"Here, Toby, hold this rope end for a minute!" called Mark.
The other was only too willing to obey, for it gave him a chance to say he had had a hand in the great capture of the hairy thief. Ten seconds later there was a sudden brilliant flash that caused some of the scouts to cry out, in the belief that a storm had crept upon them, with the lightning giving advance warning of its coming.
"It's Mark, and he took a snap flashlight picture of the crowd standing around in pajamas!" cried Lil Artha. "Oh! my, what a sight that will be to chase away the blues. If only my red stripes show, I'll be the happy one."
"How about the first flash—did it go off when the monk pulled the trigger, Mark?" demanded Elmer.
"Sure it did," broke in Tom Cropsey, who had been one of the sentries on duty at the time; "and gave me a nasty scare. I never dreamed you had fixed things up that way, Elmer; and at first I thought something had exploded. But what can we do with the critter, now that we've got him?"
"Oh! that's all fixed," laughed Mark. "Elmer made a stout collar which can be fastened around his neck so he just can't get it off. To that a rope is fastened, and Mr. Diablo will amuse the camp with his stunts the rest of the time we stay up here on old Lake Solitude. Ready to work it, Elmer?"
"Yes, give me a hand here, please," replied the scout leader, who had been cautiously taking the enmeshed body of the still struggling monkey down from the straightened hickory sapling.
"Why, here's luck!" exclaimed Elmer, presently. "As sure as you live he's got a collar on right now, with a ring for a rope. There's a trailing foot of stuff fastened to it, showing just how he got away. All I have to do is to tie our stout line to that ring so even the clever fingers of a monkey can't unfasten it."
When this was done, and the other end of the rope made fast to the sapling that had assisted in Diablo's downfall, by degrees the rope encircling the beast was removed, and then the bag. The prisoner was inclined to be a little savage at first, because his taste of freedom had made him somewhat wild, and besides, these were all strangers to him.
But he was very hungry, and upon being offered food seized it eagerly. After that they would have very little trouble with Diablo, though he proved to be a treacherous rascal, and pinched more than a few of the boys who ventured to be too familiar with him.