ities
were baffled. A huge reward was offered in the hope that it might induce
some discontented underling in the band to expose his comrades.

"Are you goin' after 'em, Anderson?" asked old Mr. Borton, with
unfailing faith in the town's chief officer.

"Them fellers is in Asia by this time," vouchsafed Mr. Crow scornfully,
forgetting that less than a week had elapsed since the robbery. He
flecked a fly from his detective's badge and then struck viciously at
the same insect when it straightway attacked his G.A.R. emblem.

"I doubt it," said Mr. Lamson. "Like as not they're right here in this
State, mebby in this county. You can't tell about them slick
desperadoes. Hello, Harry! Has anything more been heard from the train
robbers?" Harry Squires approached the group with something like news in
his face.

"I should say so," he said. "The darned cusses robbed the State Express
last night at Vanderskoop and got away with thirteen hundred dollars.
Say, they're wonders! The engineer says they're only five of them."

"Why, gosh dern it, Vanderskoop's only the fourth station west of Boggs
City!" exclaimed Anderson Crow, pricking up his official ear. "How in
thunder do you reckon they got up here in such a short time?"

"They probably stopped off on their way back from Asia," drily remarked
Mr. Lamson; but it passed unnoticed.

"Have you heard anything more about the show, Harry?" asked Jim Borum.
"Is she sure to be here?" What did Tinkletown care about the train
robbers when a "show" was headed that way?

"Sure. The press comments are very favourable," said Harry. "They all
say that Miss Marmaduke, who plays Rosalind, is great. We've got a cut
of her and, say, she's a beauty. I can see myself sitting in the front
row next Thursday night, good and proper."

"Say, Anderson, I think it's a dern shame fer Mark Riley to go 'round
pastin' them reward bills over the show pictures," growled Isaac Porter.
"He ain't got a bit o' sense."

With one accord the crowd turned to inspect two adjacent bill boards.
Mark had either malignantly or insanely pasted the reward notices over
the nether extremities of Rosalind as she was expected to appear in the
Forest of Arden. There was a period of reflection on the part of an
outraged constituency.

"I don't see how he's goin' to remove off them reward bills without
scraping off her legs at the same time," mused Anderson Crow in
perplexity. Two housewives of Tinkletown suddenly deserted