t in.

"I don't think they have any authority to make arrests," Will said, with
a sly wink at the sheriff. "If they have, where are their badges?"

"They were stolen!" shouted Katz. "These Boy Scouts took mine, and those
train robbers, who seem to be under arrest now, took Cullen's."

"You want to look out when you come down into Wyoming," said the sheriff
with a chuckle. "I've known Chicago detectives to come down here and
have their socks stolen off their feet!"

"Aw, they ain't detectives," argued Tommy. "They belong to this bunch of
train robbers. I saw 'em talking with the robbers not very long ago. You
just ask these robbers if these two men don't belong to their gang."

As Tommy spoke he turned to where the two robbers lay and gave a very
grave and significant wink.

"They belong to our gang, all right enough," one of the outlaws stated,
remembering various indignities they had received at the hands of
detectives.

"That's a lie!" thundered Katz.

"Lie nothing!" replied the outlaw. "These fellows brought in two burros
loaded with provisions for us, and we haven't been able to get to them
yet. If you go back in the valley to the west, and travel north a few
miles, you'll find where the burros and provisions are hidden away."

Tommy drew nearer to the outlaw and under pretense of picking something
from the floor whispered in his ear:

"We'll see that you get a year off your sentence for that. We've just
got to get rid of these imitation detectives."

"I don't believe you can make it stick, Katz," the other outlaw cried
out, apparently in a very serious tone, although there was a wrinkle of
humor about his grim mouth. "When we started out to rob the Union
Pacific train you promised to see that we got provisions, and you didn't
keep your word!"

The eyes of the two detectives stuck out, as Tommy afterwards expressed
it, far enough to hang a coat and hat on. They almost foamed with rage
as they stamped about the cavern, still linked together with the steel
handcuffs.

"We're being jobbed!" Katz shouted.

"It's a frame-up!" echoed Cullen.

"Frame up nothing!" laughed one of the outlaws.

"Do you mean to say," said Sheriff Pete, turning to the two prisoners,
"that these two men who claim to be detectives are actually connected
with your gang?"

"That's what we'll swear to!" declared one of the outlaws.

"Two years off for that!" chuckled Tommy in a low tone.

"I tell you it's a frame up!" shouted