“Just as I thought,” laughed Dick triumphantly.  “Tag had no notion of shooting anyone.  For fear he might do so, if too closely cornered, he threw away the ammunition.  He relied on the bad reputation of the Moshers to make officers hesitate if they encountered him with firearms in his hands.”

Then Prescott called for the girls, whom he quickly rejoined.

“You didn’t catch him?” asked Laura.

“Not I,” laughed Dick.  “He knows every trail in these woods and in a sprint, Tag Mosher could leave me hitched to a tree.”

“I’m thankful you didn’t catch him,” quivered Miss Bentley.  “He’s a terrible fellow.”

“Is he?” laughed Prescott good-humoredly.  “As a bad man Tag Mosher, or young Page, as he really ought to be called, is about the biggest bluff that I’ve ever heard of.  Look at these weapons.  Both unloaded.  Yet, when Tag broke jail, he carried away ammunition enough to hold a company of militia at bay.  Tag doesn’t want to shoot anyone.  All he wants to do is to scare pursuers.”

“He’s a ruffian, anyway,” Belle declared.

“Why?  Was he very rough with you?” Dick inquired.  “Did he tear your rings off recklessly, and hurt your hands?”

“No; but be held my hand so firmly that I simply couldn’t pull it out of his clutch,” Belle replied.  “Then he took off my rings as easily and in as matter-of-fact way as though they were his own property.”

“He really didn’t mean to hurt you,” Dick explained.  “He has been trained, from babyhood, to make his living by appropriating other people’s belongings, and he was only obeying his training.  The officers are after him, and Tag, not wishing to be caught, wants to put considerable distance between himself and these woods.  Yet no matter what he does, or where he goes, the officers will finally find him.  Law is supreme, and triumphs in the end.  No man may defy the police and courts of a nation and get away with it for any great length of time.”

“Would you have tried to catch him, if we hadn’t been with you?” asked Laura.

“Yes,” Dick admitted.  “Though under the circumstances I had no right to do anything but stay here with you and try to protect you.  Shall we go on with the collecting?”

“If the other girls want to do so,” agree Susie Sharp.

“If we want to?” Laura echoed.   “After the fright we’ve had? 
All that we want to do is to-----”

“Get back to camp?” smiled Dick.  “I’m wholly agreeable.  Truth to tell, I’ve had such a fright that my nerves are shattered.”

“Your nerves shattered?” echoed Belle scornfully.  “Tell that to someone who never lived in Gridley, Dick Prescott!  You flew at that fellow like a tiger.”

“But look at the magnificent help I had!” smiled Dick.

CHAPTER XXI

THE MEDICAL EXAMINER TALKS TRAINING

“Do you want a suggestion, Prescott?” inquired Dr. Bentley.