Part 46 (1/2)

Reaching the spot at which he had seen the Italian, he went on more cautiously. A quarter-mile farther the ravine swung abruptly to the west.

As Alex arrived at the bend, subdued voices reached him. Continuing cautiously, and keeping to the deepest shadows, Alex reached a clump of willow bushes.

He glanced beyond, and in a patch of moonlight discovered Big Tony in conversation with an almost equally tall stranger, apparently a cowboy.

The latter's back was toward him.

The stranger turned, and Alex drew back with a start, and then a smile.

It was the second man of the two who on the previous Sunday had attempted to wreck the track-machine--the one who had made his escape.

As the man turned more fully, and he caught his words, Alex's jubilant smile vanished.

”... enough to blow the whole thing to matchwood, if you place it right,”

he was saying.

There was no doubt what this meant. They were planning to blow up the viaduct.

”Oh, I fixa it alla right, alla right,” declared Big Tony confidently.

”No fear. I usa da dynamite all-aready. I blow up da beega da house once.”

”A house and a big wooden bridge are quite different propositions. And a wooden bridge isn't to be blown up like a stone or iron affair, you know.”

”Suppose you come, taka da look, see my plan all-aright, den,” the Italian suggested. ”No one on disa side da bridge, to see, disa time night.”

The cowman hesitated. ”Well, all right. It would be best to make sure.

”We don't want to carry this, though. Where'll we put it?”

As he spoke the man leaned over and picked up a good-sized parcel done up in brown paper. From the careful way he handled it there could be no doubt of its contents. It was the dynamite they proposed using.

”Here, I fin' da place.”

Alex caught his breath at the display of carelessness with which the foreigner took the deadly package. Backing into a nearby clump of bushes, Big Tony stooped and placed the dynamite on the ground, well beneath the branches.

”Dere. No one see dat. Come!”

As the two conspirators strode toward him, Alex crept closer into the shadows of the willows. Pa.s.sing almost within touch of him, they continued up the gully, and soon were out of sight.

Before the footsteps of the two men had died away Alex was sitting upright, debating a suggestion that caused him to smile. With decision he arose, approached the bush under which the dynamite was concealed, and reaching beneath with both hands, very carefully brought the package forth and placed it on the ground in the moonlight. With great caution he then undid the twine securing the parcel, and opened it. On discovering a second wrapping of paper within, he uttered an exclamation of satisfaction. Lifting out the inner parcel intact, he glanced about, and choosing a group of bushes some distance away, carried the dynamite there and concealed it. Returning, he secured the piece of outer wrapping paper, and proceeded to carry out his idea.

Where the moonlight struck the western wall of the gully was a bed of cracked, sun-baked clay. Making his way thither, Alex found a fragment a little larger than the package of dynamite, and with his knife proceeded to trim it into a square. Carefully then he wrapped this in the brown paper, and wound it about with the cord just as the original parcel was secured. And with a smile Alex placed this under the bush from which he had taken the genuine package.

”Dynamite with that as much as you please, Mr. Tony,” he laughed as he turned away.

When Alex had covered half the distance in returning to the viaduct he began keeping a sharp lookout ahead for the returning of the Italian and his companion. He was within a hundred yards of the great white structure when he discovered them. Turning aside, he concealed himself behind a small spruce.

With no apprehension of danger Alex waited, and the two men came opposite. Suddenly, without a motion of warning, the two turned and darted toward him, one on either side of the tree. Before Alex had recovered from his astonishment he found himself seized on either side, and threateningly ordered to be silent.

They dragged him on some distance, then into the moonlight. ”Why, it's one of the fellows who captured Bucks on Sunday!” declared the cowboy.

”What are you doing here, boy?” he demanded angrily.