FTER what he had heard, Will was most anxious to remain unseen, for he knew that Night Hawk Jerry would recognize him very quickly, and that would spoil all.

So he feigned sickness, had his breakfast brought to his state-room the next morning, and then, as the boat landed at the town where the two conspirators were to leave it, he grasped his gripsack and cautiously went forward.

The men leaped ashore, when the gangplank was run out, and Will followed them at considerable distance up into the village.

There were quite a number of passengers, so that the boy was unable to select the one against whom the robbers had plotted.

But he watched his men, saw them go to a livery stable, and soon after ride out of town at a gallop. Instantly he went to that same stable, and a few minutes afterward was in a buggy with a driver, going on the road which the robbers had taken, for the livery man told him how he had directed them.

By fast driving he came in sight of them, and then he told his man to draw rein and wait, while he got out and went ahead on foot.

By keeping close in to the woods he kept out of sight of the robber pair, and saw them turn into a thickly-wooded point at a bend in the road, where the underbrush was very dense.

"That is their ambush," he muttered to himself, and he returned to the buggy, getting in just as a horseman appeared coming along the road.

As he drew near, Will saw that he was a fine-looking man, with an athletic form, and a kindly yet strangely stern face. He was well dressed and appeared to be a well-to-do country gentleman, and the boy remembered having seen him on the Chesapeake steamboat.

As he drew near to where the buggy was waiting, he said pleasantly, recognizing the negro driver: "Well, Hercules, out for a drive?"

"Yas, Massa Lomax, I is takin' dis young gemman on a leetle drive, sah," answered Hercules, who had gained his name from his great strength.

"Pardon me, sir, but may I have a word with you?" said Will, politely.

"Certainly, young man," replied the farmer.

"You came down the bay on the steamer last night with me, sir."

"I came down on the steamer, but I do not remember to have seen you, though your face is strangely, so strangely familiar to me," and the farmer gazed fixedly into the face of the boy.

"We have not met, sir; but may I ask if you did not take up to Baltimore a cargo of cattle and sell them there?"

"I did."

"Well, sir, I overheard a plot between two men last night to rob you on your way home this morning. My state-room adjoined theirs, and a knot in the wooden partition had fallen out, or been pushed out, just at my head, and I saw the men and heard their plot.

"One of the men is a noted New York crook, and I am anxious to capture him, while his companion is doubtless a Baltimore thief."

"You surprise me, young sir, and I thank you most sincerely, for I have with me a large sum of money, and taken at disadvantage I might lose both it and my life, though I am armed."

"These are desperate men, sir, or at least I know one to be, and I am determined to capture him if possible, for I can get him held until a requisition from the Governor of New York can be obtained."

The farmer smiled at the words of the youth, and said: "You are a plucky fellow, and we had better send for a constable from the village, for Hercules will go."

"I am an officer, sir, and I have formed a plan to capture them," and Will opened his coat and showed his badge, not only to the farmer's surprise, but to Hercules's great awe and admiration.

"Well, my young friend, what is your plan?"

"To tie my handkerchief about my face, and muffle up, laying back in the buggy as though I was sick, while I drive by the point of ambush, which is at the bend in the road above here.

"When I get by, I will leave the buggy with Hercules, and we can get close back to the place of ambush, and you can come along, and as the men approach you, we will be close on their tracks."

"A good plan, my lad; but let us know each other, as we are to act together.

"My name is Kent Lomax; I am a farmer, and live not far from here."

"My name is Will Raymond, sir."

"Raymond!" and the farmer started.

"Yes, sir."

"Where are you from?"

"New York, sir."

"Ah, me! Your name recalls the strange resemblance your face bears to one I once knew, and it is strange, indeed, that face and name should be so alike," and the farmer spoke in a voice that was full of sadness; but in an instant he continued in a different tone: "Well, Master Raymond, I am glad to be associated with you in this little affair, and you are the captain, so go ahead with your plan."

