"And you have proof that he tried to maroon you?"
"Yes, sir!"
"And you took the boat only to enforce the contract you had made?"
"That's the idea!" replied Frank.
"Then I'm not going to bother with the case at all!" replied the officer. "If you had come to me with this story the minute Jamison began to rave about arrest, you wouldn't have been put to all this inconvenience."
"I think," grinned Frank, "that Jamison ought to pay us back the three hundred dollars, because he never brought us to Cordova at all, and even if he had, he wouldn't have earned the money until he returned us to Katalla. He ought not to keep the money."
"That's a fact!" exclaimed the officer with a smile at the boy. "I'll go down to the jail and make him give it back."
The officer started away, and Tommy and Sam sat in the carriage regarding Frank with wide open eyes.
"Say, who is that kid?" Tommy asked.
"I don't know," replied Sam.