"This way, Mr. Garrabrant, we've got a surprise for you!" laughed Elmer.
"You come along, too, Ginger," called Lil Artha, "and make the acquaintance of an old friend of yours. He's been fretting like everything because you were so long getting here. Diablo, here's Ginger coming to shake hands with you!"
Of course they had heaps of fun watching the look on the face of Ginger, as he found himself confronting the hairy thief whom he had seen under such strange conditions, and believed to be a visitor from a warm country where pitchforks are said to be in fashion.
But it required considerable urging for Ginger to actually take the extended hand of the big monkey. Eventually, however, they became quite good friends. Ginger was forever supplying the captive with tidbits, and on his part Diablo seemed to recognize in the dark-skinned man a boon companion.
Of course, after they had their little frolic, and the story of Diablo's capture had been fully told, the boys were eager to know whether Mr. Garrabrant had succeeded in turning the two bad men over to the Rockaway authorities, also if he had happened to run across any of their folks while in Hickory Ridge.
"Make your minds easy, boys," he had replied, laughingly. "Jim and Bill are safely lodged behind the bars in Rockaway jail. I saw Colonel Hitchens, and he paid me the reward that was offered for their capture, which goes to the troop. Later on you boys shall take a vote as to what to do with the money, though I imagine I can give a pretty good guess where it'll go from what I heard you say before about Abe and his kiddies."
"Did you happen to mention the fact that we believed we had his runaway monkey up here as a neighbor, sir?" asked Elmer.
"I certainly did, and he at once declared that if you could only manage to get hold of that rogue, Diablo, it would be another hundred dollars reward," answered the scout master.
"Hurrah!" cried Lil Artha, boisterously, "but the honor goes to Elmer and Mark. They not only did the entire trick, but managed to get a flashlight picture of the monkey going up in the air, with one of his hind legs gripped in the loop of a rope. It's the greatest thing I ever heard about! Wait till you see the picture, sir."
"But how about Hickory Ridge, sir; I suppose it's still on the map?" asked Elmer, who knew only too well that every fellow was just dying to hear whether the scout master had happened to run across any of their home folks, and what they had said in sending word.