as Larry was a pretty decent sort of
a fellow, as they go, and besides, just as he said, held possession of
the only weapon, for that musket had been broken by the fall of the
log, they concluded not to shoot him on the spot, but give him another
chance to make good.

It was a long wait till morning; but finally the stars vanished before
the gray light of early dawn. Larry, as soon as he could see decently,
started to get breakfast; for he declared that if he was a mighty poor
sentry he did have a few good points, one of which was his ability to
sling tasty messes together.

Jules was as "mum as a church mouse," as Elephant called it. But by
degrees he took more or less interest in what the boys were doing.

"Look out for him," said Larry aside to Frank. "I think he means to
try and escape if he gets half a chance. That's why he smiles now and
then."

"You're away off, Larry," replied Frank. "For I notice that every time
that pleasant look creeps over his face it is when a smell of coffee
drifts this way. Jules hasn't tasted anything like that for more than
a year. And while he's got to go back to where the law has sent him,
we're going to give him a decent breakfast first."

When a little later they heard the stamp of the Colonel's crutch the
boys looked up expectantly, knowing they would have the laugh on the
old veteran traveler, who had flown to the rescue when the alarm was
all a farce, and slept through the real thing.

"What's all this? Bless me, if they haven't caught the rascal after
all! Why didn't you ring me up? That alarm bell must have played me
false, Andy, and I believe you juggled with it! The old cry of 'wolf'
again; and I'm the victim."

Expressing his disgust in this way the Colonel stumped in, and
proceeded to let the prisoner know what he thought of a man who would
try to revenge himself upon a couple of bright lads; especially after
bringing all his troubles down upon his own shoulders.

It afterwards developed that Jules had stolen the musket, and also the
suit of clothes he was wearing, from a farmhouse that he raided shortly
after his escape from the prison. Although he never confessed to the
fact, Frank never had any reason to doubt but that it had been Jules
who fired that shot at them while they were speeding over the Powell
woods in their biplane.

Jules was given his fill of good breakfast, and this possibly put him
in a better humor. He was not wholly an unscrupulo