shed between his lips, and
the liquid running down his throat. It was something strong and
invigorating, and he drank greedily. And then he suddenly shouted out
loud, so that all the people stepped back horrified: "The station has
been attacked by Japs."

Excited questions poured in from all sides. "Where from? What for?" Tom
only cried: "Save the two others; they're shut up in the station!" More
people collected round him. "Quick, quick!" he cried. "Run the train
back and try to save them!"

Tom was lifted into a car and stretched out on a soft end-seat. Some of
the passengers stood round him with their revolvers: "Tell us where it
is! Tell us where they are!" Slowly the train moved back, slowly the
telegraph poles slipped past the windows in the opposite direction.

Now they were there, and Tom heard wild cries on the platform. Then a
door was pulled open and some one asked: "Where are the robbers?" Tom
was lifted out, for his right shin-bone had been smashed and he couldn't
stand. A stretcher was improvised, and he was carried out. Dozens of
people were standing round the station. The wagon was gone, and so were
the horses. Where to? The wide, deserted prairie gave no answer. A great
many footprints in the sand showed at least that Tom had spoken the
truth. He pointed out the holes made in the shutters by the bandits, and
told the whole story a dozen times, until at last he fainted away again.
When he came to half an hour later it all seemed like a horrible
dream--like a scene from a robber's tale. He found himself in a
comfortable Pullman car on the way to Umatilla, where he had to tell his
story all over again, in order that the fairly hopeless pursuit of the
highwaymen might be begun from there.

_Chapter IV_

ECHOES IN NEW YORK

WALLA WALLA, May 7.

"This morning, at ten o'clock, the station Swallowtown, on the Oregon
line, was surprised by bandits. They captured the station in order to
hold up the express train to Umatilla. The plot was frustrated by the
decisive action of the station official, who jumped on the passing
train and warned the passengers. Unfortunately, the robbers succeeded
in escaping, but the Umatilla police have started in pursuit. The
majority of the bandits are said to have been Japanese."

In these words the attack on Swallowtown was wired to New York, and when
John Halifax went to the office of the _New York Daily Telegraph_ at
midnight, to work up