As Rod was about to reply there came a sound of galloping horses and a shout from the place where he had left Juniper fastened to a fence post.

"There he is!"

"Now we've got him!"

"Throw up your hands, you scoundrel!"

"Don't you dare draw a pistol or we'll fill you full of holes!"

These and a score of similar cries came to the ears of the bewildered lad as half a dozen hors.e.m.e.n dashed up to the front gate, and four of them, leaping to the ground, ran towards him while the others held the horses.

He was too astonished even to remonstrate, and as they seized him he submitted to the indignity as quietly as one who is dazed.

The woman in the doorway regarded this startling scene with amazement.

When in answer to her eager questions the new-comers told her that the young desperado whom she had so nearly admitted to her house was a horse-thief, who, but a short time before, had stolen the animal now tied to her front fence, at the point of a revolver from the man who was leading him to water, she said she wouldn't have believed that such a mere boy could be so great a villian.

"It's the truth though," affirmed the man who acted as spokesman. "Isn't it, Al?"

"Yes, siree," replied Al, a heavy-looking young farm hand. "An more 'n that, he fired at me too afore I'd give up the 'orse. Oh, yes, he's a bad un, young as he looks, an hangin' wouldn't be none too good for him."

"I did nothing of the kind!" cried Rod, indignantly, now finding a chance to speak. "This is an outrage, and----"

"Is this the fellow, Al?" asked the spokesman, interrupting the young brakeman's vehement protest.

"Of course it is. I'd know him anywhere by that bag slung over his shoulders, an he's got pistols in his pockets, too."

"Yes, here they are," replied the leader, thrusting his hands into Rod's coat pockets and drawing forth the two revolvers. "Oh, there's no use talking, young man. The proof against you is too strong. The only thing for you to do is to come along quietly and make the best of the situation.

Horse thieves have been getting altogether too plenty in this part of the country of late, and we've been laying for one to make an example of for more 'n a week now. Its mighty lucky for you that you didn't tackle an armed man instead of Al there, this morning. If you had you'd have got a bullet instead of a horse."

"But I tell you," cried Rod, "that I took those things from a man who was flung from that horse back here in the road about a mile. He is----"

"I haven't any doubt that you took them," interrupted the man, grimly, "the same as you took the horse."

"And I only made use of the horse to obtain a.s.sistance for him the more quickly," continued Rod. "I left him stunned by his fall, and he may be dead by this time. He will be soon, anyway, if some one doesn't go to him, and then you'll be murderers, that's what you'll be."

"Let us examine this bag that you admit you took from somebody without his permission, and see what it contains," said the man quietly, paying no heed to the lad's statement. So saying, he opened the satchel that still hung from Rod's shoulders. At the sight of its contents he uttered an exclamation of amazement.

"Well, if this don't beat anything I ever heard of!"

The others crowded eagerly about him.

"Whew! look at the greenbacks!" cried one.

"And gold!" shouted another.

"He must have robbed a bank!"

"There'll be a big reward offered for this chap."

"He's a more desperate character than we thought."

"A regular jail-bird!"

"There's blood on some of these bills!"

"He ought to be tied."

This last sentiment met with such general approval that some one produced a bit of rope, and in another moment poor Rod's hands were securely bound together behind him.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE TRAIN ROBBER LEARNS OF ROD'S ARREST.

"I tell you the man who did it all is lying back there in the road!"

screamed Rod, furious with indignation at this outrage and almost sobbing with the bitterness of his distress. "He is a train robber, and I'm a pa.s.senger brakeman on the New York and Western road. He made an escape and I was chasing him."

"Just listen to that now," said one of the men jeeringly. "It's more than likely you are the train robber yourself."

"Looks like a brakeman, doesn't he?" sneered another, "especially as they are all obliged to wear a uniform when on duty."

"He's a nice big party of men, he is. Just such a one as the railroad folks would collect and send in pursuit of a train robber," remarked the leader ironically. "Oh, no, my lad, that's too thin. If you must tell lies I'd advise you to invent some that folks might have a living chance of believing."

"It's not a lie!" declared Rod earnestly and almost calmly; for though his face was quite pale with suppressed excitement, he was regaining control of his voice. "It's the solemn truth and I'm willing to swear to it."

"Oh, hush, sonny, don't swear. That would be naughty," remonstrated one of the men, mockingly.

Without noticing him, Rod continued: "If you will only take me back about a mile on the road I will show you the real train robber, and so prove that part of my story. Then at Millbank I can prove the rest."

"Look here, young fellow," said the leader, harshly, "why will you persist in such nonsense? We have just came over that part of the road and we didn't see anything of any man lying in it."

"Because I dragged him to one side," explained Rod.

"Oh, well, you'll have a chance to show us your man if you can find him, for we are going to take you back that way anyhow. Come on, fellows, let's be moving. The sooner we get this young horse-thief behind bolts and bars the sooner we'll be rid of an awkward responsibility."

So poor Rod, still bound, was placed on Juniper's back, and, with one man on each side of him, two in front and two behind, rode unhappily back over the road that he had traversed on an errand of mercy but a short time before.

As the little group disappeared, the woman in whose front yard this exciting arrest had been made turned to hasten the preparations for her children's breakfast that she might the sooner visit her nearest neighbors and tell them of these wonderful happenings. She was filled with the belief that she had had a most remarkable escape, and was eager to have her theory confirmed.

When she finally reached her neighbor's house and burst in upon them breathless and unannounced, she was somewhat taken aback to see a strange young man, wearing a pair of smoked gla.s.ses and having a very pale face, sitting at breakfast with them. The woman of the house informed her in a whisper, that he was a poor theological student making his way on foot back to college in order to save travelling expenses, and though he had only stopped to ask for a gla.s.s of water they had insisted upon his taking breakfast with them.

Then the visitor unburdened herself of her budget of startling news, ending up with: "An' I knew he was a desp'rate character the minit I set eyes onto him, for I'm a master-hand at reading faces, I am. Why, sir,"

here she turned to the pale student by whose evident interest in her story she was greatly flattered, "I could no more take him for the honest lad he claimed to be than I would take you for a train robber. No, indeed. A face is like a printed page to me every time and I'm not likely to be fooled, I can tell you."

"It is truly a wonderful gift," murmured the young man as he rose from the table and started to leave the house, excusing his haste on the plea of having a long distance still to travel.