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And then, for a time, it was business. For two weeks or more Jack rode the trail, back and forth, carrying the mail and the pony express matter. He was not again disturbed, and Mr. Perkfeld gave orders that, except in case of great necessity, he should not make night trips. Nothing more was seen of the hold-up men, and Mr. Argent heard no news concerning his mining business.
It was said to be without doubt the work of the same band that had conducted the hold-up in which Harry Whitcomb had lost his life, as it was characterized by the same boldness of plan and cleverness of execution. The affair brought back so vividly to Mr.
The day before it happened, we rested our horses and "made medicine" as to how we should get about it. Our plans were not at all elaborate, as none of us had ever engaged in a hold-up before. The Santa Fé flyer was due at the tank at 11.15 P. M. At eleven, Tom and I lay down on one side of the track, and Jim and Ike took the other.
Bob, very red about the ears, took refuge in a sulky silence. He was being guyed, and not by an inch did he propose to compromise the Cullison dignity. "From the way you go at it, I figure you an old hand at the hold-up game. Wonder if you didn't pull off the W. & S. raid yourself." Bob writhed impotently. At this sort of thing he was no match for the other.
As we were riding back to our cars on the second afternoon, we had to cross the branch road-bed, where a gang happened to be at work tamping the ties. "Since you're interested in road agents, Miss Cullen," I said, "you may like to see one. That fellow standing in the ditch is Jack Drute, who was concerned in the D. & R. G. hold-up three years ago."
Look at that train 'hold-up' at White Point. Was there ever such a bright play? I tell you, whoever runs that gang is a wise guy. He's ten points flyer than Master Stanley Fyles. Say, Fyles was waiting for that cargo at Amberley, and here are you boys, drinking some of it right here, and with him around the town, too. Say, the boss of that gang is a bright boy."
It did not seem reasonable that the man would have tried to stem the current in the heavy punt nor was the chest a light weight. It puzzled Frances indeed, it made her suspicious. She was anxious to learn whether the man who had stolen the chest had gone up, or down, the river. Frances warned Mack to say nothing about the hold-up at the ford.
It was the mounted man who had spoken. "A hold-up, eh?" asked Jack, his tones faltering in spite of his effort to make them steady. That this should come to him in spite of his watchfulness was a bitter thing. And a robbery, of all time, when the valuable papers and letters expected by Mr. Argent were in the mail pouches, too! There was also some valuable express matter.
The hold-up of Paul Hastings was to them not so important as the fact that Cecilia Thayer had gone over to Kimball's and actually asked Jack Kimball to take her out Woodbine way to tow home the balky Turtle. But, precisely as her friend had said, Clip was a schemer.
However, upon the arrival of the train, Banks and the express people found mounts awaiting them to carry them to the place of the hold-up. After the robbers had finished their work during the fore part of the night, the train crew went out and brought back to the station the engine and express car.