the telegrams which had come in during Sunday for
the morning paper, his chief drew his attention in particular to the
remark at the end of the message, and asked him to make some reference
in his article to the dangers of the Japanese immigration, which seemed
to be going on unhindered over the Mexican and Canadian frontiers. John
Halifax would have preferred to comment editorially on the necessity of
night rest for newspaper men, but settled down in smothered wrath to
write up the highwaymen who had committed the double crime of
desecrating the Sabbath and robbing the train.

But scarcely had he begun his article under the large headlines
"Japanese Bandits--A Danger no longer Confined to the Frontier, but
Stalking about in the Heart of the Country,"--he was just on the point
of setting off Tom's brave deed against the rascality of the bandits,
when another package of telegrams was laid on the table. He was going to
push them irritably aside when his glance fell on the top telegram,
which began with the words, "This morning at ten o'clock the station at
Connell, Wash., was attacked by robbers, who----"

"Hm!" said John Halifax, "there seems to be some connection here, for
they probably meant to hold up the express at Connell, too." He turned
over a few more telegrams; the next message began: "This morning at
eleven o'clock--" and the two following ones: "This morning at twelve
o'clock--" They all reported the holding up of trains, which had in
almost every instance been successful. John Halifax got up, and with the
bundle of telegrams went over to the map hanging on the wall and marked
with a pencil the places where the various attacks had taken place. The
result was an irregular line through the State of Washington running
from north to south, along which the train robbers, apparently working
in unison, had begun their operations at the same time. Nowhere had it
been possible to capture them.

John Halifax threw his article into the waste basket and began again
with the headlines, "A Gang of Train-Robbers at Work in Washington," and
then gave a list of the places where the gang had held up the trains. He
wrote a spirited article, which closed with a warning to the police in
Washington and Oregon to put an end to this state of affairs as soon as
possible, and if necessary to call upon the militia for aid in catching
the bandits. While Halifax was writing, the news was communicated from
the electric bulletin-board to