“Right through his hand, I heard him tell one of the others.”
“Good; that won’t be easy to rub away! Now, men,” Jed went on, “we’ll divide into two parties. You men who come with th’ sheriff are armed, so you kin start at once. Th’ robbers drove off along this road. You start ahead, an’ I’ll go up to th’ mine an’ git arms fer my men an’ as many hosses as I kin find, an’ we’ll come right after you.”
The men murmured assent and started off along the road, the sheriff in the lead.
“But how can they ever catch them?” asked Allan, as he watched them disappear in the darkness.
“Ever hear th’ story of th’ turtle an’ th’ rabbit?” queried Jed.
“Yes—but this rabbit isn’t going to go to sleep.”
“Well, they’ll have t’ sleep sometime. Besides, we’ve got a messenger that kin go a million miles to their one,” and he motioned toward the wires overhead.
“You mean the telegraph?”
“Sure. Th’ fust thing fer you to do is t’ write out th’ best description ye kin of them robbers, an’ have it sent over th’ wire jest as soon as it’s fixed. It ort t’ go to every police station an’ tellygraft office within fifty mile o’ here. By mornin’, every road ort t’ be guarded, and them fellers’ll have to be mighty slick t’ slip through. Meanwhile, we keep a-follerin’ ’em an’ pushin’ ’em on, an’ purty soon they’re caught between two fires. See?”
Allan nodded. He began to perceive that there was not so much urgency in starting off after the robbers as he had thought. The first thing was to spread the net, and then to drive them into it.