But all the answer Bud got was a wink.

“Now, what hez ther hombre got up his sleeve, I wonder?” said Bud, as he wandered off.

Ted and Stella had an animated conversation a few minutes later out of the sight and hearing of the others.  But Stella walked off, smiling.  She knew.

It was just getting dark when the party left the ranch house.

Ted carried a large, empty sack over his shoulder.  With the organizers of the party went Bud, Ben, Kit, Carl, and Clay.

The maddest person in the house that evening was Stella, because she couldn’t go, too.  But as she said good-by to the party from the steps of the ranch house she smiled comprehensively at Ted.

A walk of a half mile brought the party to the edge of a small creek.

“Now,” said Mr. Corrigan, “here’s where you wait with the bag while we go up to the creek and chase them down.  You may have to wait a little while, and you must have patience.”

“Don’t worry about me,” answered Ted; “I have plenty of that.  I’ll be here when the snipe come down, and if any of them get away, charge them to me.”

After they had been gone some time Ted lit a match and looked at his watch.  It was a quarter to nine.

The Overland Express was due in Green River at nine-twenty.  The little red station of Polifax would foe passed by ten minutes after she left Green River.

While he was in Green River that afternoon Ted had been very careful to find the exact location of Bubbly Spring.  He was more than two miles from it in his blind to wait for the snipe.

As soon as the crashing of the feet of the snipe drivers and the shouts and laughter had died away, Ted left his hiding place and darted through the dark woods and swampy ground for Bubbly Spring.

Long before he got there he heard the long screech of the whistle of the Overland Express announcing its approach at Green River, and a few minutes later its whistle that it was on its way.  He had just reached Bubbly Spring and concealed himself in the bushes when the whistle gave a long shriek of danger.

The signal of the train robbers had been given at Polifax.  The engineer had seen the red light and had whistled to the trainmen that danger was ahead, and that he was going to stop.

In a few moments Ted heard a few pops, and knew that the train robbers were firing their revolvers alongside of the train to prevent interference.

What if the train robbers should fail?

The train started up again, and Ted knew by that that nobody had been killed, and it added to his anxiety as to the success of the robbery.  He wanted it to occur, for if he could secure the loot he could destroy the train robbers surely.

All he wanted now was tangible evidence.  He lay back breathlessly in the bushes, waiting.  Soon he heard the rapid hoofbeats of horses, then a crashing in the bushes.