As lame as he was, Slugger attempted to edge his way toward the door, thinking he might get a chance to run away. But Jack caught him by the arm and sent him flying backward into a corner of the cabin.
"You'll stay right where you are, Slugger Brown!" declared the oldest Rover boy. "Don't you dare to run away!"
By this time Randy and Fred had approached Nappy, and suddenly the youngest Rover darted behind the youth and snatched the blue tin box from his grasp.
"Hi! you give me that box!" stormed Nappy. "You've no right to take it from me!" and then he, too, tried to run from the cabin. He got as far as the doorway when Andy put out his foot and sent him headlong into the snow outside. Then Andy quickly sat down on him, and, rushing up, Randy did the same.
"Don—don't smash me!" spluttered Nappy, whose face was partly in the snow.
"We're not going to let you get away," came firmly from Andy.
"Let's tie his hands behind him and make him a prisoner," suggested his twin, and this the two boys proceeded to do, using some skate straps for that purpose.
In the meanwhile, Slugger attempted to draw a pistol, but was promptly hurled back by Jack and Fred. Then Mr. Powell disarmed the youth, and he, too, was made a prisoner.
"You'll catch it for treating us this way!" growled Slugger, when he realized that he could do no more. "Just wait until my father hears of this!"
"And just you wait, Slugger, until Mr. Stevenson gets here," retorted Jack, and this answer made the bully turn pale.