A sneering laugh pealed from Mason's lips.

He dug spurs into his horse's flanks, and the brute sprang forward, maddened with pain, and knocked the old detective down.

Over him bounded the horse, and the next moment it went galloping away into the woods a few yards ahead, and vanished.

Harry had been more fortunate.

As soon as he stopped the negro's horse, the black man raised a stick he carried and aimed a blow at the boy's head.

"G'way f'om dar!" he yelled.

Harry bounded out of reach of the blow.

The descending stick hit the horse and it gave a sudden leap that dismounted the man, and went plunging away at a furious rate.

The negro landed on his back on the ground.

In a moment Harry pounced upon him.

Pushing his pistol in the man's face, he cried:

"Surrender, you black fiend, or I'll bore you!"

"Don't shoot, boss!" roared the c.o.o.n, frantically.

"Are you going to submit?"

"Ya.s.sah, ya.s.sah!"

"Without a fight?"

"Fo' sho' I is."

"Roll over on your face."

"Ober I go! Don't fire!" said the c.o.o.n, turning over.

"Now, put your hands on your back."

"Heah dey am, boss!"

And the negro did as he was told.

Out came Harry's handcuffs, "click!" they snapped on his wrists, and in another instant the man was a prisoner.

When Old King Brady reached the boy he was pulling a big navy revolver out of the man's hip pocket.

"Got him, Harry?"

"Safe, Old King Brady."

"Get him upon his feet."

They raised the man, and now got a good square look at him.

He was a short, heavily-built fellow, clad in rags, and had as villainous a face as any they had ever seen.

The man was trembling with fear.

It was plain he was an arrant coward.

When the detectives looked him over, Old King Brady asked him:

"Say, what's your name?"

"Nick Wiffles."

"Where do you live?"

"In de swamp."

"Ain't you the man who built a bonfire on the railroad track some time ago, to stop a train from running into an obstruction?"

"I is."

"And you did it to stop the train?"

"He done telled me ter do it, boss."

"So you could steal a box containing Mr. Dalton's body from the baggage car during the confusion?"

"Dat's about de size ob it."

"And you got Dalton's body out of the box and carried it into the swamp?"

"I did."

"Into the hut?"

"Ya.s.sah."

"Were you alone?"

"All alone."

"When you got the body in the hut, what did you do with it?"

"I ain't a-gwine ter tell yer."