h a shake of his head. "What we didn't allow for,
in the first place, was boarding a huge eater like Hen Dutcher for a
while. Nor did we plan to have Ripley's crowd here in our absence,
helping themselves and wasting almost as much as they used."

"Whew!" grunted Tom disconsolately. "We've soon got to be hitting the
home trail, haven't we?"

"Or else go to bed to-morrow night on a small allowance of food," nodded
Dick, "and prepared to do without food the day after that."

There was much discussion that night. Tom was for "sticking it out,"
doing the best possible on a diet of fish that might be caught in the
pond. But wiser counsel prevailed. Early next morning Dick and Dave
started out over the bare ground on their way to the nearest house that
had a telephone. It proved to be Constable Dock's house, though the
officer himself was away. Calling up Miller's grocery store, Mr.
Miller's son, Joe, was engaged to come out to camp at once with a wagon.

It was late in the afternoon, however, when Joe arrived. It took another
hour for the boys to get their outfit packed on to the wagon. Then they
seated themselves on top of the load and Joe clucked to the horses.

"So you boys ran across the fit thrower out in the woods, and he gave
you plenty of excitement?" queried Joe, after the start homeward had
been made.

"Yes," nodded Dick, "and we were afraid he'd show up again before we got
through in the woods."

"Why?" asked Joe, bringing the whip down lazily on the flanks of the
horses.

"Because," Dick answered, "we found his loot, and he knew we had found
it. We feared that he'd make another big effort to get back the stuff,
which was valuable."

"But the police have the stuff," Joe went on.

"How do you know that?"

"Why, Ripley's crowd knew it when they got back to Gridley, and the
newspapers got the fact from the Gridley police."

"If Mr. Fits read the Gridley papers," remarked Prescott, thoughtfully,
"then of course he knew he couldn't recover any of his plunder by paying
us a visit. That, I guess, was the only reason why he didn't pay the
cabin another visit."

"That, and the other fact, perhaps," Joe went on, "that the Gridley
papers hinted that the cabin was being shadowed by the police."

"But it wasn't."

"No matter; if your fit throwing gentleman thought he was going to take
any chances of running into police out in these woods, then he wasn't
going to slip his neck into a noose."

"I'm glad he k