The two injured men had been handed over to the proper authorities, and a doctor was even then examining what Thad had done for Kimball.
“You owe this lad a lot of thanks, my friend,” the doctor said; “he certainly has done a very neat job in uniting the lips of that artery. I’m afraid you’d have passed in your checks for a certainty, only for the prompt first aid to the injured which you received;” and Thad felt amply repaid when he thus learned that after all, his crude work had not been so clumsy as he had feared at the time.
To dispose of the three hobo yeggmen, it might be stated that they were eventually sentenced to various terms in the penitentiary. The reward, which had been increased to two thousand dollars, was paid over to the boys, and by them divided, just as Thad had proposed. And everybody seemed more than satisfied.
But of course that was only a small part of what was coming the way of the six scouts. Thad soon learned that the bank recently robbed had also offered a reward for the recovery of the bonds that had been taken; and this eventually fell into the treasury of the Silver Fox Patrol.
Then there was that other plunder, which had been found under the stone in the old cabin of the trapper, away up the river in the big game country. Doubtless the plundered bank would be delighted to pay a big sum for the return of those valuable documents, not to mention the cash that had also been recovered.
Thad did not have the time just then to open up communications, for he wanted to be off with his chums on another trip in a different direction; and one that Allan had wished they could take at the time they were compelled to follow on the trail of Mr. James W. Carson. So Thad placed the sealed packet in the safe of a gentleman whom Allan chanced to know right well, and who promised to open negotiations with the robbed bank, while the scouts were up in the woods.
“I’m pretty sure,” the gentleman remarked, “that there is a very nice sum offered in this case; and if so, you lads are to be congratulated indeed.”
“It means a trip out West next summer for our whole patrol; and a hunt in the wild Rock Mountains;” declared Bumpus, who was now wearing a perpetual smile, because of the good news he had received from Cranford.
And it turned out that they did receive a splendid purse from the bank people, who were overjoyed to get back papers that were of tremendous value to them, even if of little account to others. What this amount was there is really no necessity of telling; but it was enough, added to all the rest they received, to make the six boys the happiest fellows in all the great state of Maine. And doubtless, even before they knew to a certainty just what they were going to receive, it can be set down for a fact that they would start out on the second half of their vacation in the Maine woods with lighter hearts than they had known for many a day.
THE END.