"It may be the boy we"re looking for!" urged Tommy.
Sandy sat down on the end of a tie and rubbed his bruised shin vigorously, muttering and protesting, against railroad yards in general and this one in particular as he did so.
Tommy made his way under the empty and sat listening, his ear almost against the bottom of the car. Presently he heard a movement above and then it seemed to him that something of considerable weight was being dragged across the floor. This was followed in a moment by a slight groan, and then a shadowy figure leaped from the open side door and started away in the darkness.
Now Sandy had been warned to hang onto the third boy like grim death if he caught sight of him. He saw this figure bounce out of the car and start, away. Therefore, he promptly reached out a foot and tripped the unknown to the ground.
He fell with a grunt of anger and pain and lay rolling on the cinders which lined the roadbed for a moment without speaking. In the meantime, Tommy had crawled out from under the car and stood ready to seize any second person who might make his appearance.
Almost immediately a second body came bouncing out of the empty.
Instead of starting away on a run, however, the second person stopped where Sandy stood beside the wiggling figure and looked down upon it.
"Hand him one!" he said in a boy"s voice.
"Who is it?" asked Sandy.
"Don"t know!" was the reply.
"What was he doing to you?"
"He was trying to rob me!"
"I don"t think a man would get rich, robbing people who ride in empties!" laughed Sandy. "I shouldn"t think their bank rolls would make much of a hit with a bold, bad highwayman!"
"There"s men riding the rods," was the reply, "who would kill a boy for a dime! If I wasn"t opposed to cruelty to animals, I"d give this fellow a beating up right now. He tried to drag me from the car by the leg and nearly broke my ankle!"
"I heard him dragging you across the floor!" Tommy said, coming up to where the two stood. "Can you see who it is?" he added.
"He"s just a tramp!" the other replied. "I saw him sneaking around the empties just before dark."
"Why were you sleeping in an empty?" asked Sandy.
"Because I like plenty of fresh air!" replied the boy with a chuckle.
While the boys talked the tramp arose and sneaked away, limping over the ties as if tickled to death to get out of the way of the three youngsters.
As he disappeared in the darkness Tommy turned to the boy who had dropped out of the car to ask him a question.
The boy was nowhere to be seen.
"Now we"ve gone and done it!" cried Sandy.
"I guess we have!" agreed Tommy. "We"ve let the third boy get away from us! And we couldn"t have done a worse thing!" he went on, "because the boys in the mine will know that we are still in this vicinity!"
While the boys stood blaming themselves the sharp call of the Wolf pack came to them.
CHAPTER XI
A KNOCK AT THE DOOR
When Will and George came to the back of the weigh-house they heard some one moving about at the front.
"That"s probably the caretaker, taking his last look for the night,"
suggested Will. "He pokes around all the outbuildings every night before he goes to bed. At least, he is supposed to."
"But this fellow hasn"t got any lantern," urged George.
"The plot deepens!" chuckled Will.
"Can you crawl around there and see who it is," asked George, "or shall I go? It may be a thief, or it may be Ventner, or it may be this boy we"re looking for. Anyway, we want to know who it is!"
"I"ll go!" Will suggested, "and don"t you make any racket if you hear something doing there. The one thing to do at this time is to keep our presence here a profound secret."
Will moved cautiously around the angle of the weigh-house just in time to see a figure leaving the side of the building and moving toward the breaker. There was a little side door in the breaker not far from the weigh-house, and it was toward this that the prowler was making his way.
Half way to the little house the fellow stumbled over some obstruction in his path and fell sprawling to the ground. He arose with an impatient oath and moved on again, but not before the watcher had recognized both the figure and the voice. Will, turned back to where George stood. "That"s Ventner," he said.
"Are you sure?"
"Dead sure!" There was a short silence. "What can we do now?"
"I don"t know of anything we can do, unless it is to watch the rascal and see where he goes," answered the other. "The chances are that he"s trying to get into the mine!"
"That shows the fellow is a crook!" Will contended. "He has full permission to enter the mine at any time he sees fit."
"Of course, he"s a crook!" agreed George. "What would he be sneaking around here in the night for, if he wasn"t engaged in some underhand game? You just wait until we get into the mine," the boy continued, "and we"ll give him a ghost scare that"ll hold him for a while."
As Ventner approached the little side door leading into the breaker, a light flashed in the window of the room which the boys had occupied, and directly Canfield"s voice was heard asking:
"Who"s there?"
"Now if he"s on the square, he"ll answer!" whispered Will.
There was no reply whatever, and in a moment the caretaker called again, this time rather peremptorily:
"What are you prowling about the yard for?"
The detective dropped to his knees and began crawling away.
"If I see you around here again," the caretaker shouted in a braver tone now that the intruder was taking his departure, "I"ll do some shooting!"
Evidently giving over the attempt to enter the mine at that time, the detective arose to his feet as soon as he gained the shelter of the weigh-house, and walked away, pa.s.sing as he did so, within a few feet of where the boys were standing.