w
with a face so pale it leaves a white streak in the night."

"Well, it takes him a long time to get here, anyway," admitted Sandy.

"You just wait a minute," Tommy chuckled, "and I'll fix this business all
right. You just tend this skillet until I come back."

Tommy moved away toward where the robber sat on the ground, watching
every move that was made, and keeping a particularly keen eye on Sandy,
whose temporary absence from the camp had attracted his suspicions.

"Look here," Tommy whispered, "we're not anxious to see you boys get
into trouble, and so we're going to give you a tip. Sandy went out a
moment ago to steer away one of the detectives who came in from Chicago
last night."

The hold-up man got softly to his feet and began moving out of the light
of the fire. Tommy urged him by look and a motion to remain where he was
for the present.

"I didn't know that there were any detectives from Chicago in here," he
said. "They must have made a quick jump to get here!"

"I guess they did," replied Tommy. "One of them was here before you were
yesterday. He chased you up the valley, but came back, saying that he
couldn't get a shot."

"Pretty nervy kind of a fellow, eh?" asked the train robber.

"He looks to me," declared Tommy, "as if he'd fight a rattlesnake and
give him the first bite. He may have a swarm of his men in the vicinity
of the camp, and if I were you, I'd turn away to the east and get out of
sight as soon as possible."

"I can't fight a whole army," declared the train robber, as, crouching
low, he moved away.

"Wait a minute," whispered Tommy chuckling so that he was afraid the
other would discover the merriment in his voice. "Why don't you wait and
have some of the supper I've been cooking for you?"

The train robber did not even pause to hear the conclusion of the boy's
remarks, and Tommy went back to the fire and lay down and rolled back
and forth until Sandy threw a cup of water into his face.

"What do you think of that!" he exclaimed. "There's a bum Chicago
detective chasing off to the north at a forty mile gait, because he
thinks there's a train robber after him, and there's a a train robber
chasing off to the east at a forty-mile gait because he thinks there's a
Chicago detective after him! Some day," the boy added, "I'm going to
make a motion picture scenario of that."

While the boys were enjoying the joke, Will and George came out of the
tent where they had been sleeping. Both