Setting him at liberty, I asked him if he
could tell whether mail had been taken, and, after a glance at the
confusion, he said he could not know till he had examined.
Having taken stock of the harm done, I began asking questions. Just
after we had left Sanders, two masked men had entered the mail-car,
and while one covered the clerk with a revolver the other had tied
and "sacked" him. Two more had gone forward and done the same to the
express agent. Another had climbed over the tender and ordered the
runner to hold up. All this was regular programme, as I had explained
to Miss Cullen, but here had been a variation which I had never heard
of being done, and of which I couldn't fathom the object. When the
train had been stopped, the man on the tender had ordered the fireman
to dump his fire, and now it was lying in the road-bed and threatening
to burn through the ties; so my first order was to extinguish it,
and my second was to start a new fire and get up steam as quickly as
possible. From all I could learn, there were eight men concerned in
the attempt, and I confess I shook my head in puzzlement why that
number should have allowed themselves to be scared off so easily.
My wonderment grew when I called on the conductor for his tickets.
These showed nothing but two from Albuquerque, one from Laguna, and
four from Coolidge. This latter would have looked hopeful but for the
fact that it was a party of three women and a man. Going back beyond
Lamy didn't give anything, for the conductor was able to account for
every fare as either still in the train or as having got off at some
point.
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