uess," remarked Fred at last, as they turned back from
the outskirts of the town. "He may be miles away by this time."

"Getting ready to break into some other store, perhaps," suggested
Teddy. "The loot he got in Oldtown won't last him forever."

"There's a pretty tough looking customer going down that lane,"
exclaimed Bill Garwood, as they came to a corner in a poor part of the
town.

The boys followed his glance and saw a tall, roughly dressed man
slouching along a hundred yards away and making toward the open country.
He was alone and seemed to be in no hurry.

"It's the same fellow we saw yesterday," said Teddy excitedly. "I'm sure
of it. How about it, Lester?"

"It surely looks like him," replied Lester Lee. "The same walk and the
same clothes and--yes, the same face," as the man gave a careless look
behind him.

"You get down to the constable's office, quick, Teddy," directed Fred.
"Run every step of the way. Tell him we've got this fellow located.
We'll try to keep him in sight until you get back. Hustle."

Teddy was off like a shot.

But the tramp seemed to know that something was in the air. He looked
around again and then quickened his pace. The boys, too, walked faster,
and, noting this with another backward glance, the man in front made
certain that they were following him with a purpose. What that purpose
was he did not know, but his guilty conscience told him that it might be
for any one of half a dozen offences.

At the first corner he turned sharply, and when the boys reached it,
they saw him loping along at a pace that carried him rapidly over the
ground. The houses had thinned out, and there was no one to intercept
him as he made for the woods that lay a little way ahead.

"Oh, if Teddy were here with the constable," exclaimed Fred, in an agony
of apprehension, as he saw the prey escaping.

They all broke into a run, and, as they were younger and fleeter, they
were soon at the fellow's heels. His whiskey sodden body could not keep
up the pace, and as they neared him, he stopped running and turned about
savagely.

"What are you fellows chasing me for?" he snarled, a dangerous light in
his eyes.

"What are you running away for?" countered Fred.

"None of yer business," the fellow growled. "Now you git, or I'll split
yer heads," he snapped as he drew an ugly looking blackjack from his
pocket.

For an instant the boys hesitated. Then Fred had an inspiration.

"That's the man, Constabl