ncing
shot, but the force with which it struck him was almost sufficient to
knock him off his feet.

"I'm not hurt at all," said he as his men crowded about him, "but I
shall have to put a patch on my coat when I get back to the post.--I
say, there," he shouted, addressing himself to the inmates of the
dug-out, "was there anybody hurt in there? I thought I heard a yell."

"Yes, and you'll hear another yell if you don't go away and let us
alone," replied Bristow. "I'll make a better shot the next time I pull
on you."

"All right!" said Bob. "I'll give you a chance in just about five
minutes.--Loring," he added in a lower tone, "you and Phillips stay here
and hold the horses, and the rest of you follow me."

"Are you going to storm them?" asked Loring.

"I am," was the decided reply. "It is the only way I can get them out,
for they'll not come of their own free will."

"Then I sha'n't stay here and hold the horses; that's flat," declared
Loring.

"Neither will I," chimed in Phillips. "The picket-pins will hold them as
well as we can."

"All right!" replied Bob. "Stake them out, and while you are doing it
Carey and I will see how we are going to get into the station."

The door to which Bob now turned his attention did not prove to be a
very serious obstacle. It was made of heavy planks, and if it had been
in good condition it would have taken a good deal of chopping with a
sharp axe before one could have forced his way through it; but the
hinges had rusted off, and the planks had shrunk to such a degree that
the bar which held the door in its place could be seen and reached with
a sabre. A few blows with one of these weapons knocked this bar from its
place, and when that was done, the door, having nothing to support it,
fell back into the stable with a loud crash. Bob entered, with Carey at
his heels, and, making his way to a small apartment which had once been
used as a sleeping-room by the stable-men and drivers, he found there a
trap-door, which he threw open, revealing a flight of rude steps leading
into the underground passage that communicated with the dug-out. By this
time the rest of the troopers arrived on the scene. They looked
dubiously at the dark passage-way, and then they looked at Bob.

"Do you really mean to go down there, Owens?" asked Loring. "It's sure
death."

"I believe so myself, but I am going all the same," replied Bob, who was
thoroughly aroused by the attempt that had been made on h