DETECTIVES IN TROUBLE
While the sheriff and the boy were talking, Katz and Cullen came
tramping angrily into the cavern. They stood regarding the sheriff and
his deputies with scornful glances for a moment and then, ignoring them
entirely, strolled up to where Will was standing.
"You are under arrest," Katz said.
"What for?" asked Will, as the others gathered around him.
"For participating in the escape of a fugitive from justice."
"Where is the fugitive from justice?" asked Will.
"I can't place my hands on him at this moment," was the arrogant reply,
"but I'm going to know where he is before I permit these men to depart.
I've stood about all the impudence I care to."
"What's that making all that noise?" called Tommy, from the fire.
The two detectives turned toward the boy.
"You are under arrest, too!" Cullen shouted.
"Why don't you take some one of your own size?" asked Tommy. "Why don't
you go on and arrest some of these men?"
"I'll do that if it's necessary!" Katz exclaimed. "And look here," he
went on. "I command you all to assist me in the capture of a fugitive
from justice named Warren W. Wagner, as escaped convict who is wanted in
Chicago for the crime of murder!"
"Do you think this Wagner person is here?" asked Seth.
"I haven't a doubt of it," was the angry reply.
"Then, like a good little boy, you chase out and find him."
"I'll find him quick enough," retorted Katz, advancing toward the spot
where Wagner lay. "I'll find him too quick to please most of you
fellows! Perhaps you can tell me who this man is."
The Boy Scouts gathered about the detective and Chester even sprang
forward as if to defend his father from the officer's touch. It was
Sheriff Pete, however, who prevented the actual arrest of the escaped
convict at that time.
As the two detectives moved forward, attempting to brush the boys rudely
aside, the sheriff seized Katz by the shoulder and swung him over to
Sheriff Gilmore. Then he grabbed Cullen by the scruff of the neck and
sent him spinning into the arms of Seth.
"What do you fellows mean by coming here and taking possession of our
camp?" he thundered. "I'll teach you to get fresh around here! Put the
handcuffs on the fellows, boys!"
One of the wounded outlaws raised himself from the floor and chuckled
viciously as the two men were adorned with the manacles.
"Say," Katz exclaimed, trying to move toward the outlaws, "how did you
get here? I've a great mind to put you both under arrest for your
treatment of me a few hours ago."
"You're under arrest yourself!" laughed the outlaw pointing to the
handcuffs. "You're a pretty skate to talk about arresting me."
"I protest against this, sir," exclaimed Katz, turning to Sheriff Pete.
"I am Joseph J. Katz, detective of Chicago, and this is Edward E.
Cullen, my associate. We are here under protection of the laws of your
state, in quest of a fugitive from justice and I protest against this
outrage."
"Where are your extradition papers?" demanded the sheriff.
"We don't usually get extradition papers until we get the man," scoffed
Katz. "You ought to know that, if you're an officer."
"I mean your authority from the Governor of Illinois," said Sheriff Pete
angrily.
"You can wire to the Chief of Police at Chicago, and see if what we say
is not true," Katz answered.
"But your papers," insisted the Sheriff.
"They were to be forwarded to us," replied Katz.
"I don't believe they're detectives at all!" Tommy cut in.
"I don't think they have any authority to make arrests," Will said, with
a sly wink at the sheriff. "If they have, where are their badges?"
"They were stolen!" shouted Katz. "These Boy Scouts took mine, and those
train robbers, who seem to be under arrest now, took Cullen's."
"You want to look out when you come down into Wyoming," said the sheriff
with a chuckle. "I've known Chicago detectives to come down here and
have their socks stolen off their feet!"
"Aw, they ain't detectives," argued Tommy. "They belong to this bunch of
train robbers. I saw 'em talking with the robbers not very long ago. You
just ask these robbers if these two men don't belong to their gang."
As Tommy spoke he turned to where the two robbers lay and gave a very
grave and significant wink.
"They belong to our gang, all right enough," one of the outlaws stated,
remembering various indignities they had received at the hands of
detectives.
"That's a lie!" thundered Katz.
"Lie nothing!" replied the outlaw. "These fellows brought in two burros
loaded with provisions for us, and we haven't been able to get to them
yet. If you go back in the valley to the west, and travel north a few
miles, you'll find where the burros and provisions are hidden away."
