ough, for J.
Jervice eagerly protested. "You don't want to do no murder, now. Murder
means hangin'!"

"Shut up!" commanded the leader. "Look what ye got us into. What can we
do with him?"

"We'll have to hide him till we git away," said Jervice.

[Illustration: "Brave Man!" sneered the leader. "Get me a little rope
an' I'll do him up scientific." Page 131]

"No good trying to hide him round here. Them scouts will be missin' him
when he don't get to his meals an' swarm all over here. You run over to
the city--it's only twenty-four miles. You ought to be back easy by
night. You know who to leave him with."

"He's a desperate hard boy to manage," complained J. Jervice with some
recollection of previous dealings. "I'm afeared one man can't handle
him."

The leader laughed significantly.

"One _man_ could," he declared. "But that ain't saying the kid wouldn't
be too much for you."

"Tie him up," urged Mr. Jervice. "I can handle him when he's tied."

"Brave man!" sneered the leader. "Get me a little rope an' I'll do him
up scientific."

He was as good as his word. When his scientific job was finished the
only thing Glen could do without restraint was to perspire. He could
make a few muffled noises, but no intelligible sound could he utter.

"Now chuck him inside the car, please," begged Mr. Jervice. "He'll be
quiet now."

"Quiet enough," said the leader. "But hustle your car out of here and
get him twenty miles away as quick as you can. We don't want no scouts
trackin' around while he's here."

Glen's spirits took another slump. It was bad enough to be captured, but
his faith had been great in the scouts' deliverance. Following him
twenty or thirty miles was another thing.

CHAPTER XII

THE BEE TREE

Matt's presence in the tree beneath which Glen walked with J. Jervice
was neither accident nor coincidence. He had business there--business
which he considered important, which he did not wish, to share either
with J. Jervice or Glen Mason or any other person. At least he did not
wish to share it right at that moment; later on would be another story.

Matt was making a bee tree. Perhaps you did not know that bee trees
could be made, nor how to make them. Matt himself was not very clear on
either of these heads. He was experimenting, and back of his experiment
was a desire to get even with Chick-chick.

Henry Henry, commonly called Chick-chick, did not desire to shine as a
great athlete, sport lead