Now that I finally had his attention, I pointed over to the bathroom and told him we had to hide in there. But it was too late. Another conductor appeared and started scanning tickets as he made his way through the café car. Bones immediately shot his paper up, and I followed, which worked—for about two seconds.

“Tickets, boys,” the conductor said impatiently, holding out his hand.

Bones was ready for him. “Sorry, sir. We left our tickets in our backpacks on the seat. We’ll go get them now.”

The conductor slowly looked from Bones to me and then back to Bones. He obviously wasn’t buying any of it but gave us a curt nod and said sternly, “We’ll meet right back here in two minutes.” He pointed to the door with authority. “Go get your tickets, boys. No free rides today.”

Before he could change his mind, we scurried out the door and passed through one car and—just as we were about to pass into another—we stopped. The conductor who had held up the train for us was walking through the car with his ticket scanner in hand.

Now we were pretty much dead. Of course Bones wasn’t going to give up so easily.

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