raised to fever pitch."
"I should say it would be," remarked Sheriff Bob, showing the deepest attention, as though the prospect for developments in the story began to excite him.
"Our scoutmaster took matters in hand," Allan went on. "You just said he was clever at sending and receiving messages. Well, he's a cracker-jack, that's what he is. And it so happened that Aleck, he not only belonged to the scouts, and had learned everything about signaling; but he served as a telegraph operator for a short time on a side road, when the regular man was taken sick; so he could even beat our Thad at talking with his hands; and that's going some, I tell you."
"But what was Aleck doing up there; and where was he at the time?" asked the deeply interested sheriff.
"Kracker and his two men had caught Aleck; and unable to make him tell what they wanted, what do you think the cowards did? Lowered the boy down to a shelf on the face of the cliff, and left him there, saying he would starve unless he weakened, and gave up his secret; which Aleck vows belongs to his mother alone, and nothing on earth would make him betray."
"And they left him there, did they?" growled Sheriff Bob, frowning in a way to indicate his opinion of the said Kracker.
"Just what they did. He saw us come into the valley, but thought we might only be some more of the same kind of wolves, wanting to torture a poor boy. But when he saw Giraffe, here, making letters with his fire-stick, something told Aleck we must be Boy Scouts. So, finding some wood on the ledge, he managed to make a little fire in a crack that ran into the rock; and with a brand from this he started to call, repeating that one word over and over again—'help'!"