"It undoubtedly was," Clay replied, thoughtfully.
"That's your bosom friend!" Alex. grinned. "You let him escape!"
"What else could I do, under the circumstances?" demanded Clay. "The fellow saved my life! Sam would have murdered me only for him!"
"Well, if he's on the level, what's he doing with a man like Sam?" questioned Alex., still grinning.
"We shall have to leave that question to the future," was the short reply.
"You believe that Red had a hand in the robbery at Rock Island?" persisted the boy.
"I don't think anything about it! I'm waiting for additional information!"
"Well, we've got a long way to go yet," Case cut in, "and we may meet with the red-headed man again. We may meet him in some jail yet, if our luck doesn't change!"
"Speaking about jails," Alex. questioned, "what do you make of the old jail of a house Jule and I were locked up in? What do you think they wanted to hold us for?"
"Probably to keep you from spying on what was going on there," Clay suggested.
"But what was going on there?" asked Alex. "That is what _we_ didn't find out!"
"Whatever it was," Jule observed, "the people interested in keeping it secret took long chances when they left us in the dark room with only an old man to guard us. And imagine them never knowing that Mose and the dog were in the grounds!"
At mention of Mose Alex. burst into a roar of laughter.
"I never saw a human face that showed real fear until I saw Mose looking in at the broken window!" he said, directly. "I have seen men and women show fright, but never anything like that! He thought he had come on a collection of ghosts! I presume he thought we, Jule and I, were dead and buried in the cellar, and that our spirits had come forth to haunt the murderers! And he streaked it away like a flash of light!"
"There's probably nothing worse than the manufacture of moonshine whisky going on in the old house," Case contributed. "Or the loot from the warehouse may have been stored there," he added. "The boys heard heavy articles being moved, though they may have been scared stiff and mistook the footsteps of a mouse for the heavy noises!"
"I hope you'll get in just such a predicament some day!" growled Jule. "It wasn't any fun, sitting there in the dark! And I expected that crazy old man to shoot us any moment! I believe he was crazy! He acted as if he was!"