The man talked with them for perhaps fifteen minutes and then turned again to his companion.
"Did you notice his hands?" Sammy whispered to George.
"They were awfully strong looking, but some of the fingers were crooked as though they had been broken some time," returned George in a low voice.
"I'd hate to have them holding on to my throat," murmured Frank with a shudder.
"He seems so good-natured that I am almost sorry to have to give him over to the police," put in Bob.
"That's so," said Sammy, solemnly, "but it's our duty."
If they had hoped to hear any more confessions that night, however, the boys were disappointed. The men talked politics and business and there was nothing to indicate that their crime was hounding them.
Pretty soon the porters made up their berths and the boys tumbled in, deferring until the morning any further steps they might feel it necessary to take.
They slept like tops and when they awoke in the morning a shock awaited them.
The two men had left the train!