Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 27, Number 38, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 27 March 1897 — Page 3

PAUL L0CE5JER FORD. "ITE Honom81£ ma smwcCs

COPVRJCHT. (896» 8r. 6 LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

CHAPTER IIL

A NIGHT'S WORK ON THE ALKALI PLAINS. I hurried Miss Cullen into the car, •nd, after bolting the rear door, took down my Winchester from its rack. "I'm going forward," I told her, "and will tell my boys 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 tinder—Mr. Cnllen's special After my previous conclusion, my surprise oan be judged when at the farther end I found the two Britishers and Albert Cullen standing there, in the most exposed position possible. I joined them, muttering to myself something about Providence and fools. "Aw," drawled Cullen, "here's Mr. Gordon, just too late for the sport, by Jove.''. "Well," said Lord Ralles, "we've had a hand in this deal, Mr. Superintendent, and haven't been potted. The scoundrels broke for cover the moment wo opened fire."

By this time there were 20 passengers about our group, all of them asking questions at once, making it difficult to learn just what had happened, but so far as I could piece the answers togethor the poker players' curiosity had been aroused by the long stop, and, looking out, they had seen a single man, with a rifle, standing by the engine. Instantly arming themselves, Lord Ralles lot fly both barrels at him, and in turn was the target for the first four shots I had heard. Tho shooting had brought the rest of tho robbers tumbling off tho cars, and the captain and Cullen had fired the rest of tho shots at them as they scattered I didn't stop to hoar moro, but went forward to see what the road agents had got away with.

I found the express agent tied hand and foot in tho corner of his car, and, telling a brsikeman who had followed mo to set him at liberty, I turnod my attention to the safe. That the diversion had not come a moment too soon was shown by the dynamite cartridge already in place and by tho fuse that lay on tho floor, as if dropped suddenly. But tho safe was intact

Passing into tho mail car. I found tho olerk tied to a post, with a mail sack pulled over his head, and the utmost oonfusion among tho pouohes and sorting compartments, while scattered over tho floor wore a great many letters. Setting him at liberty, I asked him if he could toll whether mail had been taken, and, after a glance at the confusion, ho said ho could not know till ho had examined.

Having taken stock of the harm done, I began asking questions. Just after wo had left Sanders two masked men had entered tho mail car and while one coveml the clerk with a revolver tho other had tied tuid "sacked" him. Two more had gone forward and done the same to the express agonc. Another had climbed over the tender and ordered the runner to hold up. All this was the regular programme, as I had explained to Miss Cullen, but hero had been a variation which I had nf ver heard of being done and of which I couldn't fathom die object When tho train had been stopped, tho man on the tender had ordered tho fireman to dump his fire, and now it was lying in the roadbed and threatening to burn through the ties, so my first order was to extinguish it and my second was to start anew fl.ro 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 hem! in puiodoment why that number should have allowed themselves to be scared off so easily.

My wondermeut grew when I called on the conductor for his tickets. Those showed nothing but two from Albu-

I found

tfci

erprx*M agent

ffod

hand and

foot

querque, one from Laguna and four from Ooolidge. This latter would have looked hopeful bat 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 CTrry fare as either still in the train or as having got off at some point My only t«auclu*doti was that the robbers had sneaked on to the platforms at Sanders, and 1 gave the crew a good dressing down ftor their carelewtoeas. Of course they insisted it was impossible, hut they were bound to do that

Going back to 97, I got my telegraph instrument, though I thought it a waste of time, the road agents being always careful to break the lines. I told brakeman to climb the pole and out a wire. While he was struggling up, Miss Cullen joined me. "Do you really expect to catch them?" she asked. "I shouldn't like to be one of them, I replied. "But how can you do it?" "You could understand better, Miss Cullen, if you knew this country. You see every bit of water is in use by ranches, and those fellows can't go more than 50 miles without watering. So we shall have word of them, wherever they go." "Line cut, Mr. Gordon," came from overhead at this point, making Miss Cullen jump with surprise. "What was that?" she asked.

I explained to her, and, after making connections, I called Sanders. Much to my surprise, the agent responded, was so astonished that for a moment I could not believe the fact 'This is the queerest hold up of which I ever heard," I said to Miss Cullen. "Aw, in what respect" asked Albert Cullen's voice, and, looking up, I found that ho and quite a number of the passengers had joined us. "The road agents make us dump our fire," I said, "and yet they haven't cut tho wires in either direction. I can't see how tliey can escape us." "What fun!" cried Miss Cullen. "I don't see what difference either makes in their chance of escaping," said Lord Ralles.

