“That’s so,” replied the person Ralph supposed to be Ames. “All right, I’ll not miss on my end of the case. Only, don’t send any more packages of the silk to friends. The one Slump sent might have got you into trouble.”
“I never knew he did it at the time,” was responded. “I raised a big row when I found out. You see, Evans, the man he sent it to, is in with us in a way, and is a particular friend of Ike Slump, but it was a big risk to send him goods that might be traced right back to us. Safe hiding place, eh?”
The speaker had proceeded to some bushes guarding the entrance to a cave-like depression in the dirt, gravel and rocks. He re-appeared with 64 some packages for his companion. Then both went away from the spot.
“Why,” said Ralph, with considerable satisfaction, “this is the hiding place of the plunder. I am in possession, and what am I going to do about it?”
The discovery had come about so easily that the young fireman could scarcely plan out a next intelligent move all in a moment.
“Ames is an accomplice of the thieves,” he decided, “who are going to use Joe’s wagon to remove the bulk of this plunder. They will soon be here. What had I better do—what can I do?”
Ralph went in among the bushes as the men had done. He took a glance at a great heap of packages lying in a depression in the rocks. Then he advanced a few steps towards the edge of the cliff.
Ralph looked down fully two hundred feet into the railroad cut. This was almost the spot where the landslide had stopped the Dover night freight. The main tracks were clear now, but on a gravel pit siding were several cars.
“Why,” exclaimed Ralph suddenly, “if I only have the time to do it in, I have got the whole affair right in my own hands.”
A plan to deprive the railroad thieves of their booty had come into the mind of the young fireman. 65 Ralph filled his arms with the packages of silk, advanced to the edge of the cliff, threw them over, and continued his operation until he had removed the last parcel from its hiding place.