Tommy drew nearer to the outlaw and under pretense of picking something
from the floor whispered in his ear:
"We'll see that you get a year off your sentence for that. We've just
got to get rid of these imitation detectives."
"I don't believe you can make it stick, Katz," the other outlaw cried
out, apparently in a very serious tone, although there was a wrinkle of
humor about his grim mouth. "When we started out to rob the Union
Pacific train you promised to see that we got provisions, and you didn't
keep your word!"
The eyes of the two detectives stuck out, as Tommy afterwards expressed
it, far enough to hang a coat and hat on. They almost foamed with rage
as they stamped about the cavern, still linked together with the steel
handcuffs.
"We're being jobbed!" Katz shouted.
"It's a frame-up!" echoed Cullen.
"Frame up nothing!" laughed one of the outlaws.
"Do you mean to say," said Sheriff Pete, turning to the two prisoners,
"that these two men who claim to be detectives are actually connected
with your gang?"
"That's what we'll swear to!" declared one of the outlaws.
"Two years off for that!" chuckled Tommy in a low tone.
"I tell you it's a frame up!" shouted Katz. "It's a dirty trick to get
us out of the state without arresting this fugitive from justice."
"I'm sorry boys," Sheriff Pete said to them, with official gravity,
although there was a twinkle in his eyes, "but under the circumstances,
it's my duty to take you to Lander and give you a hearing before the
grand jury. Personally, I have my doubts as to the truth of the charges
made against you, but at the same time I've got to take ministerial
cognizance of them. I'm sorry, but it's my duty."
"And in the meantime," yelled Cullen, "these Boy Scouts will get this
fugitive from justice out of our reach!"
"I don't know anything about that!" said the sheriff, "but if they try
to do anything of that kind, I'm afraid they'll succeed."
"Well," Gilmore, the Sweetwater sheriff said, "I presume we'd better be
moving along with the prisoners. If it's true that these two alleged
detectives, who now turn out to be train robbers," he added with a
glance at the boys, "have a camp with plenty of provisions at the north
end of the next valley, we'd better take the whole bunch there and get
the provisions and pack the whole outfit over to Lander with us."
"Are you going back to camp now?" asked Sheriff Pete, turning to Will.
"Just as soon as Tommy gets filled up on bear steak, I think we'd better
be moving."
Sheriff Gilmore and the deputies now started away with the four
prisoners and the boys watched them sliding and scrambling down the
slope to the gully.
Will reached out and took Sheriff Pete by the hand.
"You're a brick!" he said. "You not only know how to do things, but you
know how to do them right. If you ever come up to Chicago, don't forget
to call on Lawyer Horton, and he'll tell you where we are."
"I'll not fail to do so," the sheriff answered, "but, in the meantime,"
he went on, "it ought to take about a week or two for these detectives
to establish their innocence, eh?"
"I should say about two weeks," replied Will. "And see here," the boy
went on, "I hope you won't be too hard on those train robbers. They're
pretty decent fellows after all."
"They're the first men that ever held me up!" laughed the sheriff.
"Forget it!" exclaimed Will.
"Oh, I don't lay that up against them!" the sheriff replied. "After
all," he continued, "they were careful not to injure any one on the
hold-up they're accused of, and I don't think they'll get more than five
or six years."
The officers and the boys parted with feelings of mutual regret. They
had not had much faith or confidence in each other at first, but in the
end each group knew the worth of the other. The parting between the boys
and Seth was particularly heartfelt. Although Sheriff Pete had been
trying to reach information he sought in his own way, the deputy had
faced him down when he believed that the boys were to be lynched. There
was many a good laugh after that, in the room of the Sheriff at Lander.
When at last the boys reached their camp and the two men who had brought
the escaped convict down had disappeared, Sandy came creeping out from
under a pile of blankets in one of the tents.
"What do you know about that?" asked Tommy, pointing to the boy.
Sandy yawned and rubbed his eyes.
"Say, what time is it?" he asked.
"Four o'clock!" replied Will.
"Is it yesterday or today?" asked Sandy.
"It's the day after tomorrow!" grinned Tommy.
"Don't get funny, now," Sandy advised. "Whatever day it is, I've been
asleep ever since you boys went away."