LYING IN WAIT
“Doesn’t look as though there’s going to be much monotony in our young lives to-night,” remarked Bob, as, tightly packed in the tonneau of the car, the boys rode on through the gathering darkness.
“For that matter there hasn’t been much for several days past,” chuckled Joe, who sat at his right. “A fellow would have to be a glutton to want more adventure than we’ve had since we came to Braxton Woods. What with Buck Looker and Black Donegan, we ought to be pretty well satisfied.”
“I only hope Cassey will be in the gang that is rounded up to-night,” observed Herb. “It would be too bad if only the rest were captured and that all-around scoundrel slipped through the meshes.”
“I guess Cassey is the brains of the whole bunch,” put in Jimmy. “Probably the others didn’t know anything about radio until he put them on to it. He’ll be there all right. And he’s likely to put up a pretty stiff fight before he lets himself be captured, for he knows what it means to him to be sent back to prison. With a new sentence tacked on to the old one it’ll probably mean that he’ll be in for life.”
In a little while they reached the scene of the proposed robbery. They were well in advance of the time set by the plotters, and the chief took his time in carefully disposing his forces, availing himself of Frank Brandon’s advice in doing this.
The bridge stretched between two hills at the bottom of which was a small stream, about a hundred feet below. On each side, almost down to the bridge itself, extended trees and shrubbery that afforded excellent hiding places. The only trouble was that both the outlaws and the officers who were trying to apprehend them were likely to seek the same shelter and might in this way stumble across each other before the trap was ready to be sprung.
This, however, was a contingency that had to be faced, and preparations were made accordingly. The men were placed at strategic points on both sides of the bridge. Whether the attempt at hold-up would be made at the entrance to the bridge or on the further side was a matter of speculation. The chief went on the theory, however, that it would probably take place at the entrance, and there he placed the majority of the men under him.
The radio boys hinted that there was where they would like to be also, but in this the chief was adamant.
“I’ve stretched a point in letting you young fire-eaters come along at all,” he said. “As it is, I may have a hard time explaining to your parents. And I hate to think what my position would be if anything happened to you. So I am going to put you where I think you’ll be comparatively out of danger. You’re just to be lookers on at this shindig. And if the bullets begin to fly, you just lie flat on the ground behind the trees until they stop. It may not be so glorious, but it’s likely to be a mighty sight more healthy.”