ass over a post connected with the building, and then extend
to the hogshead, partly filled with stones, and which was now half way
down the beach, the rope taut, and holding the victim in his elevated
position.

"It's Conrad Jimmerson!" exclaimed Colon, as they arrived close to the
boy, who was kicking furiously, and groaning dismally.

His coat hung down over his head in such fashion that he could not see
what was going on; Colon must have recognized him by his clothes, or
through some boyish instinct.

"Oh! get me down, quick!" moaned the trapped prowler. "All the blood's
agoin' to my head, and I'll be a dead one soon! Please cut me down,
fellers! I won't run!"

"I'm right sure you won't," remarked Colon, drily; "but while I've got
you held up so neat, I might as well make it doubly certain."

With, that he secured the other flourishing leg so that when Conrad was
lowered to the ground he could not move without their permission.

"Give us a hand here, Fred, and we'll get him out of the trap,"
remarked the proud inventor of the running-barrel game. "You see, he
stepped right up on this box, just as I figured, and touched the
trigger. With that he started the heavy barrel rolling down-grade; and
the loop caught him by one leg, instead of both, as I meant it should."

"But what was all the fierce noise that woke us up?" asked Fred, as he
assisted Colon to take the victim down, by dragging in on the rope, so
as to slacken the loop around the leg of the trapped one.

"Oh! shucks! just a pile of tin cans I built up, to be knocked over
when the barrel got to turning around. You see, I was a little afraid
that we mightn't hear when the trap was sprung, and I wouldn't want to
miss this funny sight for anything. Here, you are, Conrad; lie there
now, till we can drag you inside the house."

The boy was evidently very much frightened. He had thought his ankle in
the grasp of some unseen giant, when the loop tightened, and snatched
him upwards. No wonder he trembled and wheezed as he cowered there.

"We'd better go in right now, then," remarked Fred. "Some of that crowd
might take a notion to come back and see what has happened to Conrad.
Take hold of him on that side, Colon, while I look after this one."

"Oh! what you a-goin' to do with me?" queried the prisoner. "I haven't
done a single thing, fellers, cross my heart if I did. Just wanted to
see if anybody was a-sleepin' in the old shed. Buck told me to be sure
and