“Two, that’s all. They got some money out of the drawer and dropped a package near the bridge. Guess they was in a hurry. Smart trick that, cutting the telephone wires. I couldn’t get connection with no place, up or down. This morning, though, I heard that they broke into the office at Cedar Bush and got fifty dollars in stamps besides some money. Guess they was making a trip of it.”
“Did they make a good haul at Riverton?”
“Guess they did and it was lucky they didn’t get more. They got into the bank all right but was scared away before they got much.”
“Buck said they got nothing from the bank.”
“Well, they did but not all they might have. Folks don’t want to say too much down there.”
“I’d like to show you the country around here, Jack,” said Dick. “Jump in. There are all sorts of stories about this affair and we won’t get the truth of it for some time. I’ll show you the creek and the bridge and you may get an idea of the risks these fellows ran unless they knew the region well, which I imagine they did.”
They took the road for a quarter of a mile back from the station and then saw the banks of the creek ahead of them.
An eighth of a mile farther on the road turned sharply and ran along the creek but at a short distance from it, making a sudden turn again at the end of two or three hundred yards and crossing where the banks were steep and high and the creek itself quite tumultuous.
“This is the same creek that you reach from the ravine back of the Academy in the woods,” said Percival. “The banks there are quite high and rough. There is a descent from here to the river and there the creek does not make much trouble. Here, however it is all the time roaring and tumbling. They tell a number of stories about it. During the American Revolution it had considerable fame I believe.”
“It makes stir enough now to call attention to itself at any rate,” laughed Jack. “It certainly is a noisy little stream. Here is where the robbers crossed over? I can see auto tracks close to the rail. They did go over and back, Dick, although the agent says they did not.”