n outrage, and----"

"Is this the fellow, Al?" asked the spokesman, interrupting the young
brakeman's vehement protest.

"Of course it is. I'd know him anywhere by that bag slung over his
shoulders, an he's got pistols in his pockets, too."

"Yes, here they are," replied the leader, thrusting his hands into Rod's
coat pockets and drawing forth the two revolvers. "Oh, there's no use
talking, young man. The proof against you is too strong. The only thing
for you to do is to come along quietly and make the best of the situation.
Horse thieves have been getting altogether too plenty in this part of the
country of late, and we've been laying for one to make an example of for
more 'n a week now. Its mighty lucky for you that you didn't tackle an
armed man instead of Al there, this morning. If you had you'd have got a
bullet instead of a horse."

"But I tell you," cried Rod, "that I took those things from a man who was
flung from that horse back here in the road about a mile. He is----"

"I haven't any doubt that you took them," interrupted the man, grimly,
"the same as you took the horse."

"And I only made use of the horse to obtain assistance for him the more
quickly," continued Rod. "I left him stunned by his fall, and he may be
dead by this time. He will be soon, anyway, if some one doesn't go to him,
and then you'll be murderers, that's what you'll be."

"Let us examine this bag that you admit you took from somebody without his
permission, and see what it contains," said the man quietly, paying no
heed to the lad's statement. So saying, he opened the satchel that still
hung from Rod's shoulders. At the sight of its contents he uttered an
exclamation of amazement.

"Well, if this don't beat anything I ever heard of!"

The others crowded eagerly about him.

"Whew! look at the greenbacks!" cried one.

"And gold!" shouted another.

"He must have robbed a bank!"

"There'll be a big reward offered for this chap."

"He's a more desperate character than we thought."

"A regular jail-bird!"

"There's blood on some of these bills!"

"He ought to be tied."

This last sentiment met with such general approval that some one produced
a bit of rope, and in another moment poor Rod's hands were securely bound
together behind him.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE TRAIN ROBBER LEARNS OF ROD'S ARREST.

"I tell you the man who did it all is lying back there in the road!"
screamed Rod, furious with indignation at this outr