The Ranger Boys and Their Reward

by Claude A. LaBelle

The visit over, they hustled back to the hotel and to sleep, as they were booked for early rising.

A sharp tatoo on the door awoke them in the morning, and they hurried into their clothes, for they had no more than time to eat and get to the station.

Aboard the train they chose seats, as was their custom, in the smoking car, not that any of the trio was addicted to smoking, but because they generally found several interesting characters to watch, and this happened to pass away the time.

Then, too, on one occasion, they had obtained a valuable clue that aided them greatly in the successful carrying out of the mission they had been sent on, and on their first trip they had made the acquaintance of Nate Webster in the smoker of a train.

They found facing seats and stowed their packs and rifles in the racks overhead, and settled down for the weary ride that would take them to Hobart. As was usual in this train, there were a number of picturesque characters: lumberjacks going north to the woods, guides returning after taking parties on camping trips, or going to meet parties that were awaiting them along the way, French Canadians bound for towns on the other side of the border, and several men who were evidently bound on an extended fishing trip, to judge from the paraphernalia they carried with them. The boys were just a little bit amused at the amount of luggage that they carried. It was piled at one end of the car, and from the looks of it would have required the services of at least three porters to carry for them. This, by the way, is the mistake made by the average camper, unless someone wise in the ways of the woods gives them a friendly tip and tells them to travel light.

Each of the boys always made shift to travel with only one knapsack each and everything that was not absolutely necessary was discarded. As it was, their packs were quite heavy, for they had their carrying sets of the wireless ’phone; but these were fairly light, since they had been specially made for the Rangers by Mr. Graham.

Garry and Dick amused themselves by playing checkers on a small pocket board that was their constant companion, while Phil wandered through the car stopping to watch several of the card games that were in progress and listening to the conversation. As our previous readers know, Phil could talk French as well as he could English, but this was an accomplishment that the trio kept a strict secret, since it enabled them at times to get valuable information. Naturally a great deal of this language was spoken in this section of the country, and more so as they approached the border and other men got aboard.

Phil’s trip was fruitless as far as getting any information was concerned, for all the men were talking only of the most trivial subjects.

“What luck?” asked Garry, when Phil finally returned to his seat.

“Nothing at all. There is no one on the train that I remember having seen when we were here before, and everyone seems to be all right. It is unlikely that I should have found out anything about the postal trouble, for there is probably some single person at the bottom of that, rather than a band such as that of the smugglers that we ran down last time,” said Phil. “But there is one thing that I thought of as I walked through the cars. We will be only a short hike away from our mine when we get to Hobart, and I wonder if we wouldn’t have time to make a little visit there and see that no one else has stumbled on the secret. I wish I could pick about twenty of the best tourmalines, for the money they would bring would be mighty welcome.”