ject you desire."

Will stepped forward and caught the boy by the arm.

"You know what it means to--to some one if you speak," he warned.

"But I'm not going to see you boys murdered before my eyes!"

"No more fairy tales go!" shouted a member of the sheriff's gang. "We
have an unpleasant duty to perform here and we're not going to shirk it.
As the sheriff says, outlaws are flocking to Wyoming because they are
hidden and protected by such people as you."

"But I can satisfy you as to the honesty of these boys," pleaded
Chester, "if you'll listen to me for five minutes."

"Nothing doing!" shouted the sheriff.

Again the men advanced with the ropes and again Seth lifted his revolver
in warning. The situation was a critical one.

During the second of silence which followed, a clatter of stones came
into the gulch from the rocky summit above, and all eyes were instantly
turned in that direction. As they looked the sheriff and his men dropped
their weapons to the ground and threw their hands into the air.

"That's right!" came a hoarse voice from above. "Throw down your weapons
and drop your belts at your feet. Now line up there in a row, you baby
snatchers! Never mind that funny business, there, you man with the red
whiskers. You'll drop in your tracks if you make another move! You are
the cowboy sheriff of the county, I understand, but you ought to be
training puppies for a dogshow. That's about your size."

In a moment every member of the sheriff's posse, including Seth, was
unarmed. As they stood meekly in a row the boys were ordered to take
their own weapons from the heap on the ground and walk away over the
ridge.

"Can you see who they are?" asked Will, as the boys moved slowly along.

"I can see only the outlines of their heads and the gleaming barrels of
their rifles," George answered. "Say," the boy went on, "didn't the
cowboys drop their weapons quick when they saw those shining muzzles?"

"They knew the other fellows had the drop on them, and I don't blame
them," Tommy cut in.

"Do you really think they are the train robbers?" asked Sandy, who was
being assisted up the slope by Will and George.

"They're the train robbers, all right!" insisted Tommy. "I can't see
their faces any more than you can, but I remember that voice! You
remember the night he was at our camp, and we were getting something to
eat? Well, I heard quite a lot of his conversation that night. Some of
it I liked and some of it I