Paul Leicester Ford

“ I asked, “does the East come up to that in gallantry?”
“Do you really mean that there is no charge?” demanded Madge, incredulously, with her purse in her hand.
“That’s the size of it,” said the operator.
“I’m not going to believe that!” cried Madge. “I know you are only deceiving me, and I really want to pay.”
I laughed as I said, “Sometimes railroad superintendents can send messages free, Miss Cullen.”
“How silly of me!” exclaimed Madge. Then she remarked, “How nice it is to be a railroad superintendent, Mr. Gordon! I should like to be one myself.” ”

“ I don’t mind a bit being laughed at, but Miss Cullen knew, about as well as I, whom I was talking about, and it seemed to me she was laughing at my love for her. Under this impression I went on, “I suppose it is funny to you; probably so many men have been in love with you that a man’s love for a woman has come to mean very little in your eyes. But out here we don’t make a joke of love, and when we care for a woman we care—well, it’s not to be put in words, Miss Cullen.” ”

“ I have read or been told that, unassisted, the pseudo-hero captured a dozen desperadoes; that he was one of the road agents himself; that he was saved from lynching only by the timely arrival of cavalry; that the action of the United States government in rescuing him from the civil authorities was a most high-handed interference with State rights; that he received his reward from a grateful railroad by being promoted; that a lovely woman as recompense for his villany—but bother! it’s my business to tell what really occurred, and not what the world chooses to invent. ”

“ If ever a fellow was bewildered by a single speech, it was Richard Gordon. I walked up and down that platform till I was called to breakfast, trying to decide what Miss Cullen had meant to express, only to succeed in reading fifty different meanings into her parting six words. I wanted to think that it was her way of suggesting that I deceived myself in thinking that there was anything between Lord Ralles and herself; but, though I wished to believe this, I had seen too much to the contrary to take stock in the idea. Yet I couldn’t believe that Madge was a coquette ”

“ I turned across the railroad tracks, and cut in behind some freight-cars that were standing on a siding. This put me out of view of my pursuers for a moment, and in that instant I stood up in my stirrups, lifted the broad leather flap of the saddle, and tucked the letters underneath it, as far in as I could force them. It was a desperate place in which to hide them, but the game was a desperate one at best, and the very boldness of the idea might be its best chance of success. ”

“ Fred came in presently to see if I was up yet, and to ask me to lunch, but I felt so miserable and down-hearted that I made an excuse of my late breakfast for not joining them.
After luncheon the party in the other special all came out and walked up and down the platform, the sound of their voices and laughter only making me feel the bluer. Before long I heard a rap on one of my windows, and there was Miss Cullen peering in at me. The moment I looked up, she called,—
“Won’t you make one of us, Mr. Misanthrope?” ”

“ I replied, “and it was bright moonlight till an hour ago. It would be hard enough for one man to get within a mile of the station without being seen, and it would be impossible for seven or eight.”
“How do you know the number?” asked a passenger.
“I don’t,” I said. “That’s the number the crew think there were; but I myself don’t believe it.”
“Why don’t you believe the men?” asked Miss Cullen.
“First, because there is always a tendency to magnify, and next, because the road agents ran away so quickly.”
“I counted at least seven,” asserted Lord Ralles. ”

“ Returning to the train, the report of the men was the same.
“We’ve ghost road agents to deal with, Miss Cullen,” I laughed. “They come from nowhere, bullets touch them not, their lead hurts nobody, they take nothing, and they disappear without touching the ground.”
“How curious it is!” she exclaimed. “One would almost suppose it a dream.”
“Hold on,” I said. “We do have something tangible, for if they disappeared they left their shells behind them.” And I pointed to some cartridge-shells that lay on the ground beside the mail-car. “My theory of aerial bullets won’t do.” ”

“ As for Madge, I couldn’t make her out. I had always thought I understood women a little, but her conduct was beyond understanding.
Apparently Miss Cullen didn’t altogether relish her position, for presently she said she was going to the car. “I’m sure you and Lord Ralles will be company enough for each other,” she predicted, giving me a flash of her eyes which showed them full of suppressed merriment, even while her face was grave. ”

“ Leaving her, I went over to Fred.
“Mr. Cullen,” I said, “Miss Cullen, rather than be searched, has acknowledged that she has the letters, and says that if we men will go into the hut she’ll get them for me.”
He rose at once. “I told my father not to drag her in,” he muttered, sadly. “I don’t care about myself, Mr. Gordon, but can’t you keep her out of it? She’s as innocent of any real wrong as the day she was born.”
“I’ll do everything in my power,” I promised. Then he and Hance went into the cabin, and I walked back to the culprit. ”

“ The experience seemed to sadden and distress Miss Cullen very much for the rest of the afternoon, and I kicked myself for having called her attention to the brute, and could have knocked him down for the way he had looked at her. It is curious that I felt thankful at the time that Drute was not holding up a train Miss Cullen was on. It is always the unexpected that happens. ”

“ Mr. Cullen called. “Give them the letters at once.”
“Oh, do, Mr. Gordon,” said Madge, still white and breathless with emotion. “The money is nothing. Don’t think—” It was all she could say.
I felt pretty small, but with Camp and Baldwin, now reinforced by Judge Wilson, I went to the station, ordered the agent to open the safe, took out the three letters, and handed them to Mr. Camp, realizing how poor Madge must have felt on Hance’s trail. ”

