I supplied the brains, an' you've got to raise the cash to pay for 'em! How did I do that trick of slippin' the watch an' pin into Prescott's trunk! Oh, yes! Of course, ye wanter know.

Well, I'll tell ye when ye hand me the rest o' the money for doin' the whole trick---then I'll tell ye." Something in a very low whisper came, in response, from the second party who was invisible to the prowling freshmen.
Dick Prescott felt that there was no need of prolonging this scene.
He had heard enough.
"Now, rush 'em! Grab 'em---and hold 'em!" shouted Dick, suddenly.
As the three freshmen shot forward into the darkness something that sounded like an almost hysterical cheer in girls' voices came from the open, dark window overhead.
But neither Dick nor his chums paused to give thought to that at this important moment.
The unknown who had been doing most of the talking wheeled with an oath, making a frantic dash to get out of the alley and onto the street.
But Dick shot fairly past him, dodging slightly, and made a bound for the second party to this wicked conference.
Just beyond the doorway in which this second party had keen standing was a yard that furnished a second means of exit from the alley.
It was this second party to the talk that Dick was after.

He left the other fugitive to his two active, quick-witted chums.
They were swift to understand, and grappled, together, with the rascal fleeing for the street.
The three went down in a scuffling, fighting heap.
Like a flash the fellow that Dick was after seemed to melt into the adjoining back yard.

Prescott, in trying to get in after him in record time, fell flat to the ground just inside the yard.
Yet, as he went down Prescott grabbed one of his fugitive's trouser legs near the ankle.
"Let go!" hissed the other, in too low a voice to be recognized.
Before Dick, holding on grimly, had time to look upward, the wretch lifted a cane, bringing it down on Dick's head with ugly force..