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{{frabfp241.png}} || eagles of the sky ||

alongside the still writhing Oswald, his automatic
held in readiness only waiting for Jack to
recover enough to take things in charge.

"Look in the room--see if the papers are safe--in
the fireplace--he started to burn the whole
batch and beat us to the scratch--had to give
him the whole works to save 'em!"

Thus enlightened, Perk stood up and took a
look then burst out in a joyous shout that would
have done credit to any cow-puncher on earth.

"It's all dandy, Jack--papers safe an' we got
ocr>   our man ditto. Mebbe now I'll soon^{x}get a chance
fix>   our man ditto. Mebbe now I'll soon get a chance
to treat my tummy to some decent grub, 'cause
my ribs're stickin' to my backbone, I'm that
empty."

Before long Jack's eyes ceased to sting and his
vision once more became almost normal. By
then, too, Kearns had come to his senses, with
Perk keeping him subdued by means of
prodding a weapon in his ribs.

Jack hunted around and found some rope with
which they temporarily bound the arms and
ankles of their prisoner. That accomplished he
made haste to secure all the papers as well as
the ledger which Kearns had been so eager to
destroy when realizing that at last his scorn for
the minions of the law had reaped its inevitable
result--the pitcher gone once too often to the
well--and that his game was up.

[[241]]

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