“All right,” he said.  “I’ll go along with you, officer.  But you’ll be sorry before it’s over!”

“Maybe, sir,” said the policeman.  “But orders is orders, sir, and I’ve got to obey them.  Not that I likes running a young gentleman like yourself in.  But —­”

“Oh, I know you’re only doing your duty, as you see it, officer,” he said.  “Can’t be helped —­ but I’m sorry.  It’s likely to cause a lot of trouble.”

So he surrendered.  But, even while he was doing so, he was planning to escape from custody.

CHAPTER X

A GOOD WITNESS

Dick’s surprise and concern when he found the cache empty and deserted, with papers and motorcycles alike gone, may be imagined.  For a moment he thought he must be mistaken, that, after all, he had come to the wrong place.  But a quick search of the ground with his flashlight showed him that he had come to the right spot.  He could see the tracks made by the wheels of the machine; he could see, also, evidences of the brief struggle between Harry and Graves.  For a moment his mystification continued.  But then, with a low laugh, Jack Young emerged from the cover in which he had been hiding.

“Hello, there!” he said.  “I say, are you Dick Mercer?”

“Yes!” gasped Dick.  “But however do you know?  I never saw you before!”

“Well, you see me now,” said Jack.  “Harry Fleming told me to look for you here.  He said you’d be along some time tonight, if you got away.  And he was sure you could get away, too.”

“Harry!” said Dick, dazed.  “You’ve seen him?  Where is he?  Did he get away?  And what happened to the cycles and the papers we hid there?  Why —­”

“Hold on!  One question at a time,” said Jack.  “Keep your shirt on, and I’ll tell you all I know about it.  Then we can decide what is to be done next.  I think I’ll attach myself temporarily to your patrol.”

“Oh, you’re a scout, too, are you?” asked Dick.

That seemed to explain a good deal.  He was used to having scouts turn up to help him out of trouble.  And so he listened as patiently as he could, while Jack explained what had happened.  “And that’s all I know,” said Jack, finally, when he had carried the tale to the point where Harry rode off on the repaired motorcycle in pursuit of Ernest Graves.  “I should think you might really know more about it now than I do.”

“Why, how could I?  You saw it all!”

“Yes, that’s true enough.  But you know Harry and I were too busy to talk much after we found that motor was out of order.  All I know is that when we got here we found someone I’d never seen before and never want to see again messing about with the cycles.  We thought it must be you, of course —­ at least Harry did, and of course I supposed he ought to know.”

“And then you found it was Ernest Graves?”