him there,
he came out again, and he did not come empty-handed either. He
carried a bag of meal on his shoulder--the one Mr. Owens had put in
the barn that morning for the use of his horses--and in his hand
something that looked like a stick of stove-wood; but it was in
reality a strong iron strap, which he had found in the barn and which
he intended to use to force an entrance into the smokehouse. He
deposited his bag of meal upon the ground, set to work upon the hasp
with his lever and in a few minutes more the door swung open.

"Now is our time," whispered Bob, as the robber disappeared in the
smoke-house. "Stand by me and we'll have a prisoner when we go back
to the house."

Lester would have been very glad indeed to have had some excuse for
remaining in his place of concealment, and allowing his companion to
go on and capture the robber alone; but he could not think of any,
and when Bob jumped up and ran toward the smoke-house, Lester
followed him, taking care, however, to regulate his pace so that his
friend could keep about ten or fifteen feet in advance of him. Bob,
who was in earnest and not in the least alarmed, moved with noiseless
footsteps, while Lester, preferring to let the robber escape rather
than face him with no better weapon than a fence picket in his hand,
made all the noise he conveniently could, hoping that the man would
take the alarm and run out of the smoke-house before they could reach
it. But the thief was so busily engaged that he did not hear their
approach, and never dreamed of danger until the boys halted in front
of the door and ordered him to come out and give himself up. We ought
rather to say that Bob halted in front of the door and boldly stood
his ground there, while Lester took care to shelter himself behind
the building, and showed only the top of his cap to the robber.

"We've got you now, you rascal!" exclaimed Bob, bringing his club
against the side of the smokehouse with a sounding whack. "Come out
and surrender yourself, or we'll come in and take you out."

"Yes," chimed in Lester, in a trembling voice, at the same time
hitting the building a very feeble blow with his fence picket. "Come
out, and be quick about it. There are a dozen of us here, enough to
make----"

Lester finished the sentence with a prolonged shriek of terror, for
just then something that seemed to move with the speed and power of
a lightning express train, dashed out of the intense darkness which
co