"Good night!" was Ned's ejaculation of despair as he realized that the words of the stranger were but too true. "No current!"
"Yah!" laughed the stranger. "But," he added, "we haf current in our guns. Maybe you like dot ve show you. Und ve vill, too, aber you don'd come out of dot machine, und do id quick!"
"I guess it's all up, boys," said Ned forlornly. "We might as well unload. They have got the upper hand of us this time."
"I move we cut and run for it," proposed Jack with spirit. "We could easily beat them in the darkness and amongst the trees."
"I don't think so," cautioned Harry. "They have got help coming up the road, and we don't know how many of them are near here."
"No, boys," counseled Ned, "we'd better try some other stunt. If they get angry at us they might do anything, and we can't stand it to get shot to pieces just now. Remember, Jimmie and Dave need us."
"All right, then, Old Fox," was Jack's reply in a resigned tone, "we'll just trot along as meek as lambs and leave the Eagle to their tender mercies. I tell you, though, I hate to do it."
"Hark! I hear the others coming through the hedge!" said Harry.
"There's quite a bunch of them, to judge by the sound."
"Well, the more the merrier," declared Ned. "In numbers there is strength, I've heard, and perhaps in numbers will come our chance. If they'll only get in one another's way for a while we'll give them an opportunity to hear what a real old-fashioned 'good-by' is like."