“Exactly. Don’t need any more than that. There isn’t any stop between here and Coldenham, and the only provision for passengers is about half a coach; the rest of the car is used for baggage, whenever there is any. Then the rest of the train is made up of freight cars that are used for pulp. The station agent here takes the tickets as the people get on the train, and the engineer only has to run the train. He fires himself most of the time. In bad weather he has a helper. It’s only a one-way track and few crossings, so he’s really all that’s needed. Old Ferguson is a tight Scotchman and won’t pay out any more than he can help in spite of the fact he’s the wealthiest man around here.”
Having gotten their desired information, they left the store and held a conclave.
“See how this strikes you, Dick. I’ll find some way to get on that freight train without being observed, and after we get started I’ll get near the engine and watch if the engineer throws any letters out to anyone, or makes a stop to let some confederate on.
“In the meantime you keep watch on Lafe Green, and perhaps you could go to the lean-to and see if your camera trap worked. I suggest that I go on the train, because it would be easier for me to board it while it was going, as I may possibly have to do, and since I am a little lighter than you, no offense, Dick, I could manage better on a moving train.”
“That gives you all the fun,” half grumbled Dick, “But I see your point, and this is a case of getting results and not having adventure. Besides, I want to see if that trap worked, and if we can find out the perpetrator of the rattle snake trick.”
This being settled, the boys separated. Dick thought for a moment of going straight to the French restaurant and getting something to eat, and sizing up the inmates, also to see who Lafe might be talking with.
However, he discarded this thought as being foolhardy, and wisely decided there was no need of putting his mouth in the lion’s jaws needlessly. He remembered the time he was captured by this outfit before, and had no desire for a second experience.
Furthermore, his appearance there would immediately put anyone he wanted to watch on guard, and he could accomplish nothing. It was well past noon, and Dick, as usual, remembering his inner man, decided to go to Aunt Abbie’s and prevail on her to give him something to eat, and at the same time see how Mr. Everett was. There was always the slim chance that Ruth might have turned up, but this was only a chance in a thousand.
For his part, Phil went towards the station to reconnoitre the ground and see what would be his chances of boarding the train that went to Coldenham.
He looked carefully around the station platform to see if there was anyone he knew, or anyone who would be apt to be interested in his movements, but outside of one or two loafers, the platform and station were devoid of people. The station agent was in his little office busily ticking away at the telegraph key, sending a message.