rs, peering down the
track toward the still retreating form of the little man, over whose
shoulders at regular intervals curled blue puffs of smoke.

Frank had expected that the man would be suspicious and would look round
frequently. He was astonished when the man did not look round at all.

"He doesn't act like a criminal," Frank decided. "He hasn't the air of a
criminal. He walks along as if he had not a care in all the wide world
and did not fear to have all his actions watched. It is strange--very
strange."

Already Merry had learned that men who commit crimes betray themselves
by certain peculiar movements. The thief unconsciously assumes the pose
of a man picking a pocket, or taking what does not belong to him. The
burglar crouches in his walk and steals along catlike. The guilty man
often casts sly backward glances over his shoulder. It is rare for him
to have the air and manner of innocence.

But this little man in gray, when, without doubt, he believed himself to
be alone, was still the same care-free, careless old fellow.

He disappeared into one of the sheds at the end of the railroad. Frank
had slipped yet a little nearer and watched from a place of hiding.

Five minutes passed, and then the man in gray and another man came out
of that shed and took the path that led toward the old boarding house.

Frank uttered a low exclamation.

"Is it possible?" he muttered. "I believe I know that fellow with him."

He watched the companion of the man in gray. As they passed from view,
he again muttered:

"I do know him! He is Dan Hicks, the cock-eyed man! That settles it! Mr.
Caleb Cooler is just what I thought--he is one of the gang, and he came
here to spy upon us!"

Frank ran lightly down the track, hidden by the bank beyond which the
men had disappeared. He stooped as he ran. Ahead of him he saw the point
where Browning had pried up the rails and sent a flat car, loaded with
granite, into the water, thus saving Frank's life. He shuddered as he
thought of his sensations during those terrible moments of peril while
he was bound to the track and could hear the car rumbling toward him.

The bank grew lower till at last he could not keep hidden behind it if
he ran farther down the track. Then he flung himself flat on the bank
and crawled up till he could peer over.

The two men were walking toward the distant boarding house. Hicks was
talking excitedly, while Cooler still smoked. Hicks looked back
suspici