of tracks! The man with the broken leg has drawn out!"
"But where could he have gone?" asked Tubby. "He didn't have wings, did he? And no aeroplane could dodge down in all this brush to carry him off. If he isn't on the ground, where d'ye reckon he can be, Rob?"
For answer the patrol leader gave one good look at the place where the trail of the man who dragged his left leg after him seemed to stop.
Then he quickly focused the white glow of his electric torch up into the tree directly over-head.
"Oh! looky there, would you, in the fork of the tree!" exclaimed Tubby, always bent on expressing his opinion.
And as the others cast their eyes upward, they saw the huddled figure of a man where Tubby had indicated. Rob had undoubtedly run one of the fugitives down; and hearing them coming through the brush, he must have climbed the tree as a last resort, evidently hoping they might pass him by.
But he had not taken into consideration the fact that a scout was leading the pursuing party, and that the sudden ending of his tracks was bound to cause the trailer to survey the vicinity in the expectation of locating his game.
CHAPTER VI.
THE EAGLES LEAD THE WAY TO SUCCESS
"Don't shoot, gents! I reckon I'm pretty near all in!" called out the man who was in the crotch of the oak tree.
At the same time he elevated both hands as a sign that he was unarmed and did not intend to offer any hostile demonstration. Undoubtedly the sight of the three big officers in blue, not to speak of four stalwart lads dressed in scout uniforms, must have convinced him that he had really run to the end of his rope; and that after being checked so positively in his break for liberty, the next best thing for him to do would be to give in and have his wounded leg attended to.
"Hello! got you, have we, Con?" remarked the Chief pleasantly.
"Looks like it, Chief," grunted the man, who must have been in considerable pain, Rob determined, as he saw the drawn look on his face. "Just gimme half a chance, and I'll drop down out of this. It ain't the easiest thing agoin' for a man with a leg swollen up like mine to move, once he sets still five minutes."
"That's so, Con," the head of the Hampton police force said, as he stepped forward; "and I'll help you down all I can."
If Rob had had a good opinion of the burly Chief before, that added to it; because his consideration for a suffering wretch, even if he were a hard character, proved that the policeman had a heart.
The fugitive was helped to the ground, and he sank down with a half stifled groan. They could see that his face had a peaked look, and that he was compelled to grit his teeth savagely together, as though trying his best not to show signs of weakness. Yes, Con was a man of more than ordinary nerve and grit, Rob knew, as he noticed all this; but then he had made up his mind on that score before now, so he was not at all surprised.
"Corporal Merritt," he said, turning to his second in command; "suppose you take a look at this poor fellow's leg, and see if you can't do something in an emergency to ease the pain. Like as not we'll have to make a stretcher and carry him to where the wagon was left."
"All right, Rob!" was the ready answer Merritt gave; while his eyes fairly sparkled with satisfaction at having the patrol leader show such confidence in him as to turn over this duty to his charge. As a rule Rob generally took it upon himself to play the part of doctor when an occasion arose that required such work.
And imagine the astonishment of those three policemen as they saw the corporal immediately set to work to tackle his job with the assurance of an experienced physician or surgeon. As for the injured man, he stared as though hardly knowing what to believe, to see a mere boy undertake a task like that.
Tubby gave one look as Merritt unwound the rough bandage that the wounded man had wrapped tightly around his injured leg, and gasped as he turned his head away. Andy kept on staring as though fascinated; but at the same time had any one observed the boy closely he would have found that Andy's usual healthy color had given place to a ghastly hue.
If Merritt experienced anything of the same feeling as he proceeded to manipulate the limb of the man, he certainly did not let the weakness interfere with his work.
"I may hurt you some, but stand it as well as you can," he told the other. "Because I have an idea the leg may not be broken after all, but only badly wrenched and torn by striking some hard object. Steady, now!"
A minute later, as boys and officers stared, and mentally gave Merritt credit for knowing all about "first aid to the injured," the corporal went on to say:
"It is just as I thought, for there is no fracture of the bones that I can find. But you have neglected it so long and strained it so by walking and running that I'm afraid you're going to have a bad time with that leg. But I'll put something on that will ease the pain, more or less, and bind it up fresh for you. Then we'll get you to the wagon somehow, without your having to walk."
"Say, are you what they call the Boy Scouts?" asked the injured man, who had been listening to all Merritt said, as well as watching his deft fingers work, with amazement written large upon his peaked face.
"Just what we are," Tubby hastened to inform him; "and you can see now what the scouts learn. You are not the first man who has been handled by the members of the Eagle Patrol, Mister."
"Well, I wanted to know!" muttered the man, still staring, as though he could not understand how mere boys could master the art of handling a bad wound like that with such skill, and show the nerve to do it at the same time.
"Where's Rob going?" asked Tubby just then.
While Merritt was working Rob had held the torch so that he could see, until Andy had taken a hint, and scraped enough dead leaves together to make a little fire, and in this way given all the light that was needed.
Apparently the patrol leader was not satisfied with having overtaken one of the desperate fugitives who had escaped from the Riverhead jail. He must have figured, while standing there, waiting until the fire had attained sufficient size to allow his moving off, that possibly the other rascal might not have run much further, as they would surely have caught the sound of his pressing through all that dense undergrowth; for at the time Con was helped up into his tree by the shorter man, the pursuers could not have been far away.
And so the scout who carried that useful electric hand torch proceeded to find the tracks of the second man; after which he began to follow the trail.
It immediately led him into the thickest of the underbrush; and this fact only added strength to the boy's former deduction, to the effect that no one could push on through all this matted growth without making all sorts of sounds capable of being readily heard by keen ears a quarter of a mile away almost.
Merritt had now finished bandaging the wounded leg of the man, and the fellow frankly told him it was feeling many times better already.
"You're a sure enough wonder, boy, that's what!" the man went on to say; and while he did not thank the amateur surgeon in so many words, Merritt could easily trace gratitude in the tone of his voice. However, the young corporal was not doing this in order to receive praise, but because it lay in the line of his duty as a scout.
"Got one man, anyway, Chief, didn't you?" Andy remarked.
"Half a loaf, they say, is some better than no bread," answered the big man, chuckling, as though vastly amused over the result of this singular hunt in company with the Boy Scouts.
