The Young Engineers in Colorado Part 42

"You might stay here and help me," whispered Dave. Tom nodded.

"Now, Black, you can be the first," called Dave in a brisk, business-like tone. "Step up here and drop your weapons on the ground."

Wincing under a bitter sense of defeat, 'Gene Black stepped forward.

He was not really a coward, but he valued his life, little as it was actually worth. So he dropped a revolver to the ground.

"What I have to say to you, Black, applies to the others," Dave continued from outside the thicket. "If any man among you doesn't drop all his weapons, we'll make it lively for him when we get him out here."

A look of malignant hate crossed his face, then 'Gene Black dropped also a knife to the ground.

"Come on out, Black," directed Dave Fulsbee. "Mr. Reade, will you oblige me by running your hands over the fellow's clothing to see if he, has any more weapons."

Tom promptly complied. A hasty search revealed no other weapons.

"Now, step right along over there, Black, where you'll find two of my men," nodded Dave Fulsbee.

Again Black obeyed. He saw, dimly, two men some yards further away in the darkness and joined them.

Click-click! Then the scoundrel cried out in the bitterness of his rage, for the two railway detectives had handcuffed him.

"You, with the black hair, next," summoned Fulsbee, his vision aided by the lantern in the centre of the thicket. "You come here, but first stop and drop your weapons on the pile---all the trouble-makers you happen to have."

Thus they came, one at a time, the operator being the last of all. The crowd of prisoners under guard of the two railway detectives grew steadily, and each was handcuffed as he reached the detectives after having been searched by Tom Reade.

"Good job," nodded Dave coolly, as he am approached the captives.

"Now, we have you all under lock and key. My, but you're a pretty-looking outfit!"

"Come on, men. March 'em up the track. Then we'll come back, or send someone else after the dynamite and other stuff. That'll be handy as evidence."

Guarded by Fulsbee and his two detectives, the prisoners marched along a few rods.

"Mr. Reade," called Dave, pointing, "you'll find your horse tied to that tree yonder. I reckon you'll be glad to get in saddle again."

Indeed, Tom was glad. He ran over, untying the animal, which uttered a whinny of recognition. In saddle, Tom joined the marching party.

"You don't seem to think us a very hard crowd to guard," remarked 'Gene Black curiously. "Why don't you call off the men you posted around the thickets"

"I didn't post any," Fulsbee answered simply. "I sent these two men of mine running around the thicket. Then they had to come together and attend to handcuffing you fellows."

"And were you the only man who had the drop on us?" gasped 'Gene Black.

"I was," Dave Fulsbee responded. "If you fellows hadn't had such bad nerves, you could have escaped. But it's an old story. When men go bad their nerves go bad with them."

As for Black's followers, now that they knew the nature of the trick that had fooled them, several of them hung back.

"You fellows needn't think you can balk now," observed Fulsbee grimly. "You're all of you handcuffed, and there are enough of us to handle you. I promise you that, if anyone of you tries to run away, I won't run after him until I've first tried dropping him with a shot."

So the party proceeded, and in time reached Lineville. There was great excitement in that little junction town when the citizens first heard of the dastardly work that the prisoners had attempted.

Dave marched his captives into the waiting room of the station.

All outsiders were ushered forth politely. Mr. Newnham was hurriedly summoned, and to him Tom Reade disclosed what he had learned of the work of enemies along the line. Naturally the president of the S.B. & L. was greatly excited.

"We knew something was wrong, from the nature of the telegraph messages that came in," cried Mr. Newnham. "It was your friend, Hazelton, who first suggested the idea of sending a full train down the line, with a short pilot train ahead."

"Good, great old Harry!" murmured Tom admiringly.

Both Fulsbee and the president of the road tried to question 'Gene Black. That treacherous fellow, however, steadfastly refused to talk. Two or three of his gang were willing enough to talk, but they knew little, as Black had carried all his plans and schemes in his own head.

"No matter!" muttered Dave Fulsbee. "My two men and I were close to that thicket for some time before we broke in on the affair.

We heard enough to supply all the evidence that the courts will want against these worthies."

As the futile questioning was drawing to a close, 'Gene Black suddenly roused himself to say sneeringly:

"Gentlemen, look at your station clock. It's fifteen minutes before midnight. A quarter of an hour left! Where's your through train? If it reaches here fifteen minutes from now it will be too late."

"Send a message down the line quickly," gasped Mr. Newnham, turning pale. Then he wheeled savagely upon the prisoner, exclaiming: "I forgot, Black. You rascals cut the wires. We could have mended them at the nearer point, but the wires were cut, too, at the scene of the blow-out. Oh, but you have been a thorn in our sides!"

From the crowd that still lingered outside came a cheer. Tom Reade sprang to the nearest door, throwing it open.

"Listen!" he shouted.

The sound that had started the crowd to cheering was repeated again.

_Too-oo-oo-oot_!

"It's the train!" cried Reade joyously. "It can't be more than two or three miles below here, either. It will get through on time!"

With nine minutes to spare, the train rolled into the station at Lineville. It was not the same train that had left Stormburg, for that train had been halted, safely, just before reaching the scene of the disastrous blow-out. At that point the pa.s.sengers had alighted and had been conducted on foot to the other side of the gap caused by the explosion. Here Hazelton's Lineville special stood ready to convey them into Lineville. So the road had been legally opened, since the pa.s.sengers from Stormburg---among whom was the lieutenant governor of the state had been brought all the way through over the line. Within the meaning of the law a through train had been operated over the new line, and within charter time.

The S.B. & L. had won! It had saved its charter. On the morrow, in Wall Street, the value of the road's stock jumped by some millions of dollars.

Let us not forget the pilot train. That returned to Lineville in the rear of the pa.s.senger train. Though the pilot train had a conductor, Harry Hazelton was in real charge.

"Look whom we have here, Tom!" called Harry from the open side door of the baggage car, as Reade raced up to greet his successful chum.

A man, bandaged, injured and groaning, lay on the floor of the baggage car.

"Why, it's Naughty Peter, himself!" cried Tom. "Peter, I'm sorry to find you in this shape. I am afraid you have been misbehaving."

"We found him not far from the track, near the blow-out," Hazelton explained. "Whether he attended to that bit of bad work all alone, or whether his companions believed him dead and fled for their own safety, I can't learn. Bad Pete won't say a word. He was unconscious when we first discovered him. Now he knows what's going on around him, but he's too badly hurt to do more than hold his tongue."

It was only when Bad Pete recovered his health---in jail---and found himself facing a long term in prison, that he was ready to open his mouth. He could tell nothing, however, beyond confessing that he and three other men, including an operator, had attended to the blow-out. Pete had no knowledge of the real parties behind the plot. He knew only that he had acted under 'Gene Blanks orders.

So Bad Pete was shown no mercy, but sent behind the bars for a term of twenty-five years. Owing to Black's stubborn silence the outrages were never traced back to any official of the W.C.

& A.

'Gene Black was sentenced to prison for thirty years. The other rascals, who had worked under his direction, all received long terms.

The student engineers, wholly happy and well paid, returned to their college.