THE HAPPENINGS DOWN HANCE'S TRAIL
Miss Cullen was sitting on a rock apart from her brother and Hance, as
I had asked her to do when I helped her dismount. I went over to where
she sat, and said, boldly--
"Miss Cullen, I want those letters."
"What letters?" she asked, looking me in the eyes with the most
innocent of expressions. She made a mistake to do that, for I knew her
innocence must be feigned, and so didn't put much faith in her face
for the rest of the interview.
"And what is more," I continued, with a firmness of manner about as
genuine as her innocence, "unless you will produce them at once, I
shall have to search you."
"Mr. Gordon!" she exclaimed, but she put such surprise and grief and
disbelief into the four syllables that I wanted the earth to swallow
me then and there.
"Why, Miss Cullen," I cried, "look at my position. I'm being paid to
do certain things, and--"
"But that needn't prevent your being a gentleman," she interrupted.
That made me almost desperate. "Miss Cullen," I groaned, hurriedly,
"I'd rather be burned alive than do what I've got to, but if you won't
give me those letters, search you I must."
"But how can I give you what I haven't?" she cried, indignantly,
assuming again her innocent expression.
"Will you give me your word of honor that those letters are not
concealed in your clothes?"
"I will," she answered.
I was very much taken aback, for it would have been so easy for Miss
Cullen to have said so before that I had become convinced she must
have them.
"And do you give me your word?"
"I do," she affirmed, but she didn't look me in the face as she said
it.
I ought to have been satisfied, but I wasn't, for, in spite of her
denial, something forced me still to believe she had them, and looking
back now, I think it was her manner. I stood reflecting for a minute,
and then requested, "Please stay where you are for a moment." 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.
"Miss Cullen," I said gravely, "you have those letters, and must give
them to me."
"But I told you--" she began.
To spare her a second untruth, I interrupted her by saying, "I trapped
your brother into acknowledging that you have them."
"You must have misunderstood him," she replied, calmly, "or else he
didn't know that the arrangement was changed."
Her steadiness rather shook my conviction, but I said, "You must give
me those letters, or I must search you."
"You never would!" she cried, rising and looking me in the face.
On impulse I tried a big bluff. I took hold of the lapel of her waist,
intending to undo just one button. I let go in fright when I found
there was no button--only an awful complication of hooks or some
other feminine method for keeping things together--and I grew red and
trembled thinking what might have happened had I, by bad luck, made
anything come undone. If Miss Cullen had been noticing me, she would
have seen a terribly scared man.
But she wasn't, luckily, for the moment my hand touched her dress, and
before she could realize that I snatched it away, she collapsed on the
rock, and burst into tears. "Oh! oh!" she sobbed, "I begged papa not
to, but he insisted they were safest with me. I'll give them to you,
if you'll only go away and not--" Her tears made her inarticulate, and
without waiting for more I ran into the hut, feeling as near like a
murderer as a guiltless man could.
Lord Ralles by this time was making almost as much noise as an engine
pulling a heavy freight up grade under forced draft, swearing over his
trousers, and was offering the cowboy and Hance money to recover them.
When they told him this was impossible he tried to get them to sell or
hire a pair, but they didn't like the idea of riding into camp minus
those essentials any better than he did. While I waited they settled
the difficulty by strapping a blanket round him, and by splitting it
up the middle and using plenty of cord they rigged him out after a
fashion; but I think if he could have seen himself and been given an
option he would have preferred to wait till it was dark enough to
creep into camp unnoticed.
Before long Miss Cullen called, and when I went to her she handed me,
without a word, three letters. As she did so she crimsoned violently,
and looked down in her mortification. I was so sorry for her that,
though a moment before I had been judging her harshly, I now couldn't
help saying--
"Our positions have been so difficult, Miss Cullen, that I don't think
we either of us are quite responsible for our actions."
She said nothing, and, after a pause, I continued--
"I hope you'll think as leniently of my conduct as you can, for I
can't tell you how grieved I am to have pained you."
