Page:Boys of Columbia High on the River.djvu/45

Rh of the buggy which had been stopped on the road outside Columbia, he stared as though he had seen a ghost.

"What's this? what's this? I ought to know these fellows well enough!" he exclaimed, rubbing his eyes with the knuckles of his free hand.

It was Chief Hogg, the head of Columbia's police force, clad in all the regalia of his exalted office, and with a bright silver star upon his left breast.

"Hello, Chief! Do we look like a desperate pair of scoundrels? Is that why you are holding us up on the road to town?" asked Frank, laughingly.

"Well, boys, this is certainly one on me. You happened to say something that made us believe the men we wanted had shown up. But it is a mighty queer thing. This rig corresponds with the description to a dot, too," he went on, looking at both horse and vehicle, and shaking his head.

"Does it?" asked Frank.

"Where did you get that outfit, boys? It doesn't belong in Columbia, does it?" continued the officer, eagerly.

"Not that we know of. At least, we didn't get it there," was Frank's reply, and it acted like a dose of electricity upon the chief.

"Say you so, Frank? Then where did it come from?" he asked, hastily.

"They never waited to tell us, and we've been