"'If we could get away without being seen, we might ride back to Wheatland and inform the authorities.'
"'Providing we could get there before the express goes through.'
"'To do that, we'll have to get out at once.'
"A noise on the road made us break off. The rest of the train wrecker's gang were coming up—six stalwart and bronzed men, each on a powerful horse, and all heavily armed. The ten horsemen made an imposing cavalcade.
"Silently I took down the rubber blanket and rolled it up, strapping it fast in its place. Seeing this, Eexwell felt of his machine and examined the pedals and running gear.
"'Follow me,' I whispered; and lifting my bicycle from the hollow, I darted behind the clump of cottonwoods, and hurried through the woods in a direction parallel to the highway. My chum came close behind me. Inside of ten minutes we were several hundred feet away, and then we turned into the road, mounted to our saddles, and pedalled down the back track as rapidly as our weary legs and the state of the muddy highway would permit. Once we fancied we heard a shout from behind, but we never looked back and nothing followed.
"It was still raining; not as heavily as before, but still sufficiently to reach our skins and ren-