Cullen joined us at this point, and, knowing that every moment we
remained would be distressing to his sister, I announced that we would
start up the trail. I hadn't the heart to offer to help her mount, and
after Frederic had put her up we fell into single file behind Hance,
Lord Ralles coming last.
As soon as we started I took a look at the three letters. They were
all addressed to Theodore E. Camp, Esq., Ash Fork, Arizona--one of the
directors of the K. & A. and also of the Great Southern. With this
clue, for the first time things began to clear up to me, and when the
trail broadened enough to permit it, I pushed my mule up alongside of
Cullen and asked--
"The letters contain proxies for the K. & A. election next Friday?"
He nodded his head. "The Missouri Western and the Great Southern are
fighting for control," he explained, "and we should have won but for
the three blocks of Eastern stock that had promised their proxies to
the G.S. Rather than lose the fight, we arranged to learn when those
proxies were mailed--that was what kept me behind--and then to hold up
the train that carried them."
"Was it worth the risk?" I ejaculated.
"If we had succeeded, yes. My father had put more than was safe into
Missouri Western and into California Central. The G.S. wants control
to end the traffic agreements, and that means bankruptcy to my
father."
I nodded, seeing it all as clear as day, and hardly blaming the
Cullens for what they had done; for any one who has had dealings with
the G.S. is driven to pretty desperate methods to keep from being
crushed, and when one is fighting an antagonist that won't regard the
law, or rather one that, through control of legislatures and judges,
makes the law to suit its needs, the temptation is strong to use the
same weapons one's self.
"The toughest part of it is," Fred went on, "that we thought we had
the whole thing 'hands down,' and that was what made my father go in
so deep. Only the death of one of the M.W. directors, who held eight
thousand shares of K. & A., got us in this hole, for the G.S. put up a
relation to contest the will, and so delayed the obtaining of letters
of administration, blocking his executors from giving a proxy. It was
as mean a trick as ever was played."
"The G.S. is a tough customer to fight," I remarked, and asked, "Why
didn't you burn the letters?" really wishing they had done so.
"We feared duplicate proxies might get through in time, and thought
that by keeping these we might cook up a question as to which were
legal, and then by injunction prevent the use of either."
"And those Englishmen," I inquired, "are they real?"
"Oh, certainly," he rejoined. "They were visiting my brother, and
thought the whole thing great larks." Then he told me how the thing
had been done. They had sent Miss Cullen to my car, so as to get me
out of the way, though she hadn't known it. 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.
We started a little after five, and were clear of the timber before it
was too dark to see. At the relay station we waited an hour for the
moon, after which it was a clear track. We reached the half-way ranch
about eleven, and while changing the stage horses I roused Mrs.
Klostermeyer, and succeeded in getting enough cold mutton and bread to
make two rather decent-looking sandwiches. With these and a glass of
whiskey and water I went to the stage, to find Miss Cullen curled up
on the seat asleep, her head resting in her brother's arms.
"She has nearly worried herself to death ever since you told her that
road agents were hung," Frederic whispered; "and she's been crying
to-night over that lie she told you, and altogether she's worn out
with travel and excitement."
I screwed the cover on the traveling-glass, and put it with the
sandwiches in the bottom of the stage. "It's a long and a rough ride,"
I said, "and if she wakes up they may give her a little strength. I
only wish I could have spared her the fatigue and anxiety."
"She thought she had to lie for father's sake, but she's nearly
broken-hearted over it," he continued. I looked Frederic in the face
as I said, "I honor her for it," and in that moment he and I became
friends.
"Just see how pretty she is!" he whispered, with evident affection and
pride, turning back the flap of the rug in which she was wrapped.
She was breathing gently, and there was just that touch of weariness
and sadness in her face that would appeal to any man. It made me gulp,
I'm proud to say; and when I was back on my pony, I said to myself,
"For her sake, I'll pull the Cullens out of this scrape, if it costs
me my position."