Dodge girl has message from below. 
      Coming in car.  Blow first bridge she
      crosses.

Down the valley the lookout made his way as fast as he could.  As he approached the two men who had been mining the bridge, he whistled sharply.  They answered and hurried to meet him.

“Just got a heliograph,” he panted.  “The Dodge girl must have picked up one of the messages that came from below.  She’s coming over the hill now in a car.  We’ve got to blow up the bridge as she crosses.”

The men were hurrying now toward the bridge which they had mined.  Not a moment was to be lost, for already they could see us coming over the crest of the hill.

In a few seconds they reached the hidden plunger firing-box which had been arranged to explode the charge under the bridge.  There they crouched in the brush ready to press the plunger the moment our car touched the planking.

One of the men crept out a little nearer the road.  “They’re coming!” he called back, dropping down again.  “Get ready!”

. . . . . . .

Del Mar’s emissaries had not reckoned, however, that any one else might be about to whom the heliograph was an open book.

But, further over on the hill, hiding among the trees, the old farmer and his dog were sitting quietly.  The old man was sweeping the Sound with his glasses, as if he expected to see something any moment.

To his surprise, however, he caught a flash of the heliograph from the land.  Quickly he turned and jotted down the signals.  As he did so, he seemed greatly excited, for the message read: 

       Dodge girl has message from below. 
       Coming in car.  Blow first bridge she
       crosses.

Quickly he turned his glasses down the road.  There he could see our car rapidly approaching.  He put up his glasses and hurried down the hill toward the bridge.  Then he broke into a run, the dog scouting ahead.

We were going along the road nicely now, coasting down the hill.  As we approached the bridge, Elaine slowed up a bit, to cross, for the planking was loose.

Just then the farmer who had been running down the hill saw us.

“Stop!” he shouted.

But we did not hear.  He ran after us, but such a chase was hopeless.  He stopped, in despair.

With a gesture of vexation he took a step or two mechanically off the road.

Elaine and I were coming fast to the bridge now.

In their hiding-place, Del Mar’s men were watching breathlessly.  The leader was just about to press the plunger when all of a sudden a branch in the thicket beside him crackled.  There stood the farmer and his dog!

Instantly the farmer seemed to take in the situation.  With a cry he threw himself at the man who had the plunger.  Another man leaped at the farmer.  The dog settled him.  The others piled in and a terrific struggle followed.  It was all so rapid that, to all, seconds seemed like hours.