The spectator., 1921-04-05

they came tramping over to the side track. But Mir. Norcross had diff ferent think coming.
 "Out of sight-quick, Jimmie" he whispered and in another second he had whipped the young woman over the big footing timber to standing place under the tank among the braces. and I had done the same for the girl.
 What followed was as mysterious as chapter out of an Anna Katherine Green detective story. After doing something to the switch of the unused spur track the four men separated. One of them went back 10 the auto, and the other three walked down the main track to the lower switch of the short siding, which was on the same side of the main line as the spur. Here the fourth man rejoined them, and the girl at my elbow told Us what he had gone back to the ear for,
 He has lighted a red lantern" she whispered. T saw it when he took
 it out of the auto
 l guess II NbS IltliS IiSiAii hp hii VI us by this time that there was some thing decidedly crooked on the cards. but if we had known what it was, we couldn't very well have done anything to prevent it. There were only two of us men to their four; and, besides, there wasn't any time. The lantern- carrying man had barely reached the f ,,fh} tie of a locomotive. There was a train coming from the west and few sec ondS later an electric headlight showed up on the long tangent beyond the siding.
 IL was a bandit hold-up. all right one of the men stood on the track waving the red lantern; we could see him plainly i'll the glare of the head light. There wasn't much of a scrap There were two or three pistol shots and then. as near as we Could make out, the hoId-up men. or some of them climbed into the engine Before you could count ten they had made flying switch with the single l car. Kicking il in on the siding Before the car had come fully te a stop. the engine was switched in behind it. cou- | pied on. and the reversed train. with | the engine pushing the car. ratted away on the old spur that led off into l the hills; clattered away and was lost to sight and hearing in less than a minute
 II was not until after the train was | .lf. that two of the bandits had been left l behind. These two reset the switches for the main track, leaving everything | as they had found il, and then 1 crossed over 10 the auto.
 was just thinking that all this mystery and Kidnapping and gun play must be sort of hard on the young woman and the girl, but, though my ! half of the allotment was shiverin- a little and smuggling up just grain | closer to me. she proved that she | hadn't lost her nerve.
 Did you see the name on that car when the engine went past to get in behind it:" she asked.
 No" said the boss; and I hadn't, either
 II did she asserted. showing that her eyes, or her wits. were quicker than ours "I had just one little | glimpse of it. The name k 'Al-e-X-a, | spelling il out.
 Mir Norcross started as if he had been shot.
 "The Alexa? That is Mir. Chad wick's private car-they've kidnapped | him :" Then he whirled short on me. Jimmie. are you man enough to go with me and try tackle on those fellows over there in that auto?'
 said was; but l didn't add what I thought-that it would probably be a case of double suicide for us two to go up against a pair of armed thugs with our hare hands The young wo- man put in her word.
 You mustn't think of doing such a l thing" she proteSted and she was | still telling him all the different req sons why he mustn't, when we heard the creak and grind of the stolen ell | zine coming back down the old spur.
 After that there was nothing to do | but to wait and see what was going to happen next What did happen was as blind as all the rest. The engine was stopped somewhere in the gulch back of us and out of sight from our hiding place, and pretty soon the two men who had gone with her came hur- | rying across out of the hill shadows, making straight for the auto. min ute or two later they had climbed | into the machine, the motor had sput- tered, and the car was gone. CHAPTER iI