" spoke the former to his companion, "what's wrong?"

"How wrong?" inquired Mort.

"Why, some way our plans appear to have slipped a cog. There's the
wagon broken down and the boy has gone with the horse. Two of our men
were to stop him, you know, and keep him here while we used the
wagon."

"Maybe they're behind time. What's the matter with our holding the boy
till they come?"

"The very thing," responded Ike, and, leaving the basket where it
was, he and Mort ran after Limpy Joe and the horse.

"Get out of here, quick," ordered Ralph to Zeph. "If we don't, we
shall probably be carried into the camp of the enemy."

"Isn't that just exactly the place that you want to reach?" inquired
the farmer boy coolly.

"Not in this way. Out with you, and into the bushes. Don't delay,
Zeph, drop flat, some one else is coming."

It was a wonder they were not discovered, for almost immediately two
men came running towards the spot. They were doubtless the persons Ike
Slump had referred to, for they gave a series of signal whistles,
responded to by their youthful accomplices, who, a minute later, came
into view leading the horse of which Limpy Joe was astride.

"We were late," panted one of the men.

"Should think you were," retorted Ike Slump. "This boy nearly got
away. Say, if you wasn't a cripple," he continued to the young
restaurant keeper, "I'd give you something for whacking me with that
crutch of yours."

"I'd whack you again, if it would do any good," said the plucky
fellow. "You're a nice crowd, you are, bothering me this way after
I've probably saved you from starvation the last week."

"That's all right, sonny," drawled out one of the men. "We paid you
for what you've done for us, and we will pay you still better for
simply coming to our camp and staying there a prisoner, until we use
that rig of yours for a few hours."

"If you wanted to borrow the rig, why didn't you do so in a decent
fashion?" demanded Joe indignantly.

"You keep quiet, now," advised the man who carried on the
conversation. "We know our business. Here, Slump, you and Mort help
get this wheel on the wagon and hitch up the horse."

They forced Joe into the wagon bottom and proceeded to get ready for a
drive into the woods.

"Bet Joe is wondering how we came to get out of that wagon," observed
Zeph to Ralph.

"Don't talk," said Ralph. "Now, when they start away, I will follow,
you remain here."

"Right here?"

"Yes, so that I may f