After a few other arrangements the boy drove on in the buggy with Hercules, his face tied up, a scarf about his neck and his hat drawn down over his eyes.

But his keen eyes were watching the road as they drove along, and he detected in the bushes the two men in ambush.

As agreed upon with Kent Lomax, Hercules dropped his whip and sprang out to get it, so that he, watching back down the road, should know just the spot where the robbers were.

Then the buggy drove on, and once around the bend they turned into a secluded spot and at once sprang out and hitched the horse, while they crept up a ravine, which Kent Lomax had told them would lead them almost to the bend in the road.

"They could not have chosen a better place for us to surprise them," said Will as he hurried on with the negro.

"No, massa, dat am so, and I awful glad I cum with you, for maybe I git suthin' out o' dis scrimmage," returned Hercules.

"You shall, Hercules, and I hope it will be gold rather than lead."

"I don't want no lead, massa," and, Hercules picked up a stick, to serve as a club, as they went along.

Soon they came to the end of the ravine, and, creeping up to the top of the bank, Will looked over. He quickly drew back his head, for the two men were not sixty feet from him, standing behind a clump of bushes on the edge of the road.

"You see um, massa?" whispered Hercules.

"Yes; and Mr. Lomax is already coming, and, but a couple of hundred yards away;" and Will took from his pocket a small revolver, but of large calibre, and glanced at it carefully.

"Now I'll watch, Hercules, and you be ready to run out with me."

"Yas, massa."

In silence then they waited until, suddenly, the words were heard:

"Halt! Your money or your life!"

"Come!" and with the word Will and Hercules bounded from the ravine.

They saw farmer Lomax at a halt in the road, one man grasping the rein of his horse, and the other holding a pistol up in his face.

The farmer sat perfectly quiet, and the men each had an handkerchief over his face, with holes cut to see through.

"Come, out with your money, and lose no time, if you value your life!" sternly ordered Jerry, the Night Hawk.

The farmer thrust his hand into his pocket, drew out his well-filled wallet, and tossed it upon the ground, just as clear and sharp came the cry: "Hands up, Night Hawk Jerry!"

The two men uttered a cry of alarm and turned, to see the boy and the negro almost upon them; and recognizing Will, Night Hawk fired.

The bullet clipped a hole in Will's hat-brim, and at that moment the boy pulled trigger, just as the robber fired a second shot.

Down, dropped Night Hawk, a dead man, for Will's bullet had pierced his brain, while at the same moment Kent Lomax had hurled himself upon the other robber and held him at his mercy.

"I was sorry to have to kill him, but he shot me through the hat, for I felt it turn on my head, and his second bullet clipped my arm, but I guess did no harm," said Will.

"My boy, you are worth your weight in gold; let me see if you are hurt," and Kent Lomax turned his man over to Hercules, while he drew off the boy's jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeve. There was a slight gash on the left arm that was not of much consequence, and Kent Lomax quickly bound a handkerchief about it, while he said:

"You will need no requisition for your man, Master Raymond, while this one we will give into the hands of the village constable.

"Hercules, mount my horse and ride back to the village for the constable and the coroner, and I will remain here with this young man."

The negro departed, while Will said: "My errand here, sir, was to see Mr. Rossmore upon an important matter, and I am anxious to catch the boat back to-night, so that I might drive on to his farm and get back here by the time the constable arrives, if you do not mind."

"Certainly not, and Mr. Rossmore lives on the road a mile from here.

"You will come to a bridge crossing a stream with a mill upon it, and the Rossmore place is just beyond on the hill in full view."

Thanking the farmer Will sprang into the buggy and drove on.

As he reached the bridge he came to a halt, while he said: "Why, this is the very scene that mother painted and gave to Colonel Ivey.

"How strange her painting should be so like a real scene way down here on the eastern shore of Maryland," and, wondering at the coincidence, Will drove on up to the handsome country home on the hillside.