Riley looked at Ted for a moment, then pulled a string.  There followed a hissing noise, and the balloon began to sink, slowly at first, then more rapidly.

Ted did not dare take his eyes off Riley to see how close they were to the ground.  But he heard the Moon Valley long yell, and knew that they were near the earth, and that Bud Morgan was not far away.

Suddenly the car bumped on the ground, bounced and struck again, then stopped, and Ted heard Bud’s cheerful voice right behind him.

“Jumpin’ sand hills, so yer got him, eh?  Come, climb out,” said Bud to Riley, “we need yer on terry firmy.”

“Cover him, Bud, while I search him.  If he makes a break, kill him.  He’s an ex-convict, so don’t take any chances with him,” said Ted.

Riley yielded up a gun and a knife and then he was hustled out of the car, with the midget still clinging to him, and Ted took charge of the tin box.

Billy Sudden and some of his men had come up, and so had Ben and Kit, and Riley was conducted back to the ranch house strongly guarded.

Once inside with their prisoners and the boys, Ted closed the doors on the curious crowd.  The first thing he did was to open the tin box.  On top were the packages of bills stolen from the cubby-hole, and beneath it a large amount of money and the bonds taken from the Strongburg Trust Company, as well as registered letters from which the money had not yet been extracted, and a large amount of brand-new treasury notes which answered the description of the government funds stolen from Creviss’ bank.

“It’s all here,” said Ted, “and the evidence is complete.”

“But how did he manage to do it without leaving a mark or a broken lock behind him?” asked Ben.

“How?  By means of this,” and Ted placed his hand on the head of the midget, who shrank from him with a snarling cry.

“Still I don’t understand it.”

“The day I saw him in the Creviss bank he marched out with the plunder under my very eyes.  The day before the robbery this fellow went into the bank with the dwarf in his valise.  Wiley Creviss was alone.  The valise was opened, and the dwarf slipped out of the valise and into the vault, and concealed himself.

“During the night the dwarf collected all the money and bonds he could, and made himself comfortable.  When it came time for the bank to open in the morning he again concealed himself, and remained in hiding until noon, when Wiley Creviss again came on watch while the cashier went to dinner.  Then Riley, here, entered with his valise, and the dwarf crept into it, and was carried out of the bank with the money.”

“But what had the midget to do with the theft of our money?”

“That’s simple.  Farley and the dwarf were to do the job.  The dwarf was sent up to the roof, for he can climb like a monkey, and came down the chimney and opened the door for Farley.  That was a mistake, for they would not have been caught, except for Farley.”