might be sure the enemy were yet in their position,
which was so favorable to the plans of the moonlighters.

"They are all there except the one who drove away some time ago,
and--here comes the other now. He had been for food, and they are
pitching into it as if they were hungry. Now is our time to start. They
will be at their supper for the next half hour, and by the end of that
time we shall be ready to come back for a second load."

Bob looked once more to the fastenings of the doors and windows to be
certain that they could not be loosened by any one from the outside, and
then he cautiously unbarred the window at the back of the house.

Knowing that the detective and all his force were in front, he spent no
time in looking around; but, leaping out, was soon busily engaged in
taking out the cans of glycerine which Jim and Dick handed him.

Less than ten minutes sufficed for this work, and then each member of
the party was out of doors, Ralph with the cartridges over his shoulder
and the go-devil under his arm, while the others carried a can of the
dangerous liquid in each hand.

It had been decided that George, being accustomed to traveling through
the woods in straight lines by his work as engineer, should lead the
party, as the one most likely to keep a direct course, and Ralph had
decided that he would remain as far in the rear as possible; for, when
he saw the boys swinging the terrible explosive around so carelessly, he
felt that the further away one could get from that party the safer they
were.

George was not as much at his ease as he might have been, for he had not
grown familiar with the explosive, as the others had, and he uttered
many a word of caution when they came to those portions of the woods
where the trees stood more thickly together.

Their progress was necessarily slow, owing to the care they were obliged
to use in walking; but before Mr. Newcombe and his friends had finished
their supper, the moonlighters were at Mr. Hoxie's well, where they
found their arrival had long been expected.

Mr. Hoxie could understand, from the manner in which the moonlighters
had come, that they had run some risk of detection in getting there, and
when he learned that they were obliged to make a second trip for more
glycerine, he offered either to accompany them or send some of his men
with them, as they should prefer.

Bob refused all these offers of assistance, however, for he believed
that it was owing