ng to set him free by gnawing at the knots, because he didn't have a
knife along? Suppose you ask him some more questions, Fred."

"Just what I meant to do, Felix," returned the other; "because, for my
part, I believe every word Gabe has said," and turning on the butcher's
boy, he continued:

"Where did you leave your cart, Gabe; for you must have had it along if
you expected to take the calf back with you?"

"It's over at the farmer's right now," replied the other, frankly. "They
said he was in Tenafly, and wouldn't be back short of a hour or more.
And as my boss told me not to come home without the veal, I tied up the
hoss. Used to come over here to the old place when I was a kid, along
with the rest, but I ain't never been up here for years now. Thought,
seein' I was so clost, I'd just take a walk over to find out how she
looked, to pass the time away."

"Oh! I see," Fred broke in; "and when you got here you heard somebody
calling inside the mill, did you?"

"I heard a queer sound, more like a groan than anything else," admitted
the boy.

"That was me, all right," chuckled Colon. "Yelled till I got tired, and
I was so husky I just couldn't let out another peep. And as I kept on
tryin' to slip an arm out, I reckon I did some gruntin'. I was mad all
through; because, you see, I'd guessed what it was all about, and that
they didn't want me to run to-morrow."

"Say, when you heard that groan, didn't you feel like skipping out?"
asked Bristles, with a vein of secret admiration in his voice now.

"Me? Well, I guess not," replied the other, pugnaciously. "I just
reckoned there was somebody inside there that was sick; and when I
couldn't open any door, I crawled up the wheel, and slid in through the
hole, just like we used to do long ago, Sid Wells, when we came up here
to swim and fish."

"That's all there is to it," declared Colon. "I heard somebody coming
along, and called out, so he found me lying here, tied up like a turkey
used to be when they cooked him on the old time spit. And while Gabe
chawed away at the knots we did some chinning, believe me. But boys,
I'm right glad to see you. What's the latest news from home?"

"Why, the whole town's in an uproar about the way you went off without
so much as saying good-bye," Bristles said; which of course, caused
Colon to chuckle; for any boy would feel good to know that, for once,
his worth was appreciated.

Possibly some of those same good people who were now s