Accordingly he motioned to Landy to sit down on him again; and then bending low himself he pressed the end of his pocketknife against the man's neck as he grunted into his ear:
"Keep still, now, unless you want me to press the trigger!"
Satisfied that Landy and Ted could manage the tied tramp, even if he started to kick up a row, which was hardly likely, Elmer once more turned his attention to that opening under the mow. Once again the projecting hay was being violently agitated, and he believed the shorter man must be following close upon his mate.
The programme would have to be repeated, and Elmer only hoped as good success might attend his second effort as had his first.
It would be a big feather in the caps of the scouts could they say that they had effected the capture of the two would-be train wreckers, alone and unaided. But at the moment he was not thinking of such a thing as glory; when it was a stern duty that had been suddenly thrust upon them, and which they must not attempt to evade under any circumstances, if they wished to be true to the principles of the organization to which they belonged.
Shorty, however, must have managed to change his position in some manner, if so be he had started along the tunnel in the same crab-like method of procedure which his comrade had employed. For the first thing they knew a frowsy head had been thrust out of the hay, and a pair of eyes were blinking up at them.
Elmer was afraid lest the fellow draw back upon seeing what awaited him, just as a tortoise will pull in its head at signs of danger. Accordingly, he was determined not to allow such a thing to happen. True, with the advancing fire Shorty would speedily have to decide which fate he must choose; but that might mean he would yield himself a prisoner to the Fairfield police; and Elmer wanted the Boy Scouts to get all the credit possible.
On this account, then, he pounced on the man, and gripped him by the shoulders. Elmer was himself far from a weakling, and the man happened to be taken very much by surprise; so that before he could collect his wits sufficiently to make any show of defense, he found himself out on the ground, with a couple of energetic young fellows hovering over him.
Ty, not having a second rope handy, had snatched up his club again. When he saw that the shorter rascal was starting to make a move, as though intending to get to his feet, when trouble must have followed, Ty waved the wagon spoke threateningly over his head, as he yelled excitedly:
"Lie down, you, 'less you want me to let her fall! Stretch out and roll over on your face, d'ye hear? Quick, now, keep amovin'! 'Everybody's doin' it,' you know. Now, Elmer, if you only had another piece of string handy, there's a good chance to snug him up good and tight."