As they entered the town they were met by Officer Dugan, who put his hand on Rand’s shoulder.

“I have a warrant for your arrest,” he said.

The party were amazed, and the colonel was the first to speak.

“For what?” he asked.

“For robbing Judge Taylor’s office,” replied the officer.

CHAPTER XVII

THE MESSAGE

For a moment or two Pepper hung at the extremity of the branch to which he was clinging, when all at once there came an ominous cracking and the end broke away, but fortunately it had swung so low toward the ground that he dropped at the foot of the tree, not much the worse for his experience.

It had ail happened so quickly that, before he had time to utter a cry Pepper found himself lying on the ground flat on his back.

“My goodness gracious!” exclaimed Pepper, feeling himself all over to make sure that he was ail there.  “The farther I go the worse it gets.  This is certainly the worst yet.  I think the ground is good enough for me after that.”

A little dazed by his fall, Pepper, without stopping to consider his direction, started off as fast as he could go, turning this way and that as he went, to avoid the thicker growths of under-brush, until he had gone a mile or more, getting ail the time deeper into the forest.

“I think,” he mused, when he stopped for a breathing spell, looking about for some clue to guide him, “I had better be getting back to the road.  Now, I wonder which way it is.  Let me see, which is the North.  That must be it, because this side of the trees have moss on them; then the road must be off this way.”

Starting off in the direction he had decided upon Pepper pursued his way, swerving now to the right and again to the left to avoid some all but impassable thicket or some swampy bit of ground, until he judged that he had gone at least a mile.

“Crickets!” he exclaimed at length.  “I wonder where that road has gone.  I was not that far from it, I know.  I must have traveled about four miles since I left it, in the wrong direction at that.  Gee!  It must be pretty near noon, by the way I feel.”  Looking at his watch he saw it was 12 o’clock, and sat down to eat his lunch.

“Lucky I brought it along,” he thought; “for, from the looks of things, I don’t know when I am going to get any more.  I wonder if the boys are waiting for me to return?  Looks as though they would have quite a wait.

“Now, which way shall I go?” he questioned when he had finished.  “There doesn’t seem to be any choice in the matter, one way looks as promising as another.”

Striking off at right angles from the way he had been going he decided to try that course for a while, but after traveling for an hour through the underbrush, which seemed to be getting thicker and more difficult to get through the farther he went, he again came to a halt.