e thought they were up to some trick, so watched them. They
drove the two cows from the rest of the herd, and then Jack Rover
gave one cow two shots and Fred Rover gave the other cow two shots.
Then they ran back into the woods as tight as they could go. They
didn't join the other hunters they had gone out with, most likely
because they were afraid.

"You had better go to Colby Hall and have them arrested before they
run away.

"Yours truly,

"Three boys who know, but who do not dare to give you their names."

CHAPTER XXIX

THE EXPOSURE

"There! what do you think of that letter?" demanded Elias Lacy, after
Colonel Colby had read the communication.

"I don't know what to think of it, Mr. Lacy," was the slow reply. "I
have not yet had an opportunity to interview the two Rovers. If you
will sit down here in my office, I'll talk to them and try to settle
this matter with you."

"Don't you want me to go with you?" questioned the old farmer quickly.

"No. I prefer to interview them alone."

"All right then, I'll stay here. But don't be too long, 'cause I want
to drive down to the town an' git Bill Pixley, the chief o' police, or
one of his men."

"I don't think you'll need any police, Mr. Lacy. I think we'll be able
to fix this matter up to your entire satisfaction," answered Colonel
Colby; and then left the office and made his way along the corridors to
the guardroom.

His coming was a great relief to Jack and Fred, for they felt that in
Colonel Colby they had a real friend. Yet they were much troubled, for
they realized that the case looked black against them.

"Now tell me everything you know. Don't hold back a single item," said
the colonel, as he seated himself on one of the stools.

Thereupon both cadets related their story in detail--how they had gone
out with Frank Newberry and the others, how the two parties had become
separated, and how they had lost their way, camped out over night, and
finally found the woods road leading down to the Lacy farm, and then
how Elias Lacy and his hired man had held them up and threatened them
with arrest.

"And you do not know a single thing about the shooting of the cows?"
questioned the colonel, eyeing them sternly.

"Not a thing, sir," responded Jack, promptly.

"We don't know anything more about those cows than you do, sir," added
Fred, vehemently. "We weren't anywhere near his place when they were
shot."

"Then