Page:Fairview Boys and their Rivals.djvu/131

Rh "He wants to see you, anyway, so you've got to come along."

"That's a fact," put in Tom Chubb. "No getting out of it, Bob."

The others surrounded Bob and marched him down the street. A dozen people met him and shook hands with him. They met Minnie Grey, who called Bob "a hero," and cried, as she always did when Bob met with "good luck," as she called it. Little crippled Benny Lane cheered Bob with a dozen hurrahs as they passed his home.

The satchels had been found in the schoolhouse well, and only a few pieces of jewelry were missing. The captured robber was now in jail, and the marshal and his men were looking for his partner.

It came out that the tramp had heard Silas Dolby tell about the lost key to the jewelry store, and had found it in his garden. He had been given shelter in the old miser's barn, because Mr. Dolby was afraid to refuse him, he was such a rough, ugly fellow.

When the boys reached Frank's home, Mr. Haven came out and met them. He grasped both of Bob's hands, all smiles, and as happy as he could be.

"Well, Bob," he said, "I suppose you've come for that reward?"

"Not a cent of it, Mr. Haven," replied Bob, firmly.

"I have decided to give you one hundred dollars, Bob. The balance, I suppose, should go to the marshal and his men."

"Mr. Haven," said Bob, "my father told me that if I took so much as a cent from a good neighbor like you, he'd invite me out to the barn with a strap."

"Why, the town would mob him if he laid a finger on its hero!" declared Mr. Haven.