Jet realized that the crisis was at hand.
He and his prisoner had just turned down the main street, and the plot must be carried out at once.
Half a dozen men had crowded so near that they could easily have thrown him to the ground before he would have an opportunity to use his weapons.
It was high time to carry his threat into execution; but he knew that the instant he fired for the purpose of keeping the nearest back, his prisoner would be torn from him.
"I have failed at the moment when I thought the work was done," he said to himself, despairingly, and at that instant two men ranged themselves either side of him.
"Have you been sent here by Harvey?" one of them asked, and Jet could have shouted for very joy, for he understood these must be the officers who had come from Albany.
"Yes, and this is one of the men he was so anxious to arrest."
"Where is he now?"
"Hiding in the woods, wounded so badly that he can't walk."
"And the others?"