“A matter of ten years!” Rube answered, with a chuckle. “I reckon it’s been about that time, eh, Buck?” he added, with a grin that spread over his face. “And we’ve been pretty good friends, at that, never went back on each other, eh?”
“I guessed that you had something to do with the law, yourself,” cried Jule, remembering a time when Rube had hastily put a silver badge out of sight. “Out with it!”
“Well, you see, the boys up in our neck of the woods seemed to think I’d make a fair sheriff, and so they elected me,” Rube stated, coloring as he did so, for it had been no part of his program that the boys should know him as the sheriff of his county.
“Now, if you’ll tell how you came to know Thede, we’ll call it square,” Alex suggested.
“Oh, he belongs up in my county, and of course I know him,” was Rube’s reply. “But,” he added, “I’m afraid we’ve got to lose him, for the hard-luck story he told you boys was about right. He’s a right pert boy, and we hate to lose him.”
By this time the wind was blowing a gale, and Buck arose to make the Rambler and the Esmeralda more secure. Vivid flashes of lightning lit the sky, and presently the rain began to fall in torrents.
It was hot, too, and the boys were stripped to their shirts, Alex, who was short and fat, was fanning himself with a newspaper. He gave a little start of surprise at something he saw in the sheet, but said not a word.
Case and Thede called out that they were all right, and that Clay was in the cabin, sitting by Paul, who was sound asleep.
“We heard nearly everything Rube said,” laughed Case, “and the parts he missed Thede told me! And so, you see, you are discovered—taken with the goods!”
“For the love of Mike!” shouted Alex. “Do you suppose Paul heard, too?”