you please, Mr. Tony," he laughed as he
turned away.

When Alex had covered half the distance in returning to the viaduct he
began keeping a sharp lookout ahead for the returning of the Italian and
his companion. He was within a hundred yards of the great white structure
when he discovered them. Turning aside, he concealed himself behind a
small spruce.

With no apprehension of danger Alex waited, and the two men came
opposite. Suddenly, without a motion of warning, the two turned and
darted toward him, one on either side of the tree. Before Alex had
recovered from his astonishment he found himself seized on either side,
and threateningly ordered to be silent.

They dragged him on some distance, then into the moonlight. "Why, it's
one of the fellows who captured Bucks on Sunday!" declared the cowboy.
"What are you doing here, boy?" he demanded angrily.

"I was out for a moonlight stroll," Alex responded, stifling his
apprehension.

"Why did you hide behind that tree, then?"

"Well--perhaps I was afraid," said Alex vaguely. "There are some rough
people here among the foreign laborers."

As he spoke Alex noted with new alarm that the Italian was regarding him
sharply. He turned his back more fully to the moonlight. Immediately he
chided himself for his stupidity. The move emphasized the struggling
sense of recognition in the Italian's mind, he smartly turned Alex's face
full to the moon, and uttered a cry in Italian.

"Now I know! I know!" he cried exultingly. "I know heem before! And he a
spy! A boy spy!"

Rapidly he gave the stranger a distorted account of the strike at Bixton,
and Alex's part in his final discomfiture.

The cowman listened closely. "Is that so, boy?" he demanded.

"Partly. But it was not a strike. It was a simple piece of murderous
revenge against one man, the section-foreman. And I helped spoil it."

"Good. That's all I want to know," said the cowboy with decision. "Not
that I care one way or the other about the affair itself. It shows you
are a dangerous man to leave around loose. I'll just take you along with
me. Come on!"

"Come? Where?" said Alex, holding back in alarm.

"Never mind! Just come!" Securing a new hold on Alex's arms, the speaker
and the Italian dragged him with them back down the gorge.

As they neared the spot at which the dynamite was supposed to be safely
hidden, the stranger halted abruptly, studied Alex intently a moment,
then sent Big Tony on ahead, after a w