“If the crook is on the train and intends to take any active part in the robbery, it’s ten to one that he is in the ordinary passenger car,” Chick reasoned. “He certainly would not be in a sleeper. He would reason, too, that he would be less liable to suspicion than if he rode in the smoker.”
Chick acted upon these theories. He entered the next car back of the smoker, the latter being back of the express and baggage cars, and he took one of the rear seats, from which he could see most of the other occupants of the car. It was about two-thirds filled with men and women, traveling singly or in couples.
Chick pretended to have no interest in any of them. None, nevertheless, escaped his furtive scrutiny during the run of fourteen miles to North Dayton. He could discover none, however, whose looks or actions seemed to warrant suspicion.
Twenty minutes took the train to North Dayton.
Gazing furtively from the window, Chick saw the lights in the signal tower, saw Nick and Denny hasten down the stairs, saw Denny return alone just as the train was starting, which convinced him that Nick then was in the express car, as planned.
Two men who had briefly left the train returned to the car in which Chick was seated. He was a keen reader of faces. He saw plainly enough that neither of the men was a crook, or at least no such crook as he was seeking.
The train rushed on through the starry night.
Chick knew that the time was rapidly approaching when, if Nick’s deductions were correct, the robbery would be attempted.
“I’ll not cut much ice here,” he said to himself, at length. “I think I’ll take a look at the occupants of the smoker. That will bring me nearer the express car.”
He was about to do so when his attention was drawn to a couple three seats in front of him and on the opposite side of the aisle.