While he was speaking I ticked off the news of our being held up and asked the agent if there had been any men about Sanders, or if he had seen any one board tho train there. His answer was positive that no one could have done so, and that settled it»«to Sanders. I asked the samo questions -. Allantown a:il Wingate, wmchwc-n.tho only places we hud ktopped r.t after leaving Coolidge, getting the

ramo

answers. That eight

men could have remained concealed on any of the platforms from that point was impossible, and I began to suspect magic. Then I called Coolidge and told of tho hold up, after which I telegraphec? tho agont at Navajo Springs to notify the commander at Fox*t Defiance, for I suspected the road agents would make for tho Navajo reservation. Finally I oalled Flagstaff as I had Coolidge, directed that the authorities be notified of the facts and ordered a special to bring out tho sheriff and posse. "I don't think," said Miss Cullen, "that I am a bit more curious than most people, but it has nearly made me frantic to have you tick away on that little machino and hear it tick back and not understand a word

After that I had to tell her what I had said and learned. "How clover of you to think of counting the tickets and finding out where people got on and off! I never should have thought of either," she said. "It hasn't helped me much," I laughed rather grimly, "exoept to eliminate every possible clew." "They probably did steal on at one of the stops," said a passenger.

I shook my head. '"There isn't a stick of timber nor a place of concealment on these alkali plains," I repliod, "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 tho 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," said Lord Ralles. "Well, Lord Ralles," I said, "I don't want to dispute your eyesight but if they had boon that strong they would never have bolted, and if you want tn lay a bottle of wine I'll wager that when I catch those chaps we'll find there weren't more than threffvor four of them." Jfp' "Done!" said he.

Leaving the group, I went forward to get the report of the mail agent He had put things to rights and told me that, though the mail had been pretty badly mixed up, only one pouch at wont had been rifled. This, the one for registered mail, had been cut open bat, as if to increase the mystery, the letters had been scattered, unopened, about the car, only three out of the whole being missing, and those very probably had fallen into the pigeonholes and would be found on a more careful search.

I confess I breathed easier to think that the road agents had got away with nothing, and was so pleased that I went back to the wire to send the news of it that the fact might be included in the press dispatches. The moon had set, and it was so dark that I had some difficulty in the pole. When I found it, Miss Called was still standing them What was more, a man was close beside her, and as I oame up I heard her say, Indignantly: "I will not allow it It Is unfair to take such advantage of ma. Take your arm away or I shall call for help!"

That was enough for me. One step

carried my 160 pounds over the intervening ground, and, using the momentum of the stride to help, I put the flat of my hand against the shoulder of the man and gave him a shove. There are three or four Harvard men who can tell what that means, and they were braced for it, which this fellow wasn't He went staggering back as if struck by a cowcatcher and lay down on the ground a good 16 feet away. His haying his arm around "Miaa Cullen's waist unBteadied her so that she would have fallen, too, if I hadn't put my hand against her shoulder. I longed to put it about her, but by this time I wanted to do only what I thought she would wish and so restrained myself.

Before I had time to finish an apology to Miss Cullen the fellow was upon his feet and came at me with an exclamation of anger. In my surprise at reoog•foing the voice as that of Lord Ralles I almost neglected to take care of myself but, though he was quick with his fists, I caught him by the wrists as he closed, and he had no chance after that against a fellow of my weight "Oh, don't quarrel!" cried Miss Cullen.

Holding him, I said, "Lord Ralles, I overheard what Miss Cullen was saying, and supposing some man was insulting her I acted as I did." Then I let go of him and, turning, said, "lam very sorry, Miss Cullen, if I did anything the circumstances did not warrant," while cursing myself for my precipitancy and for not thinking that Miss Cullen would never have been caught in such a plight with a man unless she had been half willing, for a girl does not merely threaten to call for help if she really wants aid.

Lord Ralles wasn't much mollified by my explanation. "You're too much in a hurry, my man," he growled, speaking to me as if I were a servant "Be a bit more careful in the future."

I think I should have retorted—for his manner was enough to make a saint mad—if Miss Cullen hadn't

"You tried to help me, Mr. Gordon, and I am deeply grateful for that," she said The words look simple enough set down here. But the tone in which she said them and the extended hand and the grateful little squeeze she gave my fingers all seemed to express so much that I was more puzzled over them than I was over the robbery.

CHAPTER IV.

"You liad better oome back to the car, Miss Cullen," remarked Lord Ralles after a pause.

