over hand Ted climbed steadily, until at last he reached the car
and looked over the edge of it.

Riley's back was toward him, and noiselessly Ted slipped over the side
and into the basket.

Then the midget happened to turn his head, and saw Ted and uttered a
frightened cry, which brought Riley around so that he found himself
looking into the cold, dark bore of Ted's forty-four.

"Got you!" said Ted coolly.

"How did you get here?" said Riley, trying to smile. "If I'd known that
you wanted to come I'd have waited for you."

"I don't think," said Ted. "But now we'll go down."

"No, I've got to give the people a run for their money. We must go a
little farther."

"I said we'd go down."

"But we can't until the gas gets cool and exhausts. I have no escape
valve."

"Then I'll shoot a hole in the bag. I guess we'll go down then."

"For Heaven's sake, don't do that! You'd blow us all to pieces."

"Then down with her. I mean what I say."

Riley looked at Ted for a moment, then pulled a string. There followed a
hissing noise, and the balloon began to sink, slowly at first, then more
rapidly.

Ted did not dare take his eyes off Riley to see how close they were to
the ground. But he heard the Moon Valley long yell, and knew that they
were near the earth, and that Bud Morgan was not far away.

Suddenly the car bumped on the ground, bounced and struck again, then
stopped, and Ted heard Bud's cheerful voice right behind him.

"Jumpin' sand hills, so yer got him, eh? Come, climb out," said Bud to
Riley, "we need yer on terry firmy."

"Cover him, Bud, while I search him. If he makes a break, kill him. He's
an ex-convict, so don't take any chances with him," said Ted.

Riley yielded up a gun and a knife and then he was hustled out of the
car, with the midget still clinging to him, and Ted took charge of the
tin box.

Billy Sudden and some of his men had come up, and so had Ben and Kit,
and Riley was conducted back to the ranch house strongly guarded.

Once inside with their prisoners and the boys, Ted closed the doors on
the curious crowd. The first thing he did was to open the tin box. On
top were the packages of bills stolen from the cubby-hole, and beneath
it a large amount of money and the bonds taken from the Strongburg
Trust Company, as well as registered letters from which the money had
not yet been extracted, and a large amount of brand-new treasury notes
which answered the description of the government