never be found until it was too late. He wished then that he had jumped to the rocks as he had planned. "We'll be moving," the bandit said to the others. "You know where to go from here." Silently they picked up their precious packs and stepped out into the darkness. Then came the sound of many feet, blows, a couple of shots, and presently a big voice boomed: "Got 'em tied up, boys? Anybody hurt? Good! Now where 's Rand?" "Here!" Ray shouted, "inside!" Two electric torches flashed through the doorway. A man wearing a sheriff's badge entered and cut Ray's bonds. "There 's your friends," he said, pointing outside, where the robbers were nicely handcuffed and guarded by a dozen men. "We got the other one down in the village. Found your note, you see. And say! that was a mighty bright idea fixing the alarm-clock as you did. I happened to be in the store when the fellow brought in that hulled corn. The clerk set it back on the shelf, and a few minutes laterrippity bang! We could n't think what was up till we dug into the corn and found the little clock going like a cyclone. And there was the note under it! Best thing I ever heard of. Say, I guess you 'll come in for a fat slice of the reward." "'RIPPITY BANG! WE COULD N'T THINK WHAT WAS UP'" I will leave a dish of water and some food on the floor and perhaps you can get enough of it to keep you going." Two or three days or a week to remain bound, with only a little food and water picked off the floor, dog fashion! He might Ray did come in for his share of it, and later, after the chief had heard the story, he received a scholarship to a forestry school that is second to none. He is there now. W By JOSEPH T. KESCEL HY for I do it? Huh? Ki yi! Why me no can stand up?" Young Lee Fat sputtered that much before brushing the snow from his loose blouse and black hair, then, with his slanting, Oriental, dark eyes, studiously regarded the pair of long skis which had been the cause of a hard tumble. "Alla time I go flip-flop! Some day blake my neck!" and Lee turned to his companion, Jerry Kimball, a sturdy mountain lad standing on his own skis barely a rod distant and whose brown face was wreathed in smiles. Those smiles were the cause of the young Chinese breaking out afresh, and every word showed that he was peeved. "Hey! Why for you laugh? Him no flunny business! Maybe I 'most kill! You no know!" Jerry Kimball had n't laughed, but now he let out a whole-souled guffaw and threw open his red mackinaw as if needing more air. This started Lee off again. "Haw! Haw! Haw!" he mimicked. "Velly clomical! Velly clomical! But him different to me, 'cause I takee fall. Wasa good of skis, anyhow? I no see! You say, 'Learn 'em, for maybe sometime come in handy.' Go downhill, and no flip-flop. Fine splort! Zigzag uphill, hard work! At top turn round, takee long bleth, makee start-zip!" In pantomime, Lee tried to show a boy tearing over the snow at great speed, then went on, "Walk mile for minute's fun!" Jerry wanted to laugh again, but instead gave a chuckle and said, smiling, "You 're doin' fine, Lee! A little more practice, and you 'll make the champion of the range take a back seat. "I no want anybody to sit down," Lee snapped, getting ready to mount his skis. "I sit down plenty for all Idaho!" "You don't get me, Lee! What I mean is this: you'll be the best skier in this section if you keep on improving as you have since snow fell." "Oh! I savvy, now," and the yellow face screwed into a broad grin. "China boy velly patient, but-well, sometime I get heap mad when alla time tumble, tumble." Within a few minutes the boys were ready to resume their journey but, before starting off, looked about them to enjoy the beauty of the mountain scenery, showing to wonderful advantage beneath a bright winter sun. In every direction were lofty mountains, sometimes covered with stately pines; while again there would be long, gleaming stretches of white which showed the effects of countless avalanches that had rolled, tossed, and tumbled down steep slopes before the heaving masses piled up in the cañon bottom with a thunderous roar. This was Northern Idaho, and among those rugged, snow-clad mountains a railroad, snake-like, wound its way. Along hillsides, across bridges, and through dark tunnels the shining steel rails linked the East with the West, and at the same time provided an outlet for the vast mineral resources of the district. Jerry was the first to start off, and then the two began zigzagging up the hillside, each boy holding a long, light pole, the kind usually carried in mountain skiing,ready for any emergency. They were youngsters, this pair, neither lad seventeen, and their first meeting dated back only to the evening in the preceding autumn when Lee Fat, sick, almost exhausted, and penniless, had accidentally run onto Jerry Kimball's log-cabin, perched on a timbered slope beside a prospect tunnel. Jerry had taken the unfortunate wayfarer in, and before morning learned his story. "I guess I must be China boy hobo," Lee began, smiling. "Have bad luck, heap long time. No can tell why. Work hard, but tings him go bad. Maybe China devil-devils after me. No can tell. Long time ago me leave Seattle and lookee for job. No catchum, and pletty soon look like hobo and evelyblody say, 'Move along, Chink! We no want tlamp!' Four, fi' day ago I think maybe catchum work up here in mountains, so start lite quick on foot. Pletty soon devil-devils take me all over, head, legs, and here. Lee placed a hand on his stomach, then his eyes suddenly brightened as he added, "Maybe you give me job, huh?" Jerry grinned, passed a calloused hand over his mop of brown hair, then drawled, "Gosh! I don't So within a week, two boys, instead of one, pounded a drill in the tunnel, though Jerry thoughtfully shook his head over the almost exhausted supply of provisions and his empty pocketbook. Then, while the first snow was spreading a soft blanket of