ide and powerful friends who
were keeping them informed as to what trains to rob. In other words, the
thing seems to be a syndicate of robbers operated and directed from a
central point by men of brains and resource."

"An' whar's ther central p'int?"

"St. Louis."

"Ah, I begins ter smell a mice. So yer gradooly led up ter this place,
pretendin' ter sell hosses, eh?"

"No; we'll kill two birds with one stone. We'll sell the horses if we
can get our price for them, and it will be an excellent cloak to hide
our real purpose, which is to try to get next to the headquarters of the
train robbers."

"Good idee. But how aire yer goin' ter go erbout it?"

"To tell you the truth, I haven't an idea. We will have to do our own
scouting. If the chief knew, it is not likely that he would employ us to
find out."

"Thet's so. Well, let's be on ther scout."

"We'll still pose as ranchers with pony stock to sell, and let folks
know it. We'll go over to the stockyards right now."

"All right, but the stunt is ter keep our eyes peeled fer ther
train-robber syndicate's office."

"That's it. One never can tell when he will run onto just the thing he's
looking for when he least expects it."

"We're being shadowed," said Ted, a short time after they had left their
hotel and were walking through the streets toward the bridge that spans
the Mississippi River to East St. Louis.

"How d'yer know?" asked Bud, sending a cautious eye around.

"See that fellow with the checked suit, on the opposite side of the
street?"

"Uh-huh!"

"He's on our trail. Don't give him a hint that we're on to him, and if
he chases us all day he'll see that we are what we represent ourselves
to be, just plain cow-punchers."

"I'm on."

The man in the checked suit got on the same trolley car with them at the
bridge, and while they were walking through the stockyards they saw him
frequently, not always in evidence, but always somewhere in their
vicinity.

They visited the offices of the commission merchants who dealt in
horseflesh, and got their prices for the sort of stock the boys had to
sell, and before the day was over they had disposed of six carloads of
horses for immediate delivery.

While they were talking the deal over with the purchaser, they noticed
that the man in the checked suit hovered around, and Ted purposely
permitted him to overhear part of the conversation about the delivery of
the ponies.

Ted then sent a telegram to Kit Su