“Talk to me about your sprinters, I don’t think you could hire any one of those same chaps to come within fifty yards of this place after the scare they got!” exclaimed Jerry.
“And the dose of hot water in the bargain. My! but they must feel sore! I saw several bang headlong into trees as they galloped away. There will be some lumps as big as goose-eggs among that crowd to-night. And, after all, they don’t get even a look-in on that prize money,” chuckled Bluff.
“I’ve got a proposition, fellows. If the reward should happen to come our way I move we turn it over to Tom Somers. His family is poor, and perhaps this may be the turning point in Tom’s life, who knows?” said Frank.
“Hear! hear! Them’s my sentiments!” cried the impulsive Bluff.
“Ditto,” echoed Jerry; for since they all belonged to families of wealth the promise of a reward held no attraction for Frank and his chums.
“But perhaps if we simply hold these chaps where they are the sheriff may claim he did the bagging of the game; how about that?” asked Bluff.
“You mean we ought to try and make them surrender to us?”
“If it could be done. I’ve got an idea in my head. You’ll say it isn’t original, and perhaps the trick they were going to play may have had something to do with it. But suppose they made a sneak while we talked here and left us to hold the bag?”
“No danger of that, Bluff, while we keep a watch on the door. Presently we can circle around the old rookery and make sure that they don’t take up your plan of tunneling out. Jerry, I’m going to keep an eye on this tree with the hole in it. If our friend, the wild man, ventures forth, it shall be my pleasant task to hold him up. What do you say?”
Bluff looked at Frank as he made this remark, with uneasiness in his eyes.