Presently Colin's turn came. He and Tiny had left their bunks and were standing side by side with arms upraised. By this time they were beginning to feel the strain of keeping their limbs in a cramped position.
The bearded robber halted. Colin, though reluctantly, lowered his arms and produced his purse and pocket-book. He wanted to dash his clenched fist against the aggressive, prominent chin of the fellow. He felt certain he could have floored him, but there was the other man with the bomb to be taken into consideration. Fortunately, both for himself and the other passengers, Colin's discretion was the better part of valour.
For a moment the masked man looked Colin squarely in the eyes.
"All right," he grunted, and without another word of explanation he passed both Colin and Tiny and proceeded to plunder the next passenger.
Before the chums could realise their good luck, or even form any idea of why their belongings should have been spared, a number of shots rang out in quick succession from the fore part of the train. The hitherto continuous escape of steam from the engine gave place to a series of puffs, punctuated by more revolver shots. Outwardly unperturbed, the bearded robber proceeded with his task, not even turning his head when a third member of the gang hurriedly appeared upon the scene and announced that the driver had uncoupled the engine and was steaming away as hard as he could.
"He'll bring the volunteers down from Yelibo," added the bearer of the news. "Pity we hadn't lifted a section of the line."
"There's no hurry," replied the leader. This was a favourite sentence of his. "Get on with your job and I'll do mine."
Meanwhile others of the band were busily engaged in relieving the passengers of the remaining coaches of their money and valuables; but, with less consideration than their leader, they unceremoniously bundled each "plucked pigeon" into one compartment.
At length the "hold-up" was completed. With a firm yet courteously-couched intimation that anyone attempting to leave the train for the next half hour would be suitably dealt with (the passengers would be left in the dark as to how this would be accomplished), the bandits backed out and retired silently into the bush.
"They've gone, curse them!" ejaculated a man, breaking the prolonged silence. "Here we are, bled white and stranded. When's the engine coming back for us?"