He worked with feverish haste.
And now he was practically free!
Si Peters turned and beheld him as he took a step behind the tree, out of the glare of the fire.
“He has got away, fellows!” he shouted. “After him, quick!”
A yell went up, and the crowd rushed forward.
“He mustn’t escape us!”
“We worked too hard to capture him!”
“See, he is limping! The rope is still fastened to one of his legs!”
Like a pack of wolves after a rabbit they came after Jerry.
Our hero did his best to outdistance them, and he would have succeeded had it not been for the rope around one knee, which caught in a tree root and threw him down flat on his face. In another moment the crowd was on top of him.