"Well, Bill, we can't blame the kid for trying to get away, but it beats me how he got out of that room, and, say, what was that dog doing? Guess he's no good."
"I don't think he is much good any more," Bob couldn't help saying. "You'll find him on the porch."
"If you've killed that dog, I'll take it out of your hide," growled Reed.
"Easy there, Bill," admonished King, "I won't have the kid ill-treated for trying to get away and defending himself, and, if he had to kill the dog to do it, he had a right to. I admire bravery wherever I see it, but we'll fix things after this so that he won't have a chance to show his spunk to such good advantage."
While talking, the two men had been leading Bob back to the house. Seeing the dog on the porch, Reed turned him over; "Well he's done for all right, confound him. I wouldn't have taken one hundred dollars for that dog," he said.
"Come on now," urged King, "We'll see to him in the morning. I want to find out how this kid got out of that room."
Reaching the top of the stairs and holding up the lantern, which he had grabbed up from the porch, the method was plainly apparent.
"Well I'll be switched," said King. "Bill we ought to be ashamed of ourselves not to have searched him. I never thought of him having a knife that he could cut through that door with. You go down and get a board and some nails, and we'll soon have this fixed."
The hole was boarded over, plenty of nails being used, and as he drove the last one, King said, "Now I'll look him over and see if he has anything else he can use."
Bob knew it would be useless to resist, and so allowed himself to be searched, but nothing was found which they considered dangerous.