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"I'd like to know if this is the right trail or not," came from Shelley. "You ought to have brought that Spaniard along, to make sure." "Doranez is no good!" growled Sid Merrick who was by no means in the best of humor. "He likes his bottle too well. If he would only keep sober it would be different." "Why don't you take his liquor from him?" asked Cuffer.
He listened, and made out Cuffer speaking, and then he recognized the voice of Shelley. "And so I dusted out before I had a chance to get any money from Sobber," Cuffer was saying. "Well, did the Rovers catch the young fellow?" questioned Shelley. "That I don't know. If he didn't know enough to run away he is a fool." "You say one of the Rovers followed you from the train?"
Despite this warning the lad would have yelled to his brothers, but he found this impossible. He had been attacked by Merrick and Shelley, and Cuffer stood nearby, ready with a stick, to crack him over the head should he show fight. The attack had come in the dark, the gas lamp and the lantern, having been extinguished when the party from the Josephine drew close.
The look meant that they would go through Dick's pockets and rob him. The men were thorough rascals and if the youth had anything worth taking they meant to have it. "You keep out of my pockets!" cried Dick and started to rise from the chair in which he was sitting. Instantly both men grabbed him, and while Cuffer held him tightly from the rear, Shelley caught up a towel and gagged him.
"This young fellow is too fresh," explained the man who had dropped his bundle. "I want to get off, that's all," said Dick. "Well, you behave yourself," growled the guardian of the peace, and Dick was glad enough to get away with this reprimand. He saw Cuffer running for the stairs and made after him as rapidly as the density of the crowd permitted.
It did not take the three boys long to relate the particulars of the pursuit of Cuffer and Shelley, and of what they had overheard at the old mill. Anderson Rover listened with close attention and did not seem surprised when they mentioned Sid Merrick's name. "That fits in, to a certain degree, with what I have to tell you." he said, when they had finished.
Dick had gone to the rear and as he entered the last car he saw Cuffer crouching down in a seat near the door. The train was stopping at another station, and quick as a flash the fellow arose in the seat, shot between Dick and a man with several bundles, and forced his way out on the platform. Dick tried to follow, but was caught fast by several men.
Dick struggled vigorously even when in the apartment until Cuffer caught up an empty water pitcher and flourished it over his head. "Make another move and I'll knock you senseless with this!" he exclaimed and the look on his face showed he meant what he said. Seeing his captors were too powerful for him, Dick subsided and was forced into a chair in a corner.
The chase led to the lower end of the little park, and then Cuffer crossed Fourteenth street, and amid the crowd bound homeward for the day, pushed his way in the direction of the Third Avenue elevated railroad station. In the meantime Tad Sobber started to run in another direction. But before he had taken a dozen steps Tom was on him and had him by the arm. "Stop, Sobber," he said shortly.
When the freight thieves were captured he managed to get away, and he'll try to get away even if we catch Tad, Cuffer, and Shelley." "I guess he is a worse man than Arnold Baxter was," was Dick's comment. He referred to an old enemy of the Rovers, who had now reformed. "Much worse than either Mr. Baxter or his son Dan ever were," answered Mr. Rover.
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