e sheriffs got held up by the train robbers," Tommy went on, "but
they can't be blamed for that, and they tried to put us through the
third degree when they thought we were in cahoots with the robbers, but
they're game all the same. If you ever see those fellows in action
you'll know there's something going on."

"And we're going to see them in action right now!" cried George.

A succession of shots came from the entrance to the old channel, and the
boys heard the defenders scrambling down toward the chamber where they
stood.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE FINDING OF WAGNER

"Good night!" cried Tommy.

The heavy footsteps came on faster than before. The ping of bullets was
in the air, and the old channel was filling with powder smoke. Now and
then the flash of a gun lit the passage.

"Me for the tall timber," Tommy went on, springing up the tunnel.

"Here! Where are you going?" shouted Will.

"There's a hiding place up here!" answered Tommy. "We saw it when we
came down! Me for the hiding place."

"That's a fact!" Will exclaimed turning to Chester. "You remember the
old channel running in from the southeast?"

"We'll have to get somewhere right soon!" Chester answered. "Perhaps
that is as good a place as any."

Bullets singing down the narrow passage indicated that the sheriffs and
their men had already entered the subterranean channel from above.

The train robbers were defending the passage heroically, but the
officers were coming bravely on.

Directly the boys came to the lead which cut the south wall of the main
channel into the shape of a "W." They passed on up this dry channel just
as the train robbers, retreating step by step, came to the entrance.

"Shoot to kill!" the boys heard one of the outlaws saying.

"Do you know the way to the other end?" asked the second outlaw.

"I've been told how to find it," was the answer, "but I never made my
way through it. Those sheriffs are game to come crowding into a hole
like this in front of two armed and desperate men."

"You get up against the real thing when you strike a Wyoming sheriff,"
the other outlaw declared.

"Throw up your hands!" a heavy voice came from above.

"Come and take us!" was the only answer.

Another storm of bullets was followed by a groan of pain.

"They got me!" the boys heard one of the men say.

"They got me, too!" said the other. "It's a wonder we haven't been cut
into ribbons before this!"

"All we can do now is to lay