He and his brother got off
the train at the last stop, with the guns and masks, and concealed
themselves on the platform of the mail-car. Here they had been joined
by the Britishers at the right moment, the disguises assumed, and the
train held up as already told. Of course the dynamite cartridge was
only a blind, and the letters had been thrown about the car merely to
confuse the clerk. Then while Frederic Cullen, with the letters, had
stolen back to the car, the two Englishmen had crept back to where
they had stood. Here, as had been arranged, they opened fire, which
Albert Cullen duly returned, and then joined them. "I don't see now
how you spotted us," Frederic ended.
I told him, and his disgust was amusing to see. "Going to Oxford may
be all right for the classics," he growled, "but it's destructive to
gumption."
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 ordered the stage
out, and told Tolfree to give us a feed before we started, but a more
silent meal I never sat down to, and I noticed that Miss Cullen didn't
eat anything, while the tragic look on her face was so pathetic as
nearly to drive me frantic.
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