“There are four men!” cried the butcher.
“I know one of ’em!” yelled one of the farmers. “I saw him around my henhouse one evening! He’s the chap I want to catch!” And away he went with his shotgun.
“Hi! Wot’s dis?” cried one of the tramps in the distance.
“I know wot’s up,” answered another. “Da are after us! Our hangout has been discovered! Say, boys, we have got to dust if we want to keep out o’ jail!”
And then off they ran, in several different directions, and after them went Andy, Jack and Pepper, and two other cadets, and Mr. Ford and one of the farmers did likewise.
CHAPTER XXIX
SOMETHING OF A CONFESSION
“I want to get hold of that fellow with the flat nose!” cried Andy to his chums. “I don’t care so much about the others.”
“We are with you, Andy,” answered the young major.
“We are bound to catch him sooner or later,” added Pepper.
The tramps had a start of at least a hundred yards and lost no time in trying to escape. The fellow called Flatnose made for a dense patch of woods behind the spring and was soon lost to sight. But the cadets heard him as he crashed and plunged through brushwood and over rocks, and slowly but steadily they drew nearer to the rascal.