When the Chief heard the scout’s command, he smiled and ordered his men up on the roof to help. Then he followed Julie, and stood beside her with cocked revolver aiming at the rocky wall. The other policemen climbed up, too, and the Chief said to Julie:
“You’d better get down and join your friends now. We can handle the rascals better if you are out of the way.”
“But you won’t have to use revolvers, ’cause they are unarmed,” said Julie, anxiously.
“How do you know that?”
“We heard them whispering. Besides, one man has a crushed foot, and we scouts don’t believe in hurting anything that is helpless—even a convict who has made lots of trouble for us.”
“All right, little girl; I’ll put my gun away, but we ought to have one to show, so the rascals won’t try to overpower us.”
“I guess they are so full of smoke and fear that they won’t be able to fight. Cowards always give up easy, you know,” said Julie, creeping down from the roof of the hut, back to Hepsy’s shed.
As Julie had said, the two convicts crawled up from behind the wall, looking the sorriest mortals ever one saw. Their eyes were red and watery from the smoke so that they could hardly see, and they coughed every other second. One limped most painfully, and had to be helped by his pal. Then, just as they stood up on the roof to hold up their hands in defeat, the other one broke through the tar paper roof and stuck fast between the rafters.
“Oh, there goes our roof!” cried Betty plaintively.
“Never mind, Betty dear! You can hire men to put on fifty roofs now, with the reward you scouts will get,” exclaimed Mr. Gilroy.