o pay my fine, and I'll have more in a few
days if you fellows don't get out."

As a matter of course his companions supposed the money had been taken
from the letter.

Several tried to persuade him that it would be useless to spend that
amount when by waiting the squire might be forced to free them; but he
professed to be sick of life in a jail, and summoned the turnkey to
take him to the magistrate's office.

Twenty minutes later he was formally released from custody, and the
squire began to believe that two or three more days of imprisonment
would force the others to follow Jet's example.

He went at once to the hotel, paid twenty-four hours' board in advance,
and on turning, after completing this transaction, found himself face
to face with the manager.

"So you concluded that it wouldn't be so very much out of the way to
use some of that money, eh?" the latter asked, sarcastically.

"I wrote for funds, and got fifteen dollars by the last mail."

"Was that the best you could do?"

"It wasn't to be supposed I could pay the whole amount."

"No; but since you have friends with money enough to let you loaf
around this section of the country, I didn't know but that we might
raise a stake somehow."

Now Jet regretted having followed Harvey's advice, for if the manager
should make this same remark in the hearing of the constable, many and
grave suspicions might be aroused, for, of course, the man would be on
the alert for anything which needed an explanation.

"That's where you are making a big mistake," he said, with an
assumption of carelessness which was far from natural. "I only wanted
to stay here till I could get a job."

"That wasn't the way you talked when I met you the other day; but it
doesn't make much difference now, for I am beginning to see my way out
of this snarl."

"How?"

"There's a constable in this town who seems to be pretty well fixed,
and he gave me to understand that he might take the company out of
jail, providing I'd let him act as treasurer until the amount was paid."

"Which one is he?" Jet asked, trying hard not to betray the eagerness
for knowledge which he felt.

"The fellow who took you to jail."

"Are you pretty certain he'll make the trade?"

"Here he comes now to talk the matter over; it won't take us long to
find out."

Jet glanced toward the door, and saw the man in whom he felt so great
an interest.

The manager, eager to clinch the bargain, advanced to meet