annon after lighting the fuse, and was abou

, flare and smoke combined to

l in delightful trepidation now came troo

gainst the lights of the street and stores at its base the

rs were starting for its summit, among them two village

right enough!" shrieked little

breathless voice. "Say, I thou

not limping, but chuckling and w

ows?" he gloated. "Stirlin

w direction-in that whither the

a vivid commotion. The porch lights had been abruptly tu

He discerned in a flash that something heretofore always promine

," and one of them had been the placing of a bronz

military man life-size, epaulettes, sword, uniform and all-his maternal gr

The colonel's servants were rushing to the spot whe

art stormingly, tur

y observed the latter

what the foolhardy escapade might have cost had that whirli

esentment of the haughty village magnate who was give

th," began Bart in a tu

llows! they're

wards Dale Wacker, but the latter had faded into the vort

t the author of the scurvy joke that he

asped a brea

ng to tear loose from a frantic gri

im-the man who haunted the freight tracks-to

xpress shed-where your father is-

tantly startled into a new tremo

erent. He continued to gasp and splutter ou

nto trouble-fat

, his eyes bulged with terror, he grasped Bart's arm, let out an unearthly yell of fea

n the direction of the railroad, "my business is here. Don't y

express sh

some one is stealin

ped Bart's

is

't k

't you st

o fellows whispering on the tracks near the express shed. Said they were going to steal some fireworks. I

man's statements. He plunged forward alone, not con

ss shed was in view at last. It was lighted up as usual, the doo

hing looks straight here-no, it doesn't!" He ch

oaching the express shed from the s

latform beneath it. One of them had just pried a strip loose with some long implement he held in hi

As his feet clamped down warningly on the boardway,

" Bart heard him mutt

d and disappeared around the co

rying operations, essayed to join him, slipped, tilted ov

bout here?" dem

s. He did not speak, and tried to keep his featur

hed, with purposely

ou're up to," declared Bart. "Turn around here. I'll st

broad-peaked cap and the partial disguise of

friend, whom he expected must be somewhere near by this time, when hi

he had used to pry away the ba

ious purposes, was the signal flag used at the switch shan

he blunt end the strip of red flag was wound, near the sharp end

again grow

" decla

aloft. Bart saw it descending, aimed straight for his h

made a pass to grasp the bur

the air, and before Bart could grip the man afr

s, and a second later, rubbing his face free from sudde

n one of the iron bars of the window wit

rks among the big mass of fireworks in the storage room, and amid a