Page:Bob Chester's Grit.djvu/148

132 "Could you identify them if caught?" he was asked.

"If I could hear them speak, I could recognize the voice of the man who proposed the plan. I did not get a look at them," replied Bob.

Satisfied with this answer, the officers sent instructions to have the tracks patrolled from Hastings to the long bridge, to search all trains, and to arrest any tramps found.

This done, arrangements were made to have other detectives at the bridge in case the men eluded capture.

The waiting was tedious. But at last, about three in the afternoon, word was received that four tramps, heavily armed, had been captured about ten miles from the Mississippi river.

Putting Bob into the cab of an engine, six officers climbed aboard, and a record run was made to the scene of the arrest.

"You sit where you can watch and hear them talk," whispered a detective in Bob's ear.

At first the prisoners were silent, but under the taunts of the officers, their reserve weakened, and they began to rail at the men who had captured them.

Eagerly, Bob listened, then cried, pointing to the smallest of the four:

"That's the man who said he'd get even. I recognize his voice!"