A sound of splintering wood and ripped mechanism drowned his cry of horror, and those of the other lads. Before their very eyes the locomotive had struck the robbers’ car as it was half way across the tracks and had tossed it to one side—a mass of kindling wood and twisted metal.
“They must both be injured or killed,” cried Rob; “hurry, fellows, maybe we can help.”
The boys jumped out of the auto and ran to the crossing. In the meantime the engine had been brought to a standstill and the train crew were examining the wreck. But although both the railroad men and the boys made a thorough search, they could find no trace of the men who had occupied the machine. Rob and Merritt, as a final recourse, walked some distance back up the track, but without finding any evidence that there had been loss of life or injury.
“They must have been thrown clear of the auto when the crash came, and when they picked themselves up I guess they realized that the best thing to do was to take themselves off,” was the way Rob explained it. Hardly had he completed this theory of what had occurred when his foot struck something. It gave out a metallic ring. Stooping down swiftly, he picked it up and found that it was the tin box from the bank, battered and dented, indeed, but intact and still locked.
Naturally the boys were delighted over their find, which must have been thrown from the auto when it was demolished. As after half an hour more of searching nothing was to be found of Dugan or the Jap, the train crew went back to their train and the boys prepared to turn back, with what pleasant anticipations may be imagined.
“Well, so long, kids,” shouted the conductor of the train after the long line of cars rolled off, “too lucky to happen a second time, I’m thinking.”
Of course, he referred to the fact that no loss of life or injury had occurred in the smash-up, but to the boys his words had an added meaning.
“It is too lucky to happen a second time,” said Rob, hugging the precious tin box.
CHAPTER XXIV.
A BOLT FROM THE BLUE.
Rob woke late the next day. For a few minutes it seemed to him that he must have dreamed all that had occurred the night before, but Lieutenant Duvall’s voice from the room below speedily undeceived him. He recalled it all now—how his father and an astonished crowd of townsfolk had met them on their return from that wild auto ride; how, on the box being opened, it had been found to contain the plans of the highly valued invention, of the exclusive possession of which Japan had been so anxious to deprive the United States.