me. A
couple of railway officials had left the station and were hurrying
towards them.

A sudden thought struck Anderson. He held up his hand with a gesture as
though to ask Lady Merton not to follow, and himself ran back to
the station.

Elizabeth, from where she stood, saw the passengers all pouring out of
the train on to the platform. Even Philip emerged and waved to her. She
slowly returned, and meanwhile Anderson had disappeared.

She found an excited crowd of travellers and a babel of noise. Delaine
hurried to her.

It appeared that an extraordinary thing had happened. The train
immediately in front of them, carrying mail and express cars but no
passengers, had been "held up" by a gang of train-robbers, at a spot
between Sicamous junction and Kamloops. In order to break open the mail
van the robbers had employed a charge of dynamite, which had wrecked
the car and caused some damage to the line; enough to block the
permanent way for some hours.

"And Philip has just opened this telegram for you."

Delaine handed it to her. It was from the District Superintendent,
expressing great regret for the interruption to their journey, and
suggesting that they should spend the night at the hotel at Glacier.

"Which I understand is only four miles off, the other side of the pass,"
said Delaine. "Was there ever anything more annoying!"

Elizabeth's face expressed an utter bewilderment.

"A train held up in Canada--and on the C.P.R.--impossible!"

An elderly man in front of her heard what she said, and turned upon her
a face purple with wrath.

"You may well say that, madam! We are a law-abiding nation. We don't put
up with the pranks they play in Montana. They say the scoundrels have
got off. If we don't catch them, Canada's disgraced."

"I say, Elizabeth," cried Philip, pushing his way to her through the
crowd, "there's been a lot of shooting. There's some Mounted Police
here, we picked up at Revelstoke, on their way to help catch these
fellows. I've been talking to them. The police from Kamloops came upon
them just as they were making off with a pretty pile--boxes full of
money for some of the banks in Vancouver. The police fired, so did the
robbers. One of the police was killed, and one of the thieves. Then the
rest got off. I say, let's go and help hunt them!"

The boy's eyes danced with the joy of adventure.

"If they've any sense they'll send bloodhounds after them," said the
elderly man, fiercely. "I he