“What!” exclaimed Joe Green, the officer, as though suddenly waking up.
“Feel the weight of that bag, Joe!” remarked Frank. “Strike you it’s quite hefty for a lot of soiled linen? Well, it’s strapped nice and secure, and we’ll let it stay so till Chief Waller comes to take charge, but I rather guess these two bags hold all the stuff that was grabbed out of Leffingwell’s jewelry store!”
His word produced another spasm of excitement. Men crowded around to gaze at the suit-cases and exchange remarks.
“It’s so, I reckon,” remarked one; “’cause here’s the letters A. N. S. on the end of this bag, and they stand for Arthur Nelson Sage, the cashier of Leffingwell’s store. Did you ever hear of such luck? Sure these boys are in clover!”
“I should remark they were,” observed another, enviously. “With a reward of five hundred falling to ’em for the recovery of the stuff. Some people just tumble head over heels into luck. I never struck such a juicy thing in all my life.”
“Well, they deserve it, all right,” declared Colonel Josiah, defiantly. “What d’ye think of boys who could build such a trump outfit as that ere? And then stick by it through thick and thin? And wasn’t that a cute dodge, holdin’ the aeroplane back with a hog chain and my old hitching post? Why, Si Clapp, you’d never have thought up such a game as that in a thousand years, let alone in ten seconds. So I say again they deserve it. What they get they’ve won fair. Ain’t it so, neighbors?”
A rousing cheer answered him. And leaving the two bags in charge of Colonel Josiah, the Bird boys scurried inside to pick up a few more clothes and get shoes on their feet, since it was apparent that they were in for a couple of hours’ siege.
Andy’s teeth fairly rattled with excitement. Had he been in a freezing atmosphere he could not have shivered at a greater rate.
“Say, Frank, looks like this being broke up in our sleep was going to be a regular thing,” he remarked, while dressing.
“That’s right,” replied his cousin, laughing. “One night it’s a sandbag from a passing balloon that lands with a smash on our pile of boards. Then we are awakened by a couple of prowlers, who want to steal our dandy little airship. Wonder what it will be the next time?”