Ted called Mr. Truax up on the telephone.  The commission merchant had read about the express robbery, and had connected the man in the red car with it, but promised to say nothing about it until Ted had had an opportunity to unravel the mystery.

Ted lay awake a long time that night thinking the matter over, and in the morning awoke with a plan in his mind.

“Well, hev yer determined what ter do erbout ther red car?” asked Bud at the breakfast table.  “I’m shore gittin’ sore at myself fer a loafer, sittin’ eround here doin’ nothin’ but eat an’ look at ther things in ther stores what I can’t buy.”

“I’ve got a scheme that I’m going to try,” answered Ted.

“What is it?”

“I’m going to run that car all over this town until I get some of the train-robbing syndicate anxious about it and to following it.  Then I’m going to get on to their place of doing business and their methods.”

“Wish yer luck,” was Bud’s cheerless comment.

Bud had been out wandering restlessly around the streets all morning, and Ted was writing letters.  When he got through he thought about the missing trunk, and concluded that he would go to the Union Station to see if it had been received.

The words of warning in the note not to go on the street alone were clear in his memory; but this he took to mean at night, for in a crowded street in the daytime he could see no danger.

After he had waited an hour or more for Bud, and the yellow-haired cow-puncher had not returned, Ted decided to delay no longer, and started off at a brisk walk for the station, which was six or seven blocks distant.

His hotel being on Pine Street, he chose that for his route.

He had walked three blocks when he stopped to watch a man who was slightly in advance of him.

It was the fellow he had seen in the checked suit.

He had just come out of a saloon.

In the middle of the block he stopped to talk with another man, who looked as if he worked on the railroad, and Ted loitered in a doorway until the two separated, and the man in the checked suit continued on his way.

A block farther on Ted observed two men standing on the corner talking. 
A policeman stood on the opposite corner.

The two men on the corner Ted knew instantly for “plain-clothes men,” as the headquarters detectives are called.

He was well aware that the police by this time were on the alert to find the express robber and murderer, and knew that every available man on the city detective force was on the watch, like a cat at a rat hole.

To capture the train robber meant a reward and promotion.

Ted stood on the corner opposite the detectives and watched proceedings.

When the man in the checked suit had gone about ten paces beyond the detectives, one of them started after him, and the other signaled the policeman in uniform to cross over.