from the Big Y to its terminus.

The boy had to wait but a little while for the accommodation, which was
on time, and stepping aboard, he was soon homeward bound. He was
absorbed in meditations when he was roused from his rather unpleasant
reverie by the voice of the conductor, who had taken a seat near by him
to chat a few minutes with a friend.

"It is a strange coincidence, Sam, and it puts me in mind of an
adventure I had several years ago, and which came near punching my
through ticket."

"An adventure, Henry? Give us the story."

"As soon as we have passed Greenburn. I shall have plenty of leisure
then."

Without dreaming how soon he should recall it with startling vividness,
our hero, with a boy's interest, listened to the conductor's story:

"Ten years ago I was engineer on the Tehicipa and Los Angeles Road, a
branch of the Southern Pacific. Those were troublesome times. What with
the guerillas and Indians that infested the country, to say nothing of
other dangers, we never knew when we were safe, if we ever were.

[Illustration {map}]

"One evening--just about such an evening as this, too--we had barely
stopped at a way station when some one rushed up to the train and said
Gray Gerardo's band was coming to attack us.