But she declined to do so, saying she wanted to know what I was going to telegraph. And he left us, for which I wasn't sorry. I told her of the good news I had to send, and she wanted to know if now we would try to catch the road agents. I set her mind at rest on that soore. "I think they'll give us very little trouble to bag," I added, "for they are so green that it's almost pitiful."

41

I ordered the crew to look about and then began a big circle around the train. Finding nothing, I swung bipger one. That being equally unavailing, I did a larger third. Not a trace of fool or hoof within a half mile of the cars! I had heard of blankets laid down to conceal a trail of swathed feet, even of leathern horse boots with cattle hoofs on the bottom, but none of these could have been used for such a distance, let alone the entire absence of any signs of a place where the horses had been hobbled. 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 oome 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 oar. "My theory of aerial ballets won't do." "The shells are as hollow as I feel," laughed Miss Cullen.

Your suggestion reminds me that I am desperately hungry," I said. "Sappose we go back and end the famine."

Most of the passengers had long since returned to their seats or berths, and Mr. Cullen's party had apparently dons the same, for 218 showed no signs of life. One of my darkies was awake, and he broiled a steak and made us some ooffee in no time, and just as they were ready Albert Cullen appeared. So we made a very jolly little breakfast He told me at length the part he and the Britishers had borne and only made me marvel the more that any one of them was alive, for apparently they had jumped off the car without the slightest precaution and had stood grouped together even after they had called attention to themselves by Lord Ralles' shots. Cullen had to confess that he heard the whistle of the four ballets unpleasantly

TERRE HAUTE SATURDAY EVENING- MALL, MARCH 27, 1897.

spoken.

In not cutting the wires?'' she asked. In everything,'' I replied.

1'But

the

worst botch is their waiting till we had just passed the Arizona line. If they had held us up an hour earlier, it would only have been state's prison." "And what will it bo now?" "Hanging." "What?" cried Miss Cullen. "In New Mexico train robbing is not capital, but in Arizona it is," I told her "And if you oatch them they'll be hung?" she asked. "Yes." "That seems very hard."

Tho first signs of dawn were beginning to show by this time, and as tho sky brightened I told Miss Cullen that I was going to look for the trail of the fugitives. She said she would walk with me, if not in the way, and my assurance was very positive on that point And here I want to remark that it's saying a good deal if a girl can be up all night in such excitement and still look fresh and pretty, and that she did.

"You have a right to be proud, Mr. Cullen," I said. "You fellows did a tremendously plucky thing, and, thanks to you, we didn't lose anything." "But you went to help, too, Mr. Gordon, said Miss Cullen.

That made me color up, and after a moment's hesitation I said: 'I'm not going to sail under false oolors, Miss Cullen. When I went forward, I didn't think I could do anything. I supposed whoever had pitched into the robbers was dead, and I expected to be the same inside of ten minutea "Then why did you risk your life," she asked, "If you thought it was useless?"

I laughed, and, though' ashamed to tell it said, "I didn't want you to think that the Britishers had more pluck than I had."

She took my confession "better than I hoped she would, laughing with me, and then said, "Well, that was courageous, after alL "Yes," I said "I was frightened into bravery." "Perhaps if they had known the danger as well as you, they would have been less courageous," she continued. And I could have blessed her for the speech.

While we were still eating, the mail olerk came to my oar and reported that the most careful search had failed to discover the three registered letters, and they had evidently been taken. This made me feel sober, slight as the probable loss waa He told me that his list showed they were all addressed to Ash Forks, A. T., making it improbable that their contents could be of any real value. If possible, I was more puzzled than ever. .v ..

At 6:10 the runner whistled to show he had steam up. I told one of the braliemen to stay behind and then went

So we made anemjolly little breakfast. into 218. Mr. Cullen was still dressing, but I expressed my regrets through the door that I could not go with his party to the Grand canyon told him that all the stage arrangements had been competed and promised to join him there in case my luck was good. Then I saw Frederic for a moment to see how was (for I had nearly forgotten him in the excitement), to find that he was gaining all the time and preparing even to get up. When I returned to the saloon, the rest of the party were there, and I said goodby to the oaptain and Albert Then I turned to Lord Ralles, and, holding Out my hand, said: "Lord Ralles, I joked a little the other morning about the way you thought road agents ought to be treated. You have turned the joke very neatly and pluckily, and I want to apologize for myself and thank you for the railroad." "Neither is necessary," he said airily, pretending not to .^e my hand.

