Determinedly he continued to strain and pull, however, and presently, losing his balance, he rolled over on his side, and something hard pressed into his chest.

The dagger he had picked up! Quickly he saw the possibility of using it.

Working again into a sitting position, he bent low and sought to reach inside his coat and seize the hilt of the knife with his teeth. But as often as he reached, the coat swung, and the hilt evaded him.

Jack was not to be beaten, however. Getting to his knees, he bent far over, until his head almost touched the floor, and fell vigorously to shaking himself. At the second effort the dagger slipped out to the floor. Quickly then he got a firm hold on the end of the handle with his teeth, struggled again to a sitting position, drew his knees up as far as possible, and bending low between them, began stabbing at the handkerchief about his ankles with the point of the weapon.

At the first attempt the knife barely touched the handkerchief. He tried again, and just reached it. Throwing his head far back, to gain momentum, he lunged forward with all his strength. The keen point struck the linen squarely, there was a rip and tear--and his feet were free.

As the severed handkerchief fell from his ankles, the dagger, slipping from Jack's teeth, clattered to the floor. But the noisy discussion still going on without prevented its being heard; and promptly Jack turned to the problem of freeing his hands.

As they were tied behind him, this promised to be far more difficult.

Indeed Jack's courage was beginning to fail him, when the method of freeing his ankles suggested a possibility. At once he essayed it. Rising to a kneeling position, he strained at his wrists for several minutes, then, bending far over, began working his hands down beneath him.

It seemed as though they would never come, and again and again he had to pause for breath. Desperately he continued, and suddenly at last they slipped, and were under him, directly below his knees.

Throwing himself over on his side, he once more grasped the dagger hilt in his teeth, and as he lay, carefully aimed the point between his legs at the cord about his wrists, and gave a quick, hard thrust. At the first blow he struck the cord fairly, but only half severed the strand. Again he lunged, and the next moment he was free.

The heated debate was still in progress in the outer room, and nearly exhausted though he was, Jack immediately scrambled to his feet and tiptoed to the window. To his joy he discovered it was made of a sliding frame, only fastened by a loosely-driven nail. It required but a few minutes' work to remove this, and very cautiously he began sliding the window back.

Half way it went easily, without noise. Then it stuck. Carefully Jack put his shoulder to it. Suddenly, without warning, it gave, then stopped with a jar, and to his horror a broken pane shot from the frame and fell clattering to the floor.

From the other room came a shout and a rush of feet. In desperation Jack stepped back, and with a run fairly dove at the opening. His head and shoulders pa.s.sed through, then he stuck. Behind him the door flew open.

With a desperate wriggle he struggled through, and fell in a heap to the ground just as the negro reached the window and made a wild lunge for him. The next moment Jack was on his feet and off across the clearing like a hare.

The four lawbreakers were quickly out of the house in full chase.

Presently there was the report of a pistol, and a shrill "wheeeu" just over Jack's head. Ducking instinctively, but with grimly set lips, he rushed on. Again came the whine of a bullet, and again. With a final sprint Jack reached the cover of the woods in safety, darted to the brush-pile and recovered his camera, and on, straight through the trees for the spot at which he had hidden his wheel.

Love of outdoor life and sports now stood Jack in good stead. Despite the exhausting efforts of his escape, and the hard running amid the trees, over trunks and through undergrowth, he kept on at the top of his speed, and finally reached the road ahead of the nearest of his pursuers.

Rushing for his wheel, he dragged it forth, and quickly had it on the road. Not a moment too soon. As he sprang into the saddle there was a shout and a crash of bushes but a few feet from him. But throwing all his weight on the pedals, he shot away, and a moment after sped about a bend in the road--and was safe.

Jack would not have been a real boy had there not been considerable pride in his voice when, entering the "Star" office the following morning, he handed West, the reporter, two small photographs, neatly mounted, and said:

"Here are the pictures, Mr. West."

West sprang to his feet. "No! Great! Splendid!" he cried. "How did you do it, Jack?

"But here--" Pushing Jack into a chair, he dropped back into his own, and caught up a pencil. "Give me the whole story, from beginning to end. If the police round up these fellows this morning we will run it in to-day's edition."

This, with the aid of Jack's snap-shots, the police did, capturing the entire band; and that afternoon's edition of the "Star" carried a two-column story of Jack's adventure with the Black-Handers, which, with the pictures, made what West declared "the biggest story of a month of Sundays."

X

A RUNAWAY TRAIN

"Hurry in, Ward, or the lamp will be out!"

Alex, who had now been night operator at Foothills six months, closed the station door behind him, and laughingly flicked his rain-soaked cap toward the day operator, whom he had just come to relieve.

"Is it raining that hard? You look like a drowned rat for sure," said Saunders as he reached for his hat and coat. "Why didn't you stay at home, and 'phone down? I would have been glad to work for you--not."

"Wait until you are out in it, and you'll not laugh," declared Alex, struggling out of his dripping ulster. "It is the worst storm this spring."

"And wait until you see the fun you are going to have with the wire to-night, and you'll not indulge in an over-abundance of smiles. I haven't had a dot from the despatcher since six o'clock. Had to get clearance for Nineteen around by MQ, and now we've lost them."

"There is someone now," said Alex, as the instruments began clicking.

"It's somebody west. IC, I think. Yes; Indian Canyon," said Saunders, pausing as he turned to the door. "What is he after? He certainly can't make himself heard by X if we can't."

"X, X, X," rapidly repeated the sounder, calling Exeter, the despatching office. "X, X, X! Qk!"

Alex and Saunders looked at one another with a start. Several times the operator at Indian Canyon repeated the call, more urgently, then as hurriedly began calling Imken, the next station east of him.

"There must be something wrong," declared Alex, stepping to the instrument table. Saunders followed him.

"IM, IM, IC, Qk! Qk!" clicked the sounder.

"IM, IM--"

"I, I, IM," came the response, and the two operators at Foothills listened closely.

"A wild string of loaded ore cars just pa.s.sed here," buzzed the instruments. "Were going forty miles an hour. They'll be down there in no time. If there's anything on the main line get it off. I can't raise X for orders."

The two listening operators exchanged glances of alarm, and anxiously awaited Imken's response. For a moment the sounder made a succession of inarticulate dots, then ticked excitedly, "Yes, yes! OK! OK!" and closed.

"What did he mean by that?" asked Saunders beneath his breath. "That there was something on the main track there?"

"Perhaps a switch engine cutting out ore empties. We'll know in a minute."

The wire again snapped open, and whirred, "I got it off--the yard engine!

Just in time! Here they come now! Like thunder!

"There--they're by! Are ten of them. All loaded. Going like an avalanche.

Lucky thing the yard engine was--"

Sharply the operator at Indian Canyon broke in to hurriedly call Terryville, the next station east.

"But the runaways won't pa.s.s Terryville, will they?" Alex exclaimed.

"Won't the grades between there and Imken pull them up?"

Saunders shook his head. "Ten loaded ore cars travelling at that rate would climb those grades."

"Then they will be down here--and in twenty or thirty minutes! And there's the Accommodation coming from the east," said Alex rapidly, "and we can't reach anyone to stop her!"

Saunders stared. "That's so. I'd forgotten her. But what can we do?" he demanded helplessly.