k he'll care to run away--not very far, anyhow."

"Humph! can't you let me walk along without having my hands tied?"
grumbled the prisoner.

"We are not going to take any chances, Link," answered the shipowner's
son. "Now that we have caught you we are going to see that you get where
you belong--in prison."

"You send me to prison and my father will make it hot for you!"

"You stop threatening us, Link!" ordered Dave, sternly.

"All right. But you'll see!"

Much against his will, Link Merwell was forced to place his hands behind
him, and in a few minutes Phil and Dave had secured the fishline around
his wrists. Then they picked up his cap, which had fallen off, and
placed it on his head.

"Now then, march!" ordered Dave. "And no funny work!" And he led the way
back along the brook, with Merwell following and Phil bringing up the
rear with the fishing outfits.

"Say, how do you expect a fellow to get over these rocks with his hands
tied behind him?" grumbled Link Merwell, after he had slipped several
times.

"You'll have to do the best you can," returned Phil, coldly. "A jailbird
like you can't expect much consideration."

"Bah, you make me tired, Phil Lawrence!" growled the prisoner. "I don't
think you'll be able to send me to prison; not for long, anyhow! My
father's got plenty of money; he'll get me out some way."

"If he spends any money on you he'll be foolish," returned the
shipowner's son. "Now go ahead, we are not going to waste all our time
on you."

It was not long after this when they came in sight of the other boys.
Ben and Roger were still fishing, while Luke and Shadow were resting on
the rocks, the latter telling one of his favorite stories.

"Hello! What luck?" called Ben, looking up. And then he added: "Great
Caesar's ghost! if it isn't Link Merwell!"

"Where did you run across him?" cried Luke, leaping to his feet,
followed by Shadow.

"We found him running away from some kind of a wild man," answered Dave.

"The wild man who scared us into fits the other day?" queried Roger.

"We don't know if it was that fellow or somebody else," answered Phil.

Link Merwell was much crestfallen to confront so many of his former
schoolmates of Oak Hall. He realized that he was "in the camp of the
enemy" in more ways than one. At one time or another he had played each
of them some sort of a scurvy trick, and he realized that not one of
them would have a good word to say for him.

"Well, I see th