The girl seized a small nickled wrench out of the Golden Butterfly.  In the dark it looked not unlike a pistol.

“You’d b-b-b-better stay w-w-w-where you are,” said Peggy, in a voice which, though rather shaky, was still courageous.

The fellow took the hint, and just then Mr. Bell came up with his capture, who had merely been “playing possum.”  The two men were thoroughly cowed, and were trembling violently.

“Don’t be hard on us guv’ner,” wailed one of them; “we didn’t mean no harm.”

“No; it was just a little joke,” protested Jimsy’s prisoner, who was standing in the rays of the detached auto light, thoroughly subdued.

“It’s a joke that’s liable to cost you dear,” commented Mr. Bell.  “Jimsy,” he added, for by this time recognition and greetings had passed between the mining magnate and Jess and Jimsy, “Jimsy, have you got a bit of rope handy, my boy?”

Jimsy rummaged in the Golden Butterfly’s tool and supply locker and presently unearthed a coil of fine cotton cord of stout texture.  This was speedily applied to the hands of the two men, and loose thongs placed about their legs.

While this work was going forward Peggy had been scrutinizing the faces of the two prisoners with a startled look.  There was something very familiar about both of them.  All at once it flashed across her where she had encountered them before.  They were the two men who had held up Jess and herself in the road to the Galloway farm that eventful afternoon on which they had taken refuge from the storm.

She whispered to Jess her suspicions.  Her chum instantly confirmed them.  Here was news indeed.  After the men had been tied and placed in the tonneau of Mr. Bell’s car, Peggy called a council of war.  In a few words she told Mr. Bell of all that had happened since they had returned to the East, and narrated the part the two prisoners had played in it.

“Good heavens, just to think I’ve come to the tame and effete east to plunge into the midst of such an exciting mix-up,” laughed Mr. Bell, “I was in Roanoke seeing about the shipment of some supplies when I saw, in a newspaper, that the contests for the naval contract were to take place here.  I had had no idea from your letters that they were so near at hand.  As I had some time to spare, I thought I’d run over to Hampton in my machine and see how you made out.”

“And we providentially happened to fly across you!” cried Jimsy.  “Truth is stranger than fiction, after all.”

“But what are we to do with those two rascals now that we have caught them?” wondered Peggy; “if we take them into Hampton and turn them over to the authorities Mortlake will know of it and may make more trouble.  I wonder if they know much about him and his schemes.  I recollect now that I’ve seen them hanging about his aeroplane plant.  I couldn’t call to mind then where I had seen them before, but I suppose the shock of coming upon them so unexpectedly to-night jogged my memory.”