CHAPTER XIV
A CAPTURE
For Harvey to attempt to walk, however good a crutch might be found, would have been foolhardy, for it was only with the greatest difficulty he could stand upright.
Jet understood this quite as well as did the detective and he also knew there was no time to be lost, if they expected to find a hiding-place before the day had fairly dawned.
"I am going to take you on my back," he said in a decided tone, "and we mustn't fool around here talking about it. Will you climb up without making a row, or must I use force?"
"I will obey," Harvey replied with a smile, as Jet backed toward him, and a few seconds later the boy was making his way through the underbrush.
Jet's burden was heavier than he had anticipated, and he staggered from side to side before twenty yards had been traversed, causing Harvey to say firmly:
"It is no use for you to try anything of the kind, Jet. This will only result in both of us being overhauled."
"Here's a place where we can stop for a rest," and Jet halted in front of a thick clump of fir bushes. "By crawling in there we shall soon be out of sight, and I'll start back for the depot as soon as you think it is safe."
He lowered the detective gently to the ground, aided him in making his way through the tangled underbrush to the center of the clump, and then returned to the outside of the little thicket, in order to replace the branches and foliage generally to their ordinary position, that those who should come in search might not be able to see the trail.