Dick shaded his eyes with his hand and looked again.
“Yes, I guess so.... No, by jinks! It’s an engine and a single passenger car!”
“Huh!” Larry grunted; “running passenger trains already, are they?” and he went on with his checking.
Having less of the checking responsibility than Larry, Dick turned to watch the new train as it ran up into the thick of the activities on the other side of the river. When it stopped he saw a dozen or more men drop from the steps of the single car, form in a loosely ranked group, and start toward the river. And, though the distance was nearly half a mile, he could see, quite distinctly, the glinting of the sunlight upon gun-barrels.
“Look, Larry!” he called hurriedly; “we’re in for something different now. That bunch is coming for us, and they’ve all got guns!”
While they stood looking, and the men who were unloading the steel paused to look, also, the armed group reached the river margin and began crossing on the stepping-stones that had served as a bridge for the man Grimmer. Mulcahey, the Irish foreman who was directing the unloading of the steel, leaped from the flat-car and went stumbling and running up the track, shouting a warning as he ran.
What followed was accomplished so swiftly that Larry and Dick were fairly dumfounded; and it is safe to say that it was over and done before many of the workmen had sensed fully what was going on. First the armed squad, coming in at a smart run, lost itself momentarily in the crowded ranks of the Short Line workers. Next, and so quickly that it seemed as if every move must have been carefully planned beforehand—as was doubtless the fact—the group formed again in a circle, and with a goodly number of prisoners in charge, made a hurried retreat to the river, and across it to the waiting passenger train on the O. C. track. And among the prisoners the boys saw the big, square-shouldered figure of their chief.
“Well!—what do you know about that!” Dick gasped, when he could get his breath. “They’ve got the chief and Goldrick and Jones and Smalley—why, they’ve got everybody we had!”
“Sure!” said Larry grittingly. “They had this up their sleeve all along, and they sent that man Grimmer over first to try to take Mr. Ackerman so there wouldn’t be any ‘big boss’ on the job to head things if we tried to resist!” Then: “Come on and let’s see what we’re up against!”