I never claimed to have a good temper, and it was all I oould do to hold myself in. I turned to Miss Cullen to wish her a pleasant trip, and the thought that this might be our last meeting made me forget even Lord Ralles. "I hope it isn't goodby, but only au revoir," she said. "Whether or no, you must let us see you some time in Chicago, so that I may show you how grateful I am for all the pleasure you have added to our trip." Then, as I stepped down off my platform, she leaned over the rail of 218 and said in a low voice, "I thought you were just as brave as the rest, Mr. Gordon, and now I think you are braver." *1 turned impulsively and said, "You would think so, Miss Cullen, if you knew the sacrifice I am making.'' Then, without looking at her, I gave the signal, the bell rang, and No. 8 pulled off. The last thing I saw was a handkerchief waving off the platform of 218.

When the train dropped out of sight over a grade, I swallowed the lump in my throat and went to the telegraph instrument I wired Coolidge to give the alarm to Fort Wingate, Fort Apache, Fort Thomas. Fort Grant Fort Bayard and Fort Whipple, though I thought the precaution a mere waste dt energy. Thei I sent the brakeman up to connect the cut wire. "Two of the ballets struck up here, Mr. Gordon," the man called from the top of the pole. "Surely not!" I exclaimed. "Yes, sir," he responded. "The ballet holes are brand new."

I took in the lay of the land, the embers of the fire showing me how the train had lain. "I don't wonder nobody was hit I exclaimed, "if that's asaznple of their shooting. Seme one was a worse rattled man than I ever expect to be. Dig the bullets out, Douglas, so that we can have a look at them."

He brought them down in a minute. They proved to be Winchesters, as I had expected, for they were an the side from which the robbers mast have fired. "That ehap must have been full of Ariafen tanglefoot to have fired as/wild as he did," I ejaculated and walked over to where the mail car had stood to see just how bad the shooting was. When I got there and faced about it was really impossible to believe any man cool'" have dene so badly, for raising my dwn Winchester to the pole put it SO degrees qot of range and nearly 40 degrees in

fc.

the air. Yet there were the cartridge shells on the ground to show that I was in the place from which the shots had been fired.

While I waa still cogitating over this the special train I had ordered out from Flagstaff came in sight and in a few moments was stopped where I was. It consisted of a string of three flats and a boxcar and brought the sheriff, a dozen cowboys whom he had sworn in as deputies and their horses. I was hopeful that with these fellows' greater skill in such matters they could find what I "had not, but after a thorough examination of the ground within a mile of the robbery they were as much at fault as I had been. "Them cusses must have a dugout nigh abouts, for they couldn't 'a' got away without wings," the sheriff surmised.

I didn't put much stock in that idea and told the sheriff so. "Waal, round up a bettor one," was his retort

Not being able to do that, I told him of the bullets in the telegraph pole and took him over to where the mail car had stood. "Jerusalem crickets!" was his comment as he measured the aim. "If that's where they put two of their pills, they must have pumped the other four inter the moon." "What other four?" I asked. "Shots!" he replied sententiously. "The road agents only fired four times," I told him. "Them and your pards must have been pretty nigh together for a minute, then," he said, pointing to the ground.

I glanced down, and, sure enough, there were six empty cartridge sheila I stood looking blankly at them, hardly able to believe what I saw, for Albert Cullen had said distinctly that the train robbers had fired only four times, and that the last three Winchester shots I had heard had been fired by himself. Then, without speaking, I walked slowly back, searching along the edge of the roadbed 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 tnerefore draw only one conclusion—namely, that all seven discharges of the Winchesters had occurred up by the mail car. I had heard of men supposing they had fired their guns through hearing another go off, but with a repeating rifle one has to fire before one can reload. The fact was evident that Albert Cullen either had fired his Winchester up by the mail car or else had not fired it at all. In either case he had lied, and Lord Ralles and Captain Ackland had backed him up in it

CHAPTER V.

A TRIP TO THK GRAND CANYON. I stood pondering, for no explanation that would fit the facts seemed possible. I should have considered the young fellow's story only an attempt to gain a little reputation for pluck if in any way I could have accounted for the appearance and disappearance of the robbers Yet to suppose—which seemed the only other horn to the dilemma—that the son and guests of the vioe president of the Missouri Western and one of our own directors would be concerned in train robbery was to believe something equally improbable. Indeed I should have put the whole thing down as a practical •Soke of Mr. Cullen's party if it had not [CONTINUED ON SEVENTH PAGE.]

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