ind that he was going back to the
clutches of the law, could enjoy a good joke as well as the next one;
he was undoubtedly a reckless sort of fellow anyway.

"That's fine for you, son," he told Toby; "luring the rascal on is a
good one. That poor kid was almost too easy for me to work, for he
fell into my trap as soon as I pulled the string. Why, I felt ashamed
of myself sometimes, it was so much like taking candy from the baby.
But he isn't a half bad sort of a boy; and let's hope this'll be a
lesson to him never again to throw stones at poor tramps. They're
human as well as the rest of us, and have their feelings. That lump on
his head pained Weary Willie Larkins as much as it would have done Hen
here."

Having made sure that the desperate character whom they only knew as
Joe could not escape, the boys built a jolly fire, and proceeded to
cook something. Hen was so savagely hungry they had to lead him away
while the meal was in preparation, for he vowed he was dreadfully
tempted to jump in and devour his food raw.

And when a supply had been made ready, the scouts did not forget to
feed their prisoner, who certainly seemed to enjoy it very much, indeed.

"You boys are a great bunch," he told Lil Artha, who was looking after
his necessities in the line of food; "and after all, I'm not sorry you
were the ones to get me, if it had to be. I'd never forgive myself if
that fat Chief of Police down at Hickory Ridge managed to round me up,
and him as ignorant about following a trail as a greenhorn."

You see, before then the man had guessed that Elmer must have spent
some time Out West, from various things he heard mentioned. Indeed, he
had asked plainly if such were not the case, and afterwards told the
young scout-master a few interesting things connected with his own
checkered career.

His real name he declared would never be known, for he came of a good
family, which he would not wish to disgrace. He admitted that he had
had every chance in the world to make a mark in the line of law or the
ministry, and had even been a professor at one time in a college; but,
somehow, a love for dissipation dragged him down until finally he had
disappeared, assumed another name in a part of the country where he was
not known, and commenced his career of vice.

The man told the scouts to take a lesson from his blasted career,
though they hardly knew whether he really meant it or, as Lil Artha was
constrained to say, was "t