"You've done it already, Skip. It was you who first put us on the track of the thieves, and now you've helped the cause along wonderfully, for it has been a good while since I had all I could eat."
"Well, fill yourself up right now. There's no need to hurry, for you can't get to Farley's to-night, an'——Hello, Gus! Got through with your trip so soon?"
"You'll wish I hadn't before this thing is ended," was the surly reply, and then the prisoner turned his back on the ex-chief of the regulators.
Quite naturally Skip was eager to hear the result of the chase, and while Joe and Fred were eating they gave him the full particulars.
"Do you know the way home?" Brace asked when the story was told.
"Of course. I've been out here half a dozen times. Was you calculatin' to keep straight ahead?"
"Yes."
"Then you'd gone six miles the other side of Farley's."
"If that is the case, it's lucky you found us. Let's make another start; now I've filled up it seems possible to travel without stopping again until we are at mother's door."
With a guide and provisions in plenty, the long tramp yet to be endured seemed but a trifling affair, and the party, with the single exception of Gus, were in the best of spirits.