Page:Ralph on the Railroad.djvu/627

Rh the basket where it was, he and Mort ran after Limpy Joe and the horse.

"Get out of here, quick," ordered Ralph to Zeph. "If we don't, we shall probably be carried into the camp of the enemy."

"Isn't that just exactly the place that you want to reach?" inquired the farmer boy coolly.

"Not in this way. Out with you, and into the bushes. Don't delay, Zeph, drop flat, some one else is coming."

It was a wonder they were not discovered, for almost immediately two men came running towards the spot. They were doubtless the persons Ike Slump had referred to, for they gave a series of signal whistles, responded to by their youthful accomplices, who, a minute later, came into view leading the horse of which Limpy Joe was astride

"We were late," panted one of the men.

"Should think you were," retorted Ike Slump. "This boy nearly got away. Say, if you wasn't a cripple," he continued to the young restaurant keeper, "I'd give you something for whacking me with that crutch of yours."

"I'd whack you again, if it would do any good," said the plucky fellow. "You're a nice crowd, you are, bothering me this way after I've probably saved you from starvation the last week."

"That's all right, sonny," drawled out one of