retty smart lawyers there at
Hamilton, they tell me, ma'am. I ain't never been to law myself. Any
time I get into a fight I can't settle with my tongue, I use my hands.
Cheaper, and better, too, in the long run."

"It's the old-fashioned way, Andrew. Most people can't settle their
troubles so easily. Well, you'll row us to the end of the lake, I
suppose?"

"Get right in, ma'am! Might as well start, so's you can take it easy
on the trail. Not a bit of use hurryin' when there ain't no need of
it, I say. There's lots of times when it can't be helped, without
lookin' for a chance."

So, with the strains of the Wo-he-lo cheer rising from the girls who
were left behind, they started in the boat for the first stage of the
short journey to Hamilton.

Andrew insisted on going with them as far as the station, and as the
train pulled out, they heard his cheery voice.

"Now, remember if you need me or any of the boys, all you've got to do
is to send us word, and we'll find a way to get there a bit quicker
than we're expected," he cried. "Ain't nothin' we wouldn't do for you
and the young ladies, Miss Eleanor!"

"You leave them to us, old timer," Rogers called back from the car
window. "We'll guarantee to return them, safe and sound. And it won't
take any long time, neither. There's a good case against that sneaking
gypsy, and we'll have him on his way to the penitentiary in two shakes
of a lamb's tail."

"If you don't, I'll vote for another sheriff next election," vowed
Andrew, "if I have to vote a Demmycratic ticket to do it, and that's
somethin' I ain't done--not since I was old enough to vote."

Rogers was reassuring enough in his speech and manner, but Eleanor had
a presentiment of evil; a foreboding that something was wrong.

The railroad trip to Hamilton was not a long one, and within two hours
of the time they had left Long Lake the brakeman called out the name of
the county seat. Eleanor and the two girls, with Rogers carrying their
bags, moved to the door, and, as they reached the ground, looked about
eagerly for Jamieson.

He was nowhere to be seen. But Holmes was there, avoiding their eyes,
but with a grin of malicious triumph that worried Eleanor. And Rogers,
a moment after he had left them to speak to a friend, returned, his
face grave.

"I hear your friend Mr. Jamieson is arrested," he said.

CHAPTER V

A TANGLED NET

"Arrested?" cried Eleanor, startled. "Why, what do you mean?