"Oh, there goes our roof!" cried Betty plaintively.
"Never mind, Betty dear! You can hire men to put on fifty roofs now, with the reward you scouts will get," exclaimed Mr. Gilroy.
"Reward! What reward?" asked five amazed voices.
Mr. Gilroy laughed delightedly. "The Chief told me that one reason his men and all the men in Freedom were so eager to hunt these convicts, was the hope of the cash reward offered. The State has offered $500 a head for the capture, dead or alive, of these outlaws and aliens. You scouts have captured the men!"
"W-h-y! I can't believe it! How did we do it?" exclaimed Betty.
"Oh--Julie caught them, didn't she?" cried Joan.
"Not alone, Jo. You all helped, and the Captain poured the gasoline, you know, and took the risk of being blown to bits!" laughed Julie, excitedly, as she twisted her fingers nervously.
"When the Chief told me of the rewards, I said: 'Then the girls ought to have it, no matter who _catches_ the convicts, for they apprehended them and turned in the news of their whereabouts.'"
"Oh, but we didn't, Mr. Gilroy. You did that yourself," Ruth corrected the gentleman.
"I only took the blows from the prisoners--you did the rest. But I never dreamed that you would capture them, too. I might have known that girl scouts are capable of doing anything."
The moment handcuffs were on the convicts, they were placed in custody of the officer. Then the Chief blew his signal so the hunters on the mountainside would know the men were taken.
He congratulated Julie and her friends on having won the much coveted reward, and then said to Mrs. Vernon: "I suppose you will hear from the Government offices in a few days. Meantime, I will need the names and addresses of the members of Dandelion Camp, to enter the report on my records."
The scattered men who had been hunting through the forests now straggled into camp, all eager to hear by whom and how the convicts had been caught. When they learned that a few girls did the work, they looked disgusted.
But one of the officers laughed heartily as he said: "Why didn't we think of that hiding-place!"
"Wall, I kin say I'm glad th' gals got it! They lost all the camp ferniture and grub, an' has to go home now!" added Lem Saunders, the constable.