loud
voice, even though the owner of it was not yet in sight.

"Looks like we might have rain. I said it looks like we might have a
shower."

Then another voice--a boyish one--shouted back:

"YES--IT--DOES."

"Gid-ap," came in the first voice, and then came hoof-beats and the
rumble of wheels. The next minute a ramshackle, two-seated rig, with a
man and a boy on the front seat, came into sight. Billy gave one long
stare, as one who doubted the evidence of his own eyes. Then he broke
into a glad shout:

"Jack!"

"Billy, old fellow, what in the world? Why, you're white as a sheet."

With alarm on his face, Jack sprang out, as Abner stopped the rig, and
rushed toward Billy.

"How did you get here? What has happened?" demanded Jack.

Billy told his story in as few words as possible.

"Oh, the rascal," broke out Jack, when Billy described the hold-up.
"That was Bill Sniggers. He's the man who led the way to the stone
house--but get in and I'll tell you my story as we go along."

"Where are you going?"

"Back to Musky Bay; but a few hours ago I didn't think I'd ever see it
again."

Jack had to shout both his story and Billy's for Abner's benefit. But he
gave them in highly condensed versions, as his sorely taxed vocal organs
had almost reached the limit of their strength. He had just reached the
conclusion, having been interrupted several times by Abner's
exclamations, when, ahead of them, on the road, they spied a figure
shuffling along in the dust. The two boys were on the rear seat of the
rig, so that the man, when he saw the rig approaching, having turned his
head at the sound of hoofs, did not see the boys.

"Reckon that feller means ter ask fer a ride," remarked Abner, as a bend
in the road ahead screened the man from view for a few minutes.

A sudden idea had come into Jack's head.

"Let him have it," he said; "and then drive to the nearest village and
up to the police station. I'll pay you well for it."

"But--but--who is he?" demanded Abner, stopping his horse.

"Bill Sniggers, the rascal who is in league with Judson."

"Great hemlock! You bet I'll pick him up right smart. But he'll see you
boys and scare."

"No, we'll hide in here," and Jack raised a leather flap that hung from
the back seat. "It will be a tight fit, but there'll be room."

"Wa'al, if that don't beat all," said Abner. "Git in thar, then, and
then the show kin go on."

As Jack had said, it was a "tight fit" in the recess