been very considerate of him."

"But I don't see why they should misuse him!"

"They probably didn't have enough to eat themselves," Will returned.
"Don't you remember how one of them came to camp and set Tommy to
cooking for him, and how we frightened him away by saying that the
detectives were just beyond the circle of light?"

"That was the night I was loitering around the camp waiting to get to
one of you boys in order to ask you to help me find father," Chester
replied. "Don't you remember you chased me up that night, and I ran away
in the darkness, and one of the boys came upon the train robber and the
other came upon one of the detectives."

"That was Tommy and Sandy," Will answered. "George and I were asleep in
our tent when all that took place."

"I guess he's about starved all right!" Chester said lifting his father
into a sitting position. "We'd better get some of the men down here and
have him carried into the cavern."

"But look here," Will warned, "there mustn't a word be said about the
detectives coming in here after him!"

"Why not?" asked Chester.

"Because, as I have told you before, if the sheriff understands that
your father was a fugitive from justice, he'll send him to Chicago under
arrest. It will be his duty to do so, in fact."

"And what do you boys propose to do with him?"

"We're going to take him back to Chicago and keep him out of the reach
of the police. He knows something about a case we're interested in which
he will never tell if sent back to prison."

"If he's sent back to prison," Chester replied, "you may be sure that he
won't be willing to help anybody."

"He is innocent of the crime of which he was convicted, isn't he?" asked
Will. "In other words, he was jobbed!"

"That's the truth!" cried Chester.

"Well, what we've got to do is to prove that!" Will went on.

"Can you do it?" asked the son, anxiously.

"We think we can," was the reply.

"If you can, father will do anything he can for you, you may be sure of
that," Chester answered warmly.

"But the whole success of our scheme depends on our keeping your father
out of the clutches of the officers until we land him in Mr. Horton's
office in Chicago. For the first time in our lives," Will continued, "we
are opposing the officers of the law. As a rule that isn't a good thing
for Boy Scouts to do, but we think we are fully justified in the course
we are taking in this case."

"What is it you want father to testi