Part 39 (2/2)
”The boy lies!” the leader of the conspirators declared. ”I had nothing to do with the boy! I was not here when he was brought in. I came on separate business with one of the men already here, and did not know of the lad's presence here until to-night, and even then I did not know who he was.”
”All the others will swear to that,” Bradley said, ”in an attempt to save the man's life by sacrificing their own.”
”Never mind,” Ned said, ”you can testify to his interest in the abduction.”
”I don't know a thing about it,” was the reply. ”I was hired to watch you in New York, and to bring Mike III. in here. I never saw this man while here--never saw the prince. I don't even know how they got Mike III. from his father! They kept me in ignorance of all their moves.”
”Well,” laughed Ned, ”then we'll fall back on the confession that has been made.”
”Confession!” repeated the others. ”Who has confessed?”
”The photograph!” smiled Ned, taking out the two pictures in which the man and the prince were shown. ”The pictures show this man in the company of the prince, and the prince will tell the rest. This closes the case.”
”When are you going out?” asked the chief of the secret service men.
”Why,” replied Ned, ”I promised the outlaws that I would get away to-morrow morning. I'm going to keep my word!”
”You'd better go out with us and travel in the machines, then,” said the other.
”And leave Uncle Ike?” demanded Jimmie. ”Not for me! I'm going to ride that blessed mule to c.u.mberland, and s.h.i.+p him to New York.”
And he actually did! While the others were riding at their ease in the racers, Jimmie was urging his mule along the country road, alighting now and then to let him thrust a soft muzzle into a pocket in quest of sugar.
At c.u.mberland Ned met Mike II., who was going in to spend a long time with his mother and the boy. He had sent the son in by a Was.h.i.+ngton friend, he said! That was all! Dode, he said, would be asked to remain there permanently. No one even knew how much the father knew of the trick to be played with his son.
And so, save for a few raveled ends, the story of the Boy Scout Camera Club is told.
Bradley was given a position by Oliver's father, and became very friendly with the boys. He insists to this day that he did not know about the abduction of the prince.
The conspirators were turned over to their own government, and there the record ends, though none of them was ever seen out of prison again!
Those who wish to follow the Boy Scouts farther can do so by reading the next book of this series, ent.i.tled: ”The Boy Scout Electrician; or, the Hidden Dynamo.”
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