ff to the side of
the track into the darkness. Now, all firing stopped, for all weapons
were empty.

"I hope that other scoundrel didn't get the major!" throbbed Hal
anxiously.

Yet he couldn't go to see. He had his own work on this side of the
train.

"Where are our pair?" whispered Noll, creeping closer.

"I don't know," Hal answered, also in a whisper. "But crawl off a little
way. Bunching together gives 'em a better mark to hit."

Lying flat on the ground, both recruits played the waiting game.

Had the pair ahead stolen off altogether in the darkness?

"I'll wait a few moments," Hal decided. "Then, if I don't hear from the
scoundrels, I'll cross over to see what has happened to Major Davis."

Crack! crack! crack! The vanished pair of train robbers were opening
fire again, from behind a boulder that sheltered them admirably. Hal and
Noll had no protection other than they could get from lying close to the
ground. But they answered the fire briskly.

Crack! crack! crack! As fast as revolvers were emptied the marksmen
reloaded and again began firing. In daylight the execution would have
been swifter, but all hits made in black darkness are made by the grace
of luck.

In the first place the only target anyone in the combat had was the
flash of an opponent's pistol.

The train robbers behind the ledge changed their positions after nearly
every shot. And Hal and Noll, after the warm, uncomfortable experience
of having bullets fan their faces persistently, found it advisable to
crouch low and dart here and there, firing from new positions.

All this time the scores of people on the train were sitting in
terrified silence. Passengers or train crews rarely interfere in a case
of this kind.

Not even the train's lights aided either side, for the two young
recruits had taken pains to close in on the ledge sufficiently to escape
illumination by the train's lights.

Crack! crack! crack! This was a new note, coming from past the forward
end of the ledge.

Almost in the same instant a howl sounded from behind the barrier of
rock.

Then another voice was heard, shouting.

"Hold on! We surrender! Stop the shooting!"

Instantly this hail was answered by another. It sounded good to the
young recruits as Major Davis roared from behind the forward end of the
ledge:

"Then throw up your hands, keep them up, and walk into the train light
where we can see you."

"You won't shoot?" demanded the voice of the surre