"Head for home," replied the leader, promptly.
"Yes," added Matt Tubbs, "Ruth's ma will be countin' the minutes till we get there, I reckon. If she's tuckered out, the little gal I mean, fellers, just let me carry her."
"Oh! we all can take a turn at that," remarked Lil Artha. "She's only a featherweight, and there ain't one of us but what would want to have a hand in toting her back. Let's be starting, boys!"
"Say, what d'ye mean to do with me?" called Dolph, who, lying there on the hard earthen floor of the bunk-house, had been listening to all the talk, and wondering what he had better do to further his own interests.
Elmer, followed by several of the scouts, sauntered over to him.
"I was just trying to make up my mind," he said, "whether we had better take you along with us and hand you over to the police, or leave you here, and send them after you."
"What's the use doin' either?" remarked the man, eagerly. "Turn me loose and see me skip out of this section like a scared rabbit."
But Elmer was not in the least inclined to take that view of the matter. Dolph had a hard face. He had proven himself a cruel rascal. Elmer remembered the way he had shaken little Ruth, and all sense of pity for the man's condition was banished from his heart.
"That would suit you, I suppose, from the ground up," he remarked; "but it would be a bad job for other people. Besides, I promised the police that if we were lucky enough to get our hands on you we'd hold you. Here, that'll do now, Dolph Gruber; if you keep up that kind of talk we'll muzzle you. I've seen men gagged before now, and know how it's done. And I give you my word it doesn't feel the finest thing in the world, either. Not another word or you get it!"
The prisoner had formed an opinion of the young scout master. He believed that it would be silly in the extreme to anger him, and so, grumbling, and gritting his teeth, he allowed them to do what they wished.