ed the station
agent. So to the waiting-room the prisoners were hustled with scant
ceremony. As yet no one knew what they had done, nor even what they were
charged with doing; but every one agreed that they were two of the
toughest looking young villains ever seen in that part of the country.

During the confusion, no one had paid any attention to the arrival, from
the west, of a locomotive drawing a single car. Nor did they notice a
brisk, business-like appearing man who left this car, and walked, with
a quick step, toward the waiting-room. Every one therefore looked up in
surprise when he entered it and demanded, in a tone of authority, "What's
the trouble here?"

Instantly a murmur was heard of, "It's the superintendent. It's the
'super' himself"; and, as the crowd respectfully made way for him, a dozen
of voices were raised in attempted explanation of what had happened. As no
one really knew what had happened, no two of the voices told the same
story; but the superintendent catching the words "murderers, thieves,
tramps, brakeman killed, and car robbed," became convinced that he had a
most serious case on his hands, and that the disreputable-looking young
fellows before him must be exceedingly dangerous characters. In order to
arrive at an understanding of the case more quickly, he ordered the room
to be cleared of all except the prisoners, the station agent, and the
trainmen of Freight Number 73, whom he told to guard the doors.

He first examined the conductor, who was as surprised as any one else to
find that he had been carrying two passengers of whom he knew nothing on
his train. He had no information to give, excepting what Conductor Tobin
had told him, and what the superintendent had already learned by
telegraph, of Brakeman Joe's condition. The other trainmen knew nothing
more.

The station agent told of the despatch he had received, of the finding of
the lads in car number 50, and that its contents were apparently
untouched.

Here the superintendent dismissed the trainmen, and ordered Freight Number
73 to go ahead. Then, with new guards stationed at the doors, he proceeded
to question the prisoners themselves. As Bill, the tramp, seemed to be the
elder of the two, he was the first examined. In answer to the questions
who he was, where he came from, and what he had been doing in car number
50, Bill said, with exactly the manner he would have used in addressing a
Police Justice:

"Please yer Honor we's