"Ah-h, then perhaps you, too, are a detecative on the same trail; but I warn you Snawksnaw will have no partner to share the glory of this capture. I have run them to earth, and mean to take them single handed." "What have they done?" asked Billy. "I know not. That I will find out when I have bound and gagged them." "Then you don't know them?" "Yes," and Snawksnaw seeing no immediate use for his pistol carefully put it in his hip pocket after examining the cap to see that it was still in place. "Nothing like being sure of one's firearms," he said, "for should me trusty 32 miss fire at a critical moment I should be in a dangerous position." "Who are they?" "Nickel Plate, the Polished villain." "What!" cried Billy, "Nickel Plate?" "Yes, and Bumbus." "Bumbus?" "Yes, and Drone." "Drone? I don't know him." "He's a cowardly ruffian, the tool of Nickel Plate." "A sort of Nickel Plated tool," said Billy, laughing. "I suppose so," said Snawksnaw seriously, missing the joke. "And worst of all their fair but false accomplice Glucose, possessing a beautiful face to look upon, but with the crafty, crawling, venomous wiles of the serpent." "I've heard of Glucose," said Billy; "she is the one they tried to put in Honey Girl's place at the Bee Palace." "Ah-ha!" cried Snawksnaw, "a case of abduction--but I will foil them--it shall be my greatest shadow. I must perfect my disguise in such a serious case," and taking off his coat he turned it inside out and struggled into it. "Now I defy them." "You're not going to the factory, are you?" asked Billy. "I don't know--if I just knew what old Sneuth, the detective, would do under the circumstances I could decide." "Huh! I shouldn't wait for that," said a voice. Looking up, Billy and Snawksnaw saw Bumbus leaning against a cornstalk, wearing a very self-satisfied but wicked grin. "So it's my old friend Billy Bounce," continued he. "Bumbus!" was all Billy could say. "I be," said Bumbus; "who's your friend?" "Snawksnaw, the famous boy detecative," shouted that youth, drawing his cap pistol. "But I shall sell my life dearly," and he snapped the cap at Bumbus. How it did make Bumbus jump, but instead of falling dead in his tracks as they do in dime novels, he seized Billy's collar with one hand and reached for the boy detective's collar with the other. "Missed!" cried Snawksnaw, throwing his pistol to the ground; "ten thousand furies. I don't know what old Sneuth would do now, but I know what I'm going to do," and he ran off as fast as his legs would carry him. "Good riddance," said Bumbus, laughing, "which proves beyond a doubt that the wicked flourish like a green bay rum tree." "How is that?" asked Billy. "Meaning that no matter how close the shave, green bay rum can face it." "I suppose you are going to take me prisoner to the factory," said Billy, wishing to have the worst over as soon as possible.