“And those Smith boys tied you up?” demanded Chief Humpville, “and burned the barn?”
“Sure they did,” asserted Bateye. “Them an’ Doc an’ Bateye.”
“Just as likely as not these fellows set the barn, and tied themselves up,” ventured a fireman, nodding at the captives.
“That’s right; for the Smith brothers, and Bateye ran in and gave the alarm,” added another.
“Didn’t I tell you how it would be,” wailed Spider. “I knew they’d blame us.”
The twain protested, even unto tears, that they had no hand in the prank, and when they related, with much detail, how they had been surprised and caught the tide turned in their favor.
“You might know those Smith boys would be up to some such game as this,” remarked Mr. Wright, who kept the feed store. “They ought to be arrested for arson.”
“That’s right; or else sent away to the reform school,” added Mr. Henderson, who sold shoes.
“I hear they are going away to school this fall,” declared Mr. Flint, a retired merchant.
“Well, they can’t go any too soon to suit me,” went on Mr. Wright. “They’re always doing something—those Smith boys are!”