"Mebbe he comes searching for us," suggested Dillon.

"Mebbe so. Ef he does, we has to deceive him."

"He gits a whole lot hot, I judge."

"You bet he does. And when he is hot we wants to keep our eyes peeled for a ruction."

"That's whatever."

Although d.i.c.k listened a long time after this, the conversation of the ruffians seemed of no particular importance. Finally they ceased talking, and evidently one of them at least prepared to sleep. d.i.c.k arose and returned to the bunk, where he lay trying to devise some possible method of escape. Scores of wild plans flittered through his brain, but he realized that none of them were practical.

"If I could get word to Frank," he thought. "But how can it be done--how can it be done?"

Such a thing seemed impossible. At last he became drowsy and realized that he was sinking off to sleep, in spite of his unpleasant position.

He was fully awakened at last by sudden sounds in the outer room. There came a heavy hammering at the door, followed by the voice of one of d.i.c.k's captors demanding to know who was there. d.i.c.k sat upright on the bunk, his nerves tingling as he thought of the possibility that the ruffians had been followed by a party of rescuers, who were now at hand.

The one who was knocking seemed to satisfy the men within, for d.i.c.k knew the door was flung open. He swiftly crossed the floor and lay again with his ear near the crack beneath the door.

"Well, you two are a fine bunch!" declared a hoa.r.s.e voice that seemed full of anger. "You keeps your dates a heap well, don't yer! Oh, yes, yer two nice birds, you are!"

This was the voice of the newcomer.

"Howdy, Dan?" said Mat. "We thinks mebbe yer comes around this yere way."

"Oh, yer does, does yer?" snarled the one called Dan. "Why does yer think that so brightlike? Why does yer reckon that when you agrees ter meet me at Win'mill Station I comes here to find you five miles away?

That's what I'd like to know."

"Windmill Station," d.i.c.k said to himself. "Five miles from Windmill Station, and Windmill Station is some twelve or fifteen miles north of Prescott."

"You seems excited, Dan," said Mat, in what was intended to be a soothing manner. "Mebbe we has reasons why we didn't meet you any."

"Reasons! If you has, spit 'em out."

"Yes, we has reasons," quickly put in Dillon. "Dan, we finds we is watched a whole lot. We finds somebody suspects that little game we plans."

"Is that so?" demanded the newcomer, with a sneering doubt in his voice.

"That's what it is," a.s.serted Mat. "We don't have a chance to move much without being watched, and so we reckons we does best to drop this little job for the time being."

"Is that so?" sneered Dan.

"Didn't we say it was?" indignantly demanded Dillon. "You hears us, I judge."

"Now, who is it what watches you so closelike?" questioned the dissatisfied man. "Mebbe you tells me that."

"We don't know just who it is, but we has been followed for the last two days. You know a hold-up down on the Southern Pacific gits people suspicious. Mebbe they thinks we had a hand in that."

"Which we didn't have any at all," hastily put in Mat.

"So you two fine chaps takes water?" contemptuously cried Dan. "You throws up a chance to make a good thing? Why, it was a snap! We could 'a' stopped the train, gone through her, and then hiked it for Mexico hot foot, and the Old Boy hisself wouldn't 'a' ketched us."

"Mebbe not," admitted one of the other men. "But we opines it would 'a'

been a whole lot bad for us if the holding up had been expected. Look here, Dan, we thinks it right and proper to put this thing off some. We thinks mebbe in a week or so we is in fer it."

"Oh, that's how you figgers. Why didn't you let me know about it any?

That's what I'd like ter have yer explain. You leaves me a-waiting and a-watching fer yer while you bunks down yere all ca'm and serene-like.

That's what sores me to the limit."

"We thinks," said Mat, "if we goes to meet you, mebbe we is seen, and that makes more suspicions. We thinks the best thing to do is to lay low. We're right sorry that we couldn't keep the app'intment, but it happens that way, and there is nothing else fer it."

"Well, it is evident ter me that you two are squealers. You both lack nerve, and I quits you cold. The whole business is off, understand that."

"Well, if you gits hot and quits us that way, we can't help it," said Dillon.

"Well, I does quit. What I wants is my blanket I leaves in yar. I takes that an' gits out, and you two goes to blazes for all of me."

Evidently Dan started for the back room at this moment, and the listening boy prepared to spring away from the door. At the same time d.i.c.k was seized by a sudden determination to attempt a dash for freedom the moment the door was opened. He knew he might not succeed, but there was a slim chance of it, and he decided to take that chance. Both the ruffians on guard, however, were startled when Dan proposed getting his blanket from the back room. Quickly Dillon interposed.

"Hold on, Dan!" he cried. "Never mind that blanket. We fixes that all right with you. Yere is mine. You take that."

Had d.i.c.k been able to see them he would have beheld the newcomer, a huge, pockmarked individual, standing in the centre of the floor, staring at the men before him in no small surprise.

"Why, whatever is this?" asked Dan. "I opine I takes my own blanket."

"But mine is worth more than yours," hastily a.s.serted Dillon.

"And you're a heap anxious ter give it up in place of mine, I sees.

That's right queer. I don't just understand your generosity. It seems mighty curious."

"It's all right, Dan," declared Mat. "Take the blanket."

"Not by a blamed sight," roared the big man. "I takes my own blanket. I goes into that room. I sees what you has in there."

As he said this, he suddenly whipped out a long revolver, with which he menaced the man who attempted to bar his progress.

"Get out of the way," he commanded, "or I furnishes funeral stock for the undertaker."

"He's coming!" whispered d.i.c.k. "They can't stop him!"

The boy rose to his hands and knees, where he listened a moment more. He heard the men on guard protesting, but their protestations availed nothing, and a moment later a hand was on the door.

d.i.c.k sprang up. The bar that held the door fell, and it was flung open.

With a spring, d.i.c.k was out into the lighted room, bending low and striking the man with the revolver like a battering-ram full and fair in the pit of the stomach, bowling him over. As Dan went down, his fingers contracted on the trigger of the pistol, and a shot rang out.

CHAPTER XXVI.