last cord was cut two muscular arms flew up and seized the boy
about the neck, drawing his head down until his nose was buried in the
wet clothes of the man he had released.

"Let up!" he muttered in a smothered voice.

Still the powerful arms drew him down, and the boy was beginning to
wonder if he had not better use his bolo when a voice whispered:

"Jimmie! Is it dead we both are?"

"We will soon be if you don't let up!" answered Jimmie.

"Jimmie from the Bowery?" demanded the other.

"Sure!" was the reply. "What is this, anyway, a catch-as-catch-can? If
you don't let up I'll take a rib out with my bolo."

With a spring which almost keeled the boy over the figure sprang up,
ducked under the dripping canvas, and crouched in the thicket from which
Jimmie had observed the tent. Jimmie's first thought was to follow, then
he thought of the remaining prisoners and turned to cut their bonds.

But he was too late. As he turned three men came to the front of the
shelter and bent low for the purpose of entering. To have hesitated
longer would have been to invite capture, and so, with a sigh of regret,
the boy shot under the canvas and joined the other in the thicket.

"It's leg bail for it!" came the familiar voice of Pat Mack, and the
boys poked their faces into the thicket and kept going, regardless of
the thorns and creepers which tore at their garments and tripped their
feet. It was so dark now that they could not see a hand held two inches
from their eyes, but they kept on, making as little noise as possible.

CHAPTER VII.

A MISSING MOTOR BOAT.

"You rapscallion," Pat Mack whispered, as the two came together in the
embrace of a particularly tough creeper, "how did you ever get here? I
saw you last on the good old Bowery!"

"I didn't fly over," replied Jimmie. "Here," he added, "take this bolo
an' cut that rope! What did you mean by chokin' me when I cut you
loose?"

"A hug of affection!" retorted the other. "You looked like an angel to
me! Did you flutter down from the sky in the rain?"

"I ought to give you a good punch for it!" Jimmie replied. "You near
took the hide off me beautiful nose! Have you got that bloomin' steel
cable cut? Seems to me they are comin' after us!"

The boys stood perfectly still and listened. Above the patter of the
rain, above the murmur of the trees, above the chattering of the aroused
monkeys, came the crash of heavy bodies through the bushes, the sound of
human voi