Bud Heyland resisted even now when those who had tried to aid were ready to give him up.
"I won't go back!" he cried, kicking vigorously as the detective attempted to pull him from the wagon. "I've done nothing for which I can be arrested, and you shan't take me."
The long chase had exhausted all of Carter's patience, and he was not disposed to spend many seconds in expostulating. Seizing the kicking youth by one foot he dragged him with no gentle force to the ground, and an instant later the men in the wagon drove off, evidently preferring flight to the chances that the detective would keep his promise.
"Bundle them into the carriage, and tie their legs," Carter said to the constable, and in a very short space of time the thieves were lying in the bottom of the vehicle unable to move hand or foot.
Now that there was not the slightest possibility the culprits could escape, Archie kept vigilant watch over them. The least movement on the part of either, as Carter drove the tired horse back to the village, was the signal for him to use his hammer on any portion of their bodies which was most convenient, and this repeated punishment must have caused Bud to remember how often he had ill-treated those who were quite as unable to "strike back" as he now was.
Not until the prisoners were safely lodged in the little building which served as jail did Archie feel perfectly safe, and then all his old pompous manner returned. But for the detective he would have hurried away to tell the news, late in the night though it was, for in his own opinion at least, this night's work had shown him to be not only a true hero, but an able detective.
"It is considerably past midnight," Carter said, as they left the jail, "and we have a great deal to do before this job is finished."
"What do you mean?"
"Are we to leave the silver and money?"
"Of course not; but you said we'd have to wait until we saw Fred."