Part 39 (1/2)

Bridge lay back, luxuriously, on the red plush of the smoker seat

”Soe stretched

The tide-hounds race far up the shore--the hunt is on! The breakers roar!

Her spars are tipped with gold, and o'er her deck the spray is flung, The buoys that frolic in the bay, they nod the way, they nod the way!

The hunt is up! I a!

CHAPTER VI ”BABY BANDITS”

IT WAS twenty-four hours before Detective Sergeant Flannagan awoke to the fact that so had been put over on hi

He ed to piece it out finally from the narratives of the two tramps, and when he had returned to the Shorter home and listened to the contradictory and whole-souled improvisations of Shorter pere and raphed Chicago headquarters and obtained the necessary authority to proceed upon the trail of the fugitive, Byrne

And so it was that Sergeant Flannagan landed in El Paso a few days later, drawn thither by various pieces of intelligence he had gathered en route, though with much delay and consequent vexation

Even after he had quitted the train he was none too sure that he was upon the right trail though he at once repaired to a telegraph office and wired his chief that he was hot on the trail of the fugitive

As a ined, for Billy and Bridge were that veryas to the future and the bestit before it arrived

”I think,” said Billy, ”that I'll duck across the border I won't never be safe in little old U S, an' with things hoppin' in Mexico the way they have been for the last few years I orter be able to lose ht, ol' top You don't have to duck nothin' for you ain't did nothin' I don't knohat you're runnin' away from; but I know it ain't nothin' the police is worryin' about--I can tell that by the way you act--so I guess we'll split here You'd be a boob to cross if you don't have to, fer if Villa don't get you the Carranzistas will, unless the Zapatistas nab you first

”Cohbinder's bound to croak you if you cross, from what little I've heard since we landed in El Paso

”We'll feed up together tonight, fer the last tiht” He was silent for a while, and then: ”I hate to do it, bo, fer you're the whitest guy I ever struck,” which was a great deal for Billy Byrne of Grand Avenue to say

Bridge finished rolling a brown paper cigarette before he spoke

”Your words are pure and unadulterated wisdom, ringo hoboes would last the week out afoot and broke in Viva Mexico; but it has been many years since I followed the dictates of wisdorinned He could not conceal his pleasure

”You're past twenty-one,” he said, ”an' dry behind the ears Let's go an' eat There is still soether they entered a saloon which Bridge ree consule schooner of beer

There were round tables scattered about the floor in front of the bar, and after purchasing their beer they carried it to one of these that stood in a far corner of the roouard over the foa open sesame to food while Billy crossed to the free lunch counter and appropriated all that a zealous attendant would permit him to carry off

When he returned to the table he took a chair with his back to the wall in confor when, as now, it had stood hiood stead to be in a position to see the other fellow at least as soon as the other fello hientleman with a bit of shi+ny uy's a tight one,” said Billy, jerking his hand in the direction of the guardian of the free lunch ”I scoops up about a good, square h up half of it Wants to know if I t'ink I can go into the restaurant business on a fi'-cent schooner of suds”

Bridge laughed