e seven sleepers of
Ephesus had nothing on Jimmy. And if he went into a doughnut-eating
contest, I'd back him to my last dime."

"It's no wonder that's he's tired," said Bob, coming to the defense of the
unconscious Jimmy. "If either of you fellows had had the tussle he had
with the waves that night when he was hanging on to the broken bridge
expecting every minute to be his last, you wouldn't be feeling any too
lively, you can bet your boots."

"Right you are," admitted Herb. "That was a tough fight. It makes the cold
chills run up and down my back now when I think of it. I don't think
there'll be many times in Jimmy's life when he'll come so near death and
yet side-step it."

"You were pretty close to it yourself, Bob," put in Joe. "Your chances of
getting by didn't seem to be worth a plugged nickel. Of course you're
stronger than Jimmy and could have kept up longer if you'd been swept
away, but I don't believe there's any one living that could have bucked
that torrent."

"I'll admit that I felt mighty good when I got my feet on solid ground
again," said Bob. "There's no denying that that was a pretty strenuous
night, what with fighting the waves and Dan Cassey too. But we beat them
both and came through all right."

"Talking of Cassey," said Joe, "I saw the rascal this morning when I went
into the town to attend to a little business for my father. I wasn't far
from the jail and I dropped in to see just what arrangements had been made
for his trial. The warden was glad to see me--you know he's been pretty
strong for us since we saved the police the work of getting their claws on
Cassey--and as he was just about to make the rounds he asked me to go
along. So I had a chance to see Cassey behind the bars."

"I suppose he was glad to see you?" remarked Bob, with a grin.

"Tickled to death," laughed Joe. "I'm just as popular with him as poison
ivy. He got just purple with rage and shook the bars of his cell as
though he were trying to break them to get at me. He tried to tell me what
he thought of me, but he stuttered so much that he couldn't get it out. I
suppose he's stuttering yet."

"It's not surprising that he's sore at us," said Bob. "That's twice we've
put a spoke in his wheel; once when he tried to swindle Miss Berwick in
the matter of that mortgage and again when he blackjacked Harvey and
looted his safe. We sure have been a jinx for him."

"And he isn't the only one who has it in for us," said Joe, as h