“Watches! shade of Jesse! Does Two-card Charley rob unarmed men and helpless women? You will devote your time and that mite of gray matter that you are supposed to have in your head to the parting of the train.” “S’pose some on’ shows fight?” “Why, apologize and bow yourself out, of course. Oh, Pete! Pete! I’ve tried to make something of you, but it isn’t in the wood. It hurts me to hint such a thing, and yet I know the day will come when I must needs lay violent hands on you; kill you, mayhap, and cache you in the waving grass, you ass.” Pete had stuck a short pipe into his mouth, and now indiscreetly struck a parlor match and held it to the pipe. The intellectual leader struck the pipe and the match with his open hand and drove them into the face of Pete, and immediately the conference broke up. The two boys lay quiet until the men had passed the big lamp at the landing, and then crawled out. “Say, Jack,” said Tommy, and the sound of his voice broke the silence so suddenly that Jack started and clutched at his friend’s arm, “them fellows’ll be hidin’ out same as us, if they don’t watch out.” “Shall we tell on ’em?” “Sure! Aint the company’s business our business?” “Yes; still we wouldn’t like to have somebody tell on us.” “But what have we done, Jack Connor? We ordered the drinks an’ paid for ’em--both of us.” “An’ pulled the door down. You often hear of fellows bein’ sent up for breakin’ into houses.” “We didn’t break in; we broke out, to gain our freedom. Liberty, Heidelberg says, is the rightful heritage of American citizens.” Now, the boys, full of a great tale, stole softly up the shadow side of the street, and to bed. CHAPTER XI THE HOLD-UP AT CASEY’S TANK It was Sunday in St. Louis, and in East St. Louis as well, but there was no rest for the officials of the Vandalia Line. Little Jack, the messenger boy, and Tommy, the pump boy, were being examined by the superintendent. The boys told their story without embarrassment. A boy who has been messenger for a year in the roadmaster’s office, and another boy who has been up against the White Mail with his mule, when the Mail was making little less than a mile a minute, are not going to get rattled when telling a simple story. When the superintendent had heard that Two-card Charley, Jim, and Pete were going to rob the Midnight Express on Monday night, he began to work the wire that went to Chicago. Then, as now, Chicago was the headquarters of the famous Watchem Detective Agency, and the Vandalia wanted a good detective, right away, regardless of expense. Now, the elder Watchem happened to be a personal friend of the President of the Vandalia Line, and he would send none other than his boy, Billy, who had already made a world-wide reputation as a criminal catcher. But Billy was away chasing a bank robber through the Michigan forests, and could not be found.