ticularly so by Earl Danvers. Just as soon as mutual greetings were over Ralph took Earl to a pile of ties a little distance away.
"Now then, young man," he said, "seeing we are alone, suppose you give an account of yourself."
Earl Danvers was thin and pale. He looked as if he had gone through some recent severe hardships, but he smiled serenely as he said:
"It's easy to tell my story, now I am out of my troubles, but I tell you, Ralph, I have had a hard time of it."
"With Slump and Bemis?"
"Yes. The afternoon I left Stanley Junction, they were the fellows who forced me to go away with them. They broke into your house, and I found them ransacking it. They pitched on to me. and tied me up. Then they recognized me."
"What, had you known them before?" exclaimed Ralph, in some surprise.
"I found out that I had. You remember the first day that you saw me?"
"Yes," nodded Ralph.
"Well, I had run away from my uncles that morning. I had made up a package hurriedly, containing shoes, coat and cap, and got away through a window in the attic. I went about five miles, when I ran right into two fellows in the
