"They're quarreling over the swag," said Ted to himself. "Good! 'When
thieves fall out, honest men get their dues,'" he quoted. "Keep it up,
and I'll get you yet."

They did keep it up.

It was the voice of Checkers that rose high.

"I tell you I'll have half or I'll split on you, if I go to the 'stir'
for the rest of my life."

"If you do split, you won't go to the 'stir.' The boys will kill you
before you get the chance."

"Well, what's your proposition?"

"I'll give you five thousand. That's enough for putting me next to the
train. What do you want? The earth? Didn't I do the dirty work? If I'd
been caught, who'd have been soaked? You? I guess not. It would have
been me who would have been killed, for I'm like the other fellows--I'd
have fought until they killed me. You're not entitled to more than five
thousand, and that's all you'll get."

"I won't take it. Half or I squeal."

"Squeal, then."

There was a sudden trampling of feet in the other room, the crash of an
overturning table, followed by a yell of death agony, and the thud of a
falling body.

"Great Scott, one of them is dead," said Ted, with a shudder.

He was listening intently, and heard a scuffle of feet, then hurried
footsteps died away and a door slammed somewhere.

Deep silence followed.

Then the horror of the situation burst upon Ted, The house had been
deserted by the only living creature, except himself, who was left to
starve to death in this prison, with a dead man in the next room.

One or the other of the two men who had held him captive had done murder
and escaped with the stolen money.

Ted lay speculating which was dead and which had escaped, but he could
make nothing of it.

The night dragged wearily on for Ted could not sleep, for thinking of
the dead man in the next room, and his own precarious position.

He reviewed the chances of his being rescued. They were very slim,
indeed.

Bud and Chief Desmond would start a hunt for him about the city, but
would not find him, and no one would think of looking for him in this
deserted house.

But at last the night passed, and Ted watched with a grateful heart the
gradual dawning of the day.

At last it was light enough to see, and he looked around the room.

It was old-fashioned and high. Through the window he could see a bit of
the high brick fence, and a few trees and long, tangled, dead grass.
That was the extent of his view from the window.

He examined the do