htning speed both
were rolled over and bound.

From the tents of the laborers, beyond hoarse voices sounded as the men
were awakened by the shots.

"Get back there, you idiots!" commanded a voice outside. "If you don't,
you'll think that a Gatling gun factory has blown up about your ears."

Reports rang out sharply as a dozen revolver shots were fired into the
air.

Now, dazed with the suddenness of the attack, Reade and Hazelton were
dragged into the open.

Their two night watchmen, who had gone down bravely, now lay wounded on
the ground, their weapons snatched from them.

"Hoist 'em along, boys," ordered a gruff voice.

Tom and Harry were carried on the shoulders of men, and moved along at
a swift pace. Only half a dozen of the raiders needed to remain somewhat
in the rear, firing an occasional shot to prevent the unarmed laborers
from swarming to the attack.

"Hoist 'em up! Tie 'em on! Get under way quick! There'll be a big noise
raised after us soon," declared the same directing voice.

Tom and Harry were fairly thrown upon the backs of horses, and there
lashed fast.

"Mount and get away," ordered the commander of this strangest of night
raids.

Two men, each leading a pony to which a captive was lashed, rode off in
one direction. Groups of two or three rode away in other directions, the
blackness of the night swallowing them up.

It was going to be a difficult task for pursuers to know which direction
to take in order to come up with Reade and Hazelton in time to save them
from the fate that lay just ahead of them!

For audacity and dash the raid could not have been better planned.

From camp not a shot was fired, for the watchmen had had the only
weapons and these had been seized by the invaders.

"Our foremen might telegraph to camp," thought Tom swiftly, as he felt
himself being carried away. "But I'll wager that these smart scoundrels
didn't forget to cut the wire before springing the raid."

For the first two or three minutes Harry's, slower moving mind hardly
grasped more than the fact that their enemies appeared to have won a
complete triumph.

"There isn't much doubt as to what they'll do with us," thought
Hazelton, with a slight shudder. "These rascals will move too fast for
pursuit to overtake them early. What they in intend to do with us can be
done in a very few minutes."

Neither young engineer really expected to live to see daylight. From the
first, after having incurred the a