rror. The interior of the
car was spattered with blood. On the floor, half hidden beneath a pile of
packages, lay the messenger, still alive but unconscious and bleeding from
half a dozen wounds. The brave right hand that had tried to pull the
bell cord had been shattered by a pistol ball, and the messenger's own
Winchester lay on the floor beside him. Broken packages that had contained
money, jewelry, and other valuables were scattered in every direction,
while the open safe from which they had come was as empty as the day it
was made.

The trainmen became furious as one after another of these mute witnesses
told of the outrages so recently perpetrated, and swore vengeance on the
robber when they should catch him. They ransacked every corner of the car,
but search as they might they could discover no trace of his presence nor
of the method of his flight. The man had left the car as he had entered it
taking the precaution of removing his rope ladder as he went.

The baffled searchers had just reached the conclusion that he must have
leaped from the train in spite of its speed and of Conductor Tobin's
watchfulness, when Rod, who from his position in the doorway could look
over the heads of the crowd surrounding the car called out:

"Stop that man! The one with a leather bag slung over his shoulder! Stop
him! Stop thief! He is the robber!"

In the glare of an electric light that happened to shine full upon him for
a moment, Rod had seen the man walk away from the forward end of the car
next ahead of the one they were searching as though he had just left it.
He was not noticed by the bystanders as all eyes were directed toward the
door of the money car. To the young brakeman his figure and the stout
leather bag that he carried seemed familiar. As he looked, the man raised
a kid-gloved hand to shift the position of his satchel, and from it shot
the momentary flash of a diamond. With Rod this was enough to at once
establish the man's identity. Although he no longer wore smoked glasses
Rod knew him to be the man who, pretending partial blindness, had first
boarded the Express Special, then taken passage on the "Limited," and whom
he had seen on the platform of the last station at which they had stopped.
How could he have reached Millbank? He must have come by the Express
Special, and so must be connected with its robbery.

All these thoughts darted through Rod's head like a flash of lightning,
and as he uttered his shouts