as you here last
night?"

"Oh, no," answered Ralph.

"Well, what do you want?"

"I was sort of interested in this old car," announced Ralph.

"Why so?" demanded Kane.

"Well, we are looking for a car that floated down the creek here about
five years ago."

"For the railroad?" asked the farmer.

"In a way, yes, in a way, no."

"Does the railroad want to take it away from me?"

"Certainly not. They would like to know, though, if it's a car of the
Southern Air Line and numbered 9176."

"You've got it, lad. This was just that car. What's the amazing
interest in it all of a sudden? Look here," and he took them around to
the other side of the car. "Last night two boys came here; my son saw
them hanging around here. Then they disappeared. This morning I found
the car that way."

Ralph and Zeph stared in astonishment. A four-foot space of the
boards on the outside of the car had been torn away. At one point
there was a jagged break in the inside sheathing. In a flash the same
idea occurred to both of them.

"Too late!" groaned poor Zeph. "Some one has been here and the
diamonds are gone."

Ralph was stupefied. He remembered the rustling in the bushes when
they were discussing their plans the day previous. He believed that
their conversation had been overheard by some one.

Ralph asked the man to send for his son, which he did, and Ralph
interrogated him closely. The result was a sure conviction that Ike
Slump and Mort Bemis had secured the diamonds hidden in the box car
about five years previous.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE MAD ENGINEER

"Well, good-bye, Zeph."

"Good-bye, Ralph. Another of my wild dreams of wealth gone."

"Don't fret about it, Zeph."

"How can I help it?"

Ralph had decided to return home. He was now fully recuperated, and
his vacation period would expire in a few days.

It was the evening of the day when they had discovered the missing box
car only to find that others had discovered it before them. Ralph had
arranged to flag a freight at the terminus of the Short Line Route and
was down at the tracks awaiting its coming.

The freight arrived, Ralph clambered to the cab, waved his hand in
adieu to Zeph, and was warmly welcomed by his friends on the engine.

They had proceeded only a short distance when a boy came running down
an embankment. So rapid and reckless was his progress that Ralph
feared he would land under the locomotive. The lad, however, grasped
the step of the cab