Chapter 22

HELD UP!

"Pull, Jimmie, pull like the mischief!" cried Dave as the line tightened about the forms beyond the shrubbery.

"Pulling!" answered Jimmie, throwing his weight onto the line behind Dave and straining every muscle in an effort to keep it taut.

Presently they felt the tide turning in their favor.

"Pull it taut, Jimmie!" cried Dave. "Keep them there until I can manage to tie them. Don't slacken an inch or they'll get up."

"Leave it to me," panted Jimmie, walking around the trunk of a small tree with the free end of the lasso. "I'll take a turn around this tree and they'll go some to get away. I'll hold 'em!"

With movements that counted, the lad seized a small stone lying near, laid the end of the line across a larger one and pounded vigorously in an effort to sever a length of the lasso.

Almost as quickly as the task could have been accomplished with a knife Dave had cut off the desired piece of rope with which to tie the captives. In another moment he dashed through the thicket in which the three prisoners were struggling.

Jimmie, hanging onto the lasso with grim determination and taking in every bit of slack given by the struggling trio, was startled to hear his companion emit a shriek of astonishment. A glance over his shoulder told the lad that something unusual was happening beyond the bushes.

"Hurry up, Dave!" he advised. "I can't hold 'em much longer!"

"Let go, let go!" cried Dave, laughing and dancing about.

"What's the matter?" asked Jimmie incredulously. "Gone crazy?"

"My word, but this is funny!" laughed Dave, gasping for breath. "Here are the boys, who were looking for us, and instead of rescuing us we have captured them. Let go that line and let 'em up!"

"What?" was Jimmie's open-mouthed question. "What's that?"

"Sure enough!" declared Dave, swinging his arms to indicate that he wanted Jimmie to give more slack to the line. "It's the boys!"

"Say that again, please!" cried Jimmie, dropping the lasso and bounding forward. "That's good news if it's true."

Jimmie lost no time in convincing himself that Dave was indeed correct in his statement. One glance at the struggling trio and he sat down upon the grass, where he doubled up with laughter.

"Well," was Jack's scornful admonition, "better stop and save some of it for another occasion. You might need it."

"Oh, ho, ho!" laughed Jimmie. "This is the best joke yet!"

"Where's the joke?" asked Harry, struggling to his feet and throwing off the loop of the lasso. "This is no joke for us!"

"It's the best ever!" declared Jimmie. "Here I was going to be shot at sunrise for this 'lese majesty' business, and now in only an hour I have a chance to make the capture of my young life!"

"Shot at sunrise?" queried Ned, joining the group. "What do you mean--shot at sunrise? Is it another joke?"

"Well, it wouldn't have been much of a joke if they'd carried it out, but the way things stand it is decidedly a good joke all round."

"Would you like to step down to the camp and tell us about it?"

"Just invite us and see!" declared the lad, reaching for the lasso and coiling it neatly. "We came out here just for the purpose, boys!"

"You did?" inquired Jack. "Why, how'd you know we were here?"

"Oh," went on Jimmie with a lofty air, "everybody pretty near knows you're here. Next time you'd better be careful and shut the dampers when you make a fire. That smoke was a dead give-away!"

"Ah, ha, smarty!" declared Jack. "That's where you're wrong. We didn't make any smoke at all. So that punctures your balloon."

"Well, anyhow," went on Jimmie unabashed, "a little bird told us."

"Now, see here, Jimmie," put in Ned as the five boys started for the camp near the Eagle, "tell me the exact truth. It may have serious consequences if you don't. Does anyone know we are here?"

"Not that I know of, Ned," was Jimmie's sober reply. "We just stumbled onto you as you were tracking something in the woods."

"Oh, that reminds me," Ned said, halting. "We were on the track of some fellow who visited our position and took out the spark plugs from our engines. We were following his tracks in the woods when you came."

"What sort of a guy was he?" asked Jimmie, intensely interested.

"I don't know," answered Ned. "We haven't seen him yet."

"Didn't he leave any signs at all?" went on Jimmie. "Did he come and go in an airship, or did he have wings and fly through the air?"

"Neither," declared Ned. "He left some pretty fair tracks."

"Then we'll get him!" asserted Jimmie, positively. "He can't get away. Once we get on his trail he might as well quit!"

"Good boy, Jimmie!" laughed Ned. "You're a sight for sore eyes. And," he went on, "it's a pleasure to have your optimism to help."

"Thanks!" drily responded the Wolf. "Where are his tracks?"

"Right around here at the front of the machine near the engine."

"See anything, Dave?" asked Jimmie, at once, as the boys grouped about the Eagle, being careful not to tread in the tracks left by the one who had meddled with their engines.

"Yes," responded Dave, instantly. "He was a shortish chap, you know, because he had to stand on his toes here to reach the engines."

"And I think he was a Uhlan," went on Jimmie, pointing to other tracks. "I can see the mark of the spur chain under his instep."

