ting so sharp a
man on the track he would never have thought of if they hadn't
mentioned Jake's name. All he had to do now was to follow it to the
end, and let them know when he had reached it. And as these good men
had prophesied, even so it came to pass.

Detectives of the inspector's staff were put on the trail. They
followed it from the Long Island pastures across the East River to the
Bowery, and there into one of the cheap lodging-houses where thieves
are turned out ready-made while you wait. There they found Jake.

They didn't hail him at once, or clap him into irons, as the constable
from Valley Stream would have done. They let him alone and watched
awhile to see what he was doing. And the thing that they found him
doing was just what they expected: he was herding with thieves. When
they had thoroughly fastened this companionship upon the lad, they
arrested the band. They were three.

They had not been locked up many hours at Headquarters before the
inspector sent for Jake. He told him he knew all about his dismissal
by Farmer Dodge, and asked him what he had done to the old man. Jake
blurted out hotly, "Nothing" and betrayed such feeling that his
questioner soon made him admit that he was "sore on the boss." From
that to telling the whole story of the robbery was only a little way,
easy to travel in such company as Jake was in then. He told how he had
come to New York, angry enough to do anything, and had "struck" the
Bowery. Struck, too, his two friends, not the only two of that kind
who loiter about that thoroughfare.

To them he told his story while waiting in the "hotel" for something
to turn up, and they showed him a way to get square with the old man
for what he had done to him. The farmer had money and property he
would hate to lose. Jake knew the lay of the land, and could steer
them straight; they would take care of the rest. "See?" said they.

Jake saw, and the sight tempted him. But in his mind's eye he saw also
Rover and heard him bark. How could he be managed?

"He will come to me if I call him," pondered Jake, while his two
companions sat watching his face, "but you may have to kill him. Poor
Rover!"

"You call the dog and leave him to me," said the oldest thief, and
shut his teeth hard. And so it was arranged.

That night the three went out on the last train, and hid in the woods
down by the gatekeeper's house at the pond, until the last light had
gone out in the village and it was fast