which the
mist had now become. Injun slowly put on his shirt. It was nothing but a
garment now, no heroic rescue signal.

"I'll bet that clock at the ranch was wrong. It always is. I might have
known it," Whitey said dejectedly. The thought of the loss of the gold
was forgotten in his disappointment at failure. "I hope no one was
hurt--I mean none of the trainmen or passengers," he added. "But I
guess not. Those bandits had the drop on them, and they couldn't have
put up much of a fight. How do you suppose we heard those shots? We must
be at least a mile from the tank.

"Him fog," Injun answered. "Hear plain." And it is true that fog has a
way of conveying sound.

An idea brought Whitey to his feet with a leap. "What fools we are to be
sitting here!" he cried. "We'll follow those robbers. The people on the
train won't do that. They've no horses."

Here, indeed, was a brilliant thought. The boys could track the bandits
to their hiding-place, and possibly recover the ore. At least, they
could return and report where the men had gone. There was a chance to
distinguish themselves yet. In a moment they were mounted and dashing
down along the track, toward the water tank.

Presently a shrill whistle was followed by the faint rumbling of the
train as it resumed its way. "See?" yelled Whitey. "The train's just
starting. We won't be very late, and the men's tracks will be plain.
Gee! I hope it doesn't rain."

A few minutes' ride brought the boys to the deserted water tank. They
dismounted to pick up the trail of the robbers. Near the tank, where the
express car must have stood, were the traces of many feet. There were
others leading from the cars in the rear. Noting these, Whitey said:
"Mebbe they held up the passengers, too. It's likely that they would."

But, singularly enough, most of these tracks led on toward the high
bridge which spanned the gully. The boys followed them curiously, and
when they reached the bridge Injun stopped.

"Huh! Go back again, too," he muttered. And sure enough in the maze of
footprints many seemed to lead back toward the water tank.

"Why do you s'pose they went to the bridge? Prob'ly to see if it was
safe; that the robbers hadn't damaged it," Whitey said.

"Mebbe," said Injun, who was figuring things out in his own way and
seldom spoke until he had them figured.

From the scramble of footprints near the tank, Injun picked out those
of three pairs that diverged from the mass. Injun tr