can trust these boys, too," was the hired
man's reply. "If you want to keep out of trouble you had better help us
all you can."

By this time Dick had the table shoved to one side. Under the bottom of
one of the legs he found a small iron ring, connecting with the door in
the floor. He pulled on this and the door came up, showing a small
cellar below, used chiefly by the old man for the storage of winter
vegetables and the roots he gathered.

"Dangler, you might as well come up!" called out Dick. "It won't do you
any good to try to hide."

"What do you want of me?" came in a sullen voice from below.

"You know very well what we want."

"I haven't done anything."

"You can tell that to the police, after you are locked up. Come up."

Slowly and with downcast face Bill Dangler crawled from the small cellar
and pulled himself up to the floor of the cabin. He gazed reproachfully
at the old man, who was again trembling.

"I'll fix you for going back on me," he muttered.

"They say you are a thief," answered the old man. "If you are, I want
nothing more to do with you. I am poor, but I am honest--everybody who
knows me knows that."

"He shall not harm you," put in Tom. "He'll soon be behind the bars."

A glance at the party of four, with their shotguns, convinced the
freight thief that escape was out of the question.

"I suppose I'll have to give up," he growled. "But I ain't as guilty as
you may think I am."

"You are guilty enough," said Sam.

"I didn't plan those freight robberies."

"Who did then?" questioned Tom.

"Merrick and Pike. I don't mind telling on them, for they have gone back
on me."

"Is Merrick the head of the gang?" asked Dick.

"Yes."

"Where is he now?"

"If I tell will you let me go?"

"I can't do that, Dangler."

"Well, I don't care anyway. Merrick hasn't treated me right, and he
ought to suffer. He has a hangout a few miles from the city of Ithaca,
if you know where that is."

"Yes, on Lake Cayuga."

"That's it."

"You say a few miles from the city," pursued Sam. "What do you mean by
that?"

"He and some of his friends, Pike among them, have a meeting place along
the lake. It's an old house, unpainted, and with very narrow windows, so
I've been told. You find that house and likely you'll find Merrick and
Pike."

"I thought those chaps were from the city?" said Sam.

"They are, but every once in a while they find it convenient to
disappear, and then they go to that