"He must have put his hand right here," added Dave, indicating a spot on the forward wings that showed grimy finger marks. "He had a scar extending across all four fingers. See the print on it?"

"I'll bet I know who it was!" declared Jimmie, seizing Dave by the shoulder. "If that wasn't Otto, I'll go back and enlist all over!"

"Sure enough," replied Dave. "He was just about that height, and of course he wore spurs and all that. I don't know about the scar."

"Well, we will look for a short, heavy set Uhlan with a scar on his hand, and when we find him we'll choke those plugs out of him!"

"Shall we start after him now, boys?" inquired Jack.

"I vote 'No' on the original question," said Jimmie, instantly. "It's pretty near dinner time and I'm as hungry as bears ever get and then some. Have you got anything to eat, Ned?"

"Sure we have," was Ned's hearty response. "Got some mighty fine food, too. You'll like it, I'm sure. Those tracks can wait."

"Just right!" declared the lad. "Dave and I are starved! Just throw us together a little fried ham and some scalloped potatoes, a piece of Yorkshire pudding with some roast beef for Dave, here, and a few loaves of bread with a side of creamed cauliflower and some peas and carrots. Two or three helpings of succotash and some green onions wouldn't go bad either. With a couple of cups of coffee and some chocolate eclairs and a cream puff with a little ice cream and some lemon pie we could manage to worry along until tea time."

"Good night!" said Ned. "Wouldn't you rather take pot luck?"

"Oh," responded Jimmie, lightly, "any little old thing you wish."

"Then we'll give you some stew," announced Ned.

"Here's hoping, Ned," Jimmie said, laying a hand on Ned's arm, "that it isn't cabbage stew with bunches of vegetarian sausages cooked in it."

"Why?" inquired Ned. "Don't you like that sort of food?"

"Oh," exclaimed Jimmie, with a gesture of disgust, "we've had nothing else for about four years! I feel just like poor old Ben Gunn in 'Treasure Island.' I'd like a little civilized food--a piece of cheese or something like that. Don't say stew to me or I'll quit you cold."

"If you want a piece of cheese, take me," declared Jack. "I feel mightily ashamed of the way we let you two sneak up on us and catch us."

"Oh, that's all right," offered Jimmie with great magnanimity, "you really captured yourself, you know. Dave and I let you walk right up onto us before Dave swung that rope. I must get that trick."

"How did you learn that knack, Dave?" asked Ned, admiringly.

"Oh, that's quite easy, you know," replied the other with becoming modesty. "I've spent some time in Alberta where there are cattle and I learned to shoot and ride a horse and throw the rope pretty well."

"That's quite an accomplishment, all right," offered Jack.

"Agreed!" announced Jimmie. "But," he went on, "we're losing time and I'm losing flesh while you argue about it. Leave Dave alone, now. Can't you see him blushing over the praise you're giving him? Let's hustle about and get some eats started. I'm hungry, I tell you!"

"All right, Jimmie, your wants shall be supplied. We'll make another pot of coffee and all hands will take a cup with you for luck."

"This all happened so suddenly," said Ned, as the five lay about the fires waiting for the cooking to be finished, "that I haven't had a chance to ask you a question nor tell you how overjoyed I am to have you with us again. But I'm really delighted. How did it happen?"

"Well, they took us with them after Dave knocked over one of their tents," began Jimmie, with a sly look at his companion. "If it hadn't been for that plucky kid over there, I most likely would have lost my temper two or three times and tried to whip the whole German army."

"Oh, I say, you know," declared Dave. "He's putting it on too thick! I really wasn't much help at all. It was Jimmie who got the Kaiser into a good humor and then saved his life!"

"Go on, go on!" urged Ned, excitedly. "Tell us about it quickly!"

In response to the invitation, Jimmie and Dave together told the story of their adventures since last seeing their chums. Jimmie was in turn told of the exciting scenes through which the three boys had passed, and to him also were made known the circumstances through which Dave had joined the party. As the boys finally drew their narratives to a conclusion, Jimmie, who had followed the tales of his comrades with interest, turned to Ned and said:

"And so you were on the point of rescuing me when that fellow shot the rope by which Dave was hanging and you thought it was all off!"

"You are right, we thought things were going wrong with us then."

"And after that you pretty nearly got into a trap yourselves."

"Yes and we were compelled to exchange our perfectly good uniforms for some old rags that would disgrace a wharf rat!" was Ned's indignant response. "Then we simply took the privilege of putting on these garments. They are not what we would have chosen, but they match yours."

"They fooled Dave and myself, all right," laughed Jimmie. "We thought that we had caught a mess of German soldiers."

"That simply goes to show us, boys," gravely commented Ned, "that we ought to be extremely careful about our outward appearance. It's so easy for others to mistake us for what we are not."

"Hands up!" the boys heard a rough voice say. They turned to see a rifle muzzle showing through a clump of bushes.