bors, for not long before they had been aroused
in the middle of the night when the two jewelry thieves tried to steal
the aeroplane and were baffled in their design by the two boys, sleeping
at the time in the shed, so as to guard their flying machine.

"If one watchman ain't enough I'll get three--half a dozen if
necessary," declared Colonel Josiah, as he glared at the offending Shea
and pounded on the turf with his heavy cane. "But these lads are going
to be protected, if it takes my last dollar. I'll get a Gatling gun and
train it here, so we can blow the rascals to smithereens if they try
such a dastardly job again."

But everybody knew that the genial old colonel did considerable talking
and blustering, but was harmless withal.

Shea promised to remain awake the balance of the night. He even went to
the house and armed himself with a big horse pistol that the colonel
owned and which had many a story connected with its keeping company with
the traveler in foreign lands.

"Huh! I've got half a notion to camp right here again, like we did that
other time, Frank," said Andy, before they locked the wide doors of the
shed. "Here's my cot and blankets, you see, just as I left 'em."

"No need of that, Andy," returned his chum, smiling. "After all this
rumpus you couldn't hire that fellow to come back here tonight. He may
be ten miles away by now. Wonder if that's the last I'll see of my
wheel?"

"Now," continued Andy, "if you're addressing that to me I'd like to
prophesy that you'll find the bike somewhere off the road a mile or two
away, where the fellow pitched it when he concluded to make a sneak
_back_ to town."

"There you go, barking up that same tree again. I never saw such a
positive fellow as you are," declared the other, smiling. "Your name
ought to be Thomas, for you seem to doubt everything that you can't just
understand."

"Well, if not Puss, who, then?" demanded Andy, aggressively.

"I confess that I don't know at this minute," admitted Frank. "But I
hope to discover the truth in some way. Remember how that other time,
when some one tried to injure us by sneaking in here and cutting the
canvas wings of our monoplane all to flinders, I picked up a playing
card and we afterwards traced it to the owner?

"Yes," cried the other, instantly, "and wasn't that party Puss Carberry
all right?"

"It sure was," laughed Frank. "But forget this thing for now. Perhaps
tomorrow we may be able to find some clue