white over the country, their deliverer appeared in the person of John Dean, section-boss on a long strip of the railroad that ran through this part of the mountains. Dean had something to say and came out with a proposition in a few words. "Jerry," he said, taking in the boy's sweating face and fine shoulders, "I guess we 're goin' to have a hard winter. All the old-timers say the signs point that way. This is a bad piece of road, up here, worst on the line, and there can't be too many eyes on it in snow-time. You 're right at the very worst spot, and I can make it worth your while to be on the look-out. That lad goin' to be with you all winter?" Dean glanced at Lee, leaning against the tunnel-heading, a drill in one hand and a miner's hammer in the other. Jerry's answer was a prompt, "Yeah, most likely!" and at once the section-boss went on. "Hum! Well, I have a pretty good idea how you 're fixed, so how would grub and a little money look to you for keepin' your eyes open and watching the Thundering Fork bridge in the gorge, yonder? If it looks the least bit shaky, why, set a dangersignal and get word to headquarters right quick." The next day a generous supply of provisions and two pairs of skis had been turned over to the boys by the crew of a freighttrain, and before another twenty-four hours rolled around, Lee Fat knew the delights of skiing and the thrills of tumbles. "Ki yi! Wow! Stop um!" he yelled a score of times as the long, thin, narrow boards, with curved ends, apparently tried to see how far they could go in opposite directions. "Pletty soon my legs be mile long! Stop um! Stop um!" And scores of times, while clawing his way from some huge snow-drift, he sputtered, "Ki yi! Devil-devils try take me way down under!" The old-timers were right, for this was indeed a hard winter. Never had any of them seen such severe storms and heavy snowfalls. The gleaming carpet of white was many feet deep everywhere, and often the depth could be measured by yards. Sometime during each day, both youngsters skied over the section allotted to them, always paying special attention to the high steel bridge spanning Thundering Fork gorge, a deep ravine at the bottom of which roared a turbulent stream. Again and again Lee had taken what he called "flip-flops," but he had stuck to it-and now, as the pair made their way to their cabin home, he was more than fairly proficient. Before they went inside, Jerry shook his head as he looked the country over. "Reckon we 're in for a regular old norther," he said, his eyes fixing on a huge bank of clouds coming nearer and nearer. Lee heard every word, and at once started in to relieve himself. "Hey! Wasa matter this countly, anyway? Snow! Snow! Snow! Alla time! Pletty soon him be so deep we have to dig down to top of pine-tlee! Alleady now we go through snow-tunnel to get in mouth of rocky one.' And this was true, for a small snow-tunnel connected the cabin with the black hole in which the boys some day expected to strike pay ore. Suddenly, Lee changed the subject as he caught sight of several fair-sized, grayish animals which emerged from a pine thicket some distance off. "What dogs do over there?" he asked, raising his hands to peer from beneath them. Jerry smiled before he answered. "They 're not dogs, Lee. Coyotes, or wolves!" Down came the hands with a jerk, and as the young Chinese turned to his companion, his black eyes showed a decidedly worried expression. "Coyotes! Wolves! Ki yi! Why for he come here?" Jerry's smile was now a broad grin. "Scratchin' around for something to eat, most likely. There ain't many of 'em in this section. It 's only once in a while you see one, for they usually stick to the lower country." "Yi! Me no wanta see um no time!" Lee broke out. "Wolf, coyote, bad! Um eat people!" "Ha! Ha! Ha! Lee, you 're funny," and Jerry's grin changed to a good-natured laugh. "A coyote will never bother you, and-and-well, maybe they 're not wolves. It's quite a ways over there and I can't tell what they are. But don't you be scared, though, for a wolf won't bother a human unless it 's cornered-or just awful hungry." Lee showed very plainly that he was not convinced and asked many questions before lasses-covered flapjack found its way into a cavern-like mouth. Shortly after eight o'clock Murphy made ready to start for his own cabin, and while outside, adjusting his skis, remarked between grunts: "Reckon we 're in for another old buster! Never seen such a winter as this since I struck the Northwest. So long! Take good care of yourselves." And a moment later his tall frame was swallowed up by darkness and the fast falling snow. In the morning the boys found that the storm had turned into a howling blizzard. While Lee was getting breakfast, Jerry made a trip to the bridge, and, after making sure it was intact, struggled back to the cabin. "Guh-h-h!" he exclaimed, shaking the snow from his mackinaw. "If this is n't a terror! No work in the tunnel to-day! We 're goin' to be mighty busy keepin' tab on our section." "Yi! Him snow little more, pletty soon ski lite onto moon," was Lee's grinning comment; then he started pouring the coffee. Before noon a powerful rotary snow-plow, with a whirring, paddle-like wheel which hurled the snow far down the mountain, was forced along the track by five huge mountain-locomotives, their short stacks belching clouds of black smoke. "CLOSER AND CLOSER CAME THE SLOW-MOVING FIGURE" the pair went into the cabin. A short time later they had a visitor. Pat Murphy, an old prospector who had a claim farther back in the mountains, and his dog dropped in and remained for supper. Lee and the dog-a full-grown St. Bernard, named Skookumsoon became good friends, and many a mo Evening came, and the storm was at its height, a sure-enough northwest blizzard, with the snow becoming deeper each minute and the wind blowing a gale. Back and forth ran the rotary and its puffing pushers, |