“ I smiled at the absolute innocence and wonder with which she spoke, and replied, “I know now, Miss Cullen, why you said I was braver than the Britishers.”
“How do you know?”
I couldn’t resist getting in a side-shot at Lord Ralles, who had mounted his mule and sat scowling. “The train-robbers were such thoroughgoing duffers at the trade,” I said, “that if they had left their names and addresses they wouldn’t have made it much easier. We Americans may not know enough to deal with real road agents, but we can do something with amateurs.” ”

“ I had barely spoken when “bang! bang!” went two shots. That they were both fired from an English “express” my ears told me, for no other people in this world make a mountain howitzer and call it a rifle.
Hardly were the two shots fired when “crack! crack! crack! crack!” went some Winchesters.
“Oh! what is it?” cried Miss Cullen.
“I think your wish has been granted,” I answered hurriedly. “We are being held up, and Lord Ralles is showing us how to—”
My speech was interrupted. “Bang! bang!” challenged another “express,” the shots so close together as to be almost simultaneous. “Crack! crack! ”

“ Then, without speaking, I walked slowly back, searching along the edge of the road-bed for more shells; but, though I went beyond the point where the last car had stood, not one did I find. Any man who has fired a Winchester knows that it drops its empty shell in loading, and I could therefore draw only one conclusion,—namely, that all seven discharges of the Winchesters had occurred up by the mail-car. ”

“ One side is prepared before the other side knows there is danger. Without regard to relative numbers, the odds are all in favor of the road agents.”
“But I wouldn’t sit still, whatever the odds,” asserted his lordship. “And no Englishman would.”
“Well, Lord Ralles,” I said, “I hope for your sake, then, that you’ll never be in a hold-up, for I should feel about you as the runner of a locomotive did when the old lady asked him if it wasn’t very painful to him to run over people. ”

“ Our feelings can be judged when across the tracks came only a mob of thirty or forty cowboys, riding in their usual “show-off” style.
“The deuce!” I couldn’t help exclaiming, in my surprise. “Are you sure you saw a flag, Miss Cullen?”
“Why—I—thought—” she faltered. “I saw something red, and—I supposed of course—”
Not waiting to let her finish, I exclaimed, “There’s been a fluke somewhere, I’m afraid; but we are still in good shape, for the train can’t possibly be here under an hour. ”

“ I went out on the platform of the station, and was lucky enough to find her there alone.
“Miss Cullen,” I said, “I’ve been ungentlemanly and suspicious, and I’m about as ashamed of myself as a man can be and not jump into the Grand Cañon. I’ve not come to you to ask your forgiveness, for I can’t forgive myself, much less expect it of you. But I want you to know how I feel, and if there’s any reparation, apology, anything, that you’d like, I’ll—”
Madge interrupted my speech there by holding out her hand. ”

“ Camp cried, “All the more fool—” but Baldwin interrupted him by saying,—
“That only shows what a mean cuss Cullen is. He ought to give you ten thousand, if he gives you a cent.”
“Yes,” cried Camp, “those letters are worth money, whether he’s offered it or not.”
“Mr. Cullen never so much as hinted paying me,” said I.
“Well, Mr. Gordon,” said Baldwin, suavely, “we’ll show you that we can be more liberal. Though the letters rightfully belong to Mr. Camp, if you’ll deliver them to us we’ll see that you don’t lose your place, and we’ll give you five thousand dollars.” ”

“ I knew that Baldwin’s cowboys could get new mounts in plenty without wasting many minutes, and that then they would overhaul me in very short order. Clearly there was no use in my attempting to escape by running. And, as I wasn’t armed, my only hope was to beat them by some finesse.
Ash Forks, like all Western railroad towns, is one long line of buildings running parallel with the railway tracks. Two hundred feet, therefore, brought me to the edge of the town, and I wheeled my pony and rode down behind the rear of the buildings. ”

“ We rode into camp a pretty gloomy crowd, and those of the party waiting for us there were not much better; but when Lord Ralles dismounted and showed up in his substitute for trousers there was a general shout of laughter. Even Miss Cullen had to laugh for a moment. And as his lordship bolted for his tent, I said to myself, “Honors are easy.”
I told the sheriff that I had recovered the lost property, but did not think any arrests necessary as yet; and, as he was the agent of the K. & A. at Flagstaff, he didn’t question my opinion. ”

“ I hurried Miss Cullen into the car, and, after bolting the rear door, took down my Winchester from its rack.
“I’m going forward,” I told her, “and will tell my darkies to bolt the front door: so you’ll be as safe in here as in Chicago.”
In another minute I was on my front platform. Dropping down between the two cars, I crept along beside—indeed, half under—Mr. Cullen’s special. After my previous conclusion, my surprise can be judged when at the farther end I found the two Britishers and Albert Cullen, standing there in the most exposed position possible. ”

“ He laughed, and called, “Digitalis put me on my feet like a flash.”
“He’s got the most brains of any man in this party,” I remarked to myself.
The trail at this point is very winding, so that one can rarely see fifty feet in advance, and sometimes not ten. Owing to this, the first thing I knew I plumped round a curve on to a mule, which was patiently standing there. Just back of him was another, on which sat Miss Cullen, and standing close beside her was Lord Ralles. One of his hands held the mule’s bridle; the other held Madge’s arm, and he was saying, “You owe it to me, and I will have one. ”

“ That made me feel pretty safe, for, even if the cowboys found the loose plank and crawled in, it would take uncommon good eyesight, in the darkness, to find me. I had hollowed out my living grave to fit, and if I could have smoked, I should have been decidedly comfortable. Sleep I dared not indulge in, and the sequel showed that I was right in not allowing myself that luxury.
I hadn’t much more than comfortably settled myself, and let thoughts of a cigar and a nap flit through my mind, when a row up the street showed that the jail-breaking had been discovered. ”