“Now, Holden, you may send that letter along. Take it from me, too, that Dalton will not be the wiser—until I snap a pair of bracelets on his wrists.” “The sooner the better, Carter, in my opinion,” replied the other. “It could be done when the letter is delivered.” “I know that, Holden, but that’s much too soon. It’s not going to be done until I can put bracelets on every crook engaged in this job,” Nick declared, with grim determination. “I agree with you that that would be still better,” smiled Holden, turning to hasten out with the fateful letter—for such it proved to be. CHAPTER III. NICK CARTER’S PLANS. Starting with a fine spun thread, a mere film that only one man in a million would have picked up under such circumstances, Nick Carter had gradually twisted it to the size of a cord of considerable strength, of which he now aimed to make a rope with which to twist, perhaps, the necks of the culprits deserving it. It was after two o’clock when Nick, still in disguise and in company with Chick, left the Shelby post office. Three o’clock found them seated with Judge Barclay and President Burdick, of the S. & O. Railway, in the magnate’s private office, to both of whom Nick had stated his discoveries and suspicions. It was then that he picked up another strand for the rope. He learned from President Burdick that an express shipment of sixty thousand dollars in currency and specie was to be made from Philadelphia that day, for the payroll and construction expense on the Shelbyville branch road, then being built; which had aroused the bitter and vengeful opposition of a lawless section of the country through which it was to pass, resulting in the numerous crimes and outrages to which the road since had been subjected, and the perpetrators of which Nick and his assistants had been employed to run down. “This proves to be about what I suspected,” Nick remarked, after hearing Burdick’s statements. “We are up against some of the same bandits guilty of the previous crimes. I was not sure of it in the case of Jim Reardon, who had a personal grievance, or a fancied one, to avenge.” “It is not too late to cancel the shipment, Carter, or defer it for a few days,” Judge Barclay suggested. “That should be done, I think,” Burdick added. But Nick Carter quickly objected. “By no means,” he declared. “That is the worst step you could take.” “Why so?” “Because we now have an unusual advantage over these rascals, in that we have anticipated their designs, and now is the time to catch them red-handed.” “Surely,” Chick agreed. “It’s a rare opportunity. It is one that should not be lost.” “There is something in that, Carter, after all,” Burdick thoughtfully admitted. “We can easily protect the shipment by concealing a posse of well-armed men in the express car. How will that do?”