in one's bones. There isn't one chance in a
thousand that such an adventure will come our way, and he knows it."

"Goodness! What a jar! The engineer must have thrown the air brakes on
then in a big hurry! We're coming to a sudden stop, too! Oh! I wonder if
anything can have happened? Are we going to have an accident, fellows?"
cried Will.

With much creaking of the wheels the heavy train came to a stop, and at
the same moment the four chums, listening with considerable
apprehension, caught the sound of many loud and excited voices just
outside the car.

CHAPTER VI

AT THE VALLEY RANCH

"Listen!" exclaimed Frank, holding up his hand.

"Talk to me about your Tower of Babel! It wasn't in the same class as
that row. Twenty men trying to talk all at once!" growled Jerry,
starting up.

"Oh! Where are you going?" asked Will.

"Outside, to find out what the trouble is," replied the other.

"But you may get hurt if those bad men start to shooting up the train,"
expostulated the official photographer anxiously.

Jerry gave a hoarse laugh.

"Tell me about that, will you! He actually believes we are going to be
put through a course of 'stand and deliver' by the merry gentlemen of
the road. Why, bless you, my boy, didn't you hear one man say something
about a trestle burning just ahead? It spells delay for us, but that's
the worst of the whole affair."

"Then I'm going out, too," declared Will, with sudden zeal, as he
snatched up his camera and threw the strap over his shoulder.

He scented a chance for a striking picture, and to obtain that Will
would have risked even a possible encounter with train robbers.

Frank and Bluff would not be left behind, and quickly the entire quartet
had reached the platform. They found that the stop was at a little
country station. A signal had suddenly flashed before the eyes of the
engineer, telling him he must not think of running past, which accounted
for the quick work of the compressed-air brakes.

No need to tell what was wrong. Up the track a quarter of a mile could
be seen a fire, and one glance was enough to tell the chums that, just
as Jerry had said, a trestle of some sort seemed to be burning.

Loud shouts attested to the fact that every available man was hurrying
to the scene, in the hope of saving the trestle before it was so far
gone that nothing could be done.

"Come on, fellows! Our train must stay where it is until this thing is
done burning, one way