only a
short time before.

"Well, sir, when we come back from chasin' them fellers in the motor
car," Tom explained, "I stopped at your back door a minute to chin
Mary an' tell her the news. She wanted to know what all the excitement
was about.

"Then I come on down here, an' thinks I to myself: 'I'll just get out
the old army revolver that I carried in France an' I'll be better
fixed for trouble the next time.' So I took 'er out of my locker in
the shop here an' swabbed her up an' just got everything slicked when
I hear a fellow creeping up to the door an' then voices whisperin'
together.

"Then the door starts to open slow an' easy like. I seen somebody what
hadn't no business here was nosin' around an' I says to myself: 'Tom,
it's a good thing you got the ol' army gun fixed up in time.'

"Then one of 'em stumbles an' falls agin the door an' open she comes
with him a-sprawlin' on the floor. The other fellow is right behin'
him but he sees me an' lets out a yell an' turns an' runs. Man, he was
a regular jackrabbit, too. I'll say that for 'im.

"Well, I been crouchin' by the dynamo an' let out a screech like wild
Injun an' fired off a shot through the doorway. Maybe two shots. Say,
you'd oughta seen that bird fly then. As for the other fellow, the one
that stumbled an' fell, he picks himself up an' tuk out like a
whitehead.

"I fired agin, high, just to scare 'em. I scared 'em all right, I
guess. Anyhow, they disappeared over south there toward that old wood
road that nobody uses no more. An' then I hear a motor car roar an'
off she goes."

"Why," cried Frank, "they must have been the same two men we chased."

"Were," said Tom. "Dark-lookin' fellers an' one didn't have no coat.
That was the guy Bob peeled his coat off of. I'd know 'em agin easy."

For several minutes there was an animated discussion of the exciting
events of the afternoon. What puzzled Bob and Frank was the reason for
the return of the thieves to the scene from which they had been
driven. Nobody could offer a good solution of the mystery until
finally Bob said:

"Say, I'll bet they were going to hide here in the station and lay for
me in the hope of getting back that coat and the papers the thief
stole from Mr. Hampton's house."

"Yes," put in Frank, "and the wallet with the railroad ticket to
Ransome, New Mexico, and all that money, too."

"I believe you are right, boys," said Mr. Temple. "These certainly are
no ordinary thieves, but d