e in a proper manner."

"That's a fair offer," Joe said, eagerly. "I'm willing to go along
peaceably; but I don't want to walk with a revolver at my head, as if I
was too dangerous to be in a town with my hands behind my back."

"Knock the boy down!"

"Shoot him!"

"Don't let such an outrage be committed in our town!"

"Will you let a cub like that play the part of desperado in a quiet
village?"

These and similar shouts were heard as the throng drew nearer Jet, who
now understood that Joe's friends must be making the row for the
purpose of releasing the prisoner, and he looked around in vain for a
friendly face.

"Will no one help me do my duty?" he cried.

"We'll take the man to the magistrate decently," some one replied.

"That simply means that a few of you are determined on a rescue."

He would have said more; but Joe's pals, fearing the influence his
words might have upon the crowd, drowned his voice by angry shouts.

Jet realized that the crisis was at hand.

He and his prisoner had just turned down the main street, and the plot
must be carried out at once.

Half a dozen men had crowded so near that they could easily have thrown
him to the ground before he would have an opportunity to use his
weapons.

It was high time to carry his threat into execution; but he knew that
the instant he fired for the purpose of keeping the nearest back, his
prisoner would be torn from him.

"I have failed at the moment when I thought the work was done," he said
to himself, despairingly, and at that instant two men ranged themselves
either side of him.

"Have you been sent here by Harvey?" one of them asked, and Jet could
have shouted for very joy, for he understood these must be the officers
who had come from Albany.

"Yes, and this is one of the men he was so anxious to arrest."

"Where is he now?"

"Hiding in the woods, wounded so badly that he can't walk."

"And the others?"

"Penned up in the building with a prisoner."

During this short conversation the crowd had grown more unruly, and
were now clustered around Joe so closely as to impede his progress.

The officer who had been speaking to Jet motioned to his companion, and
the two sprang in front of the prisoner, as the former shouted:

"Make way, or I shall do more than the boy promised," and he drew a
revolver.

"Who are you?"

"Officers from Albany who have come to assist in the arrest of this
man. The first who interferes shall be tak