HOW DID THE SECRET LEAK OUT?
I made up for my three nights' lack of sleep by not waking the next
morning till after ten. When I went to 218, I found only the _chef_,
and he told me the party had gone for a ride. Since I couldn't talk to
Madge, I went to work at my desk, for I had been rather neglecting my
routine work. While I still wrote, I heard horses' hoofs and, looking
up, saw the Cullens returning. I went out on the platform to wish
them good-morning, arriving just in time to see Lord Ralles help
Miss Cullen out of her saddle; and the way he did it, and the way he
continued to hold her hand after she was down, while he said something
to her, made me grit my teeth and look the other way. None of the
riders had seen me, so I slipped into my car and went back to work.
Fred came in presently to see if I was up yet, and to ask me to lunch,
but I felt so miserable and down-hearted that I made an excuse of my
late breakfast for not joining them.
After luncheon the party in the other special all came out and walked
up and down the platform, the sound of their voices and laughter only
making me feel the bluer. Before long I heard a rap on one of my
windows, and there was Miss Cullen peering in at me. The moment I
looked up, she called--
"Won't you make one of us, Mr. Misanthrope?"
I called myself all sorts of a fool, but out I went as eagerly as if
there had been some hope. Miss Cullen began to tease me over my sudden
access of energy, declaring that she was sure it was a pose for their
benefit, or else due to a guilty conscience over having slept so late.
"I hoped you would ride with us, though perhaps it wouldn't have paid
you. Apparently there is nothing to see in Ash Fork."
"There is something that may interest you all," I suggested, pointing
to a special that had been dropped off No. 2 that morning.
"What is it?" asked Madge.
"It's a G.S. special," I said, "and Mr. Camp and Mr. Baldwin and two
G.S. officials came in on it."
"What do you think he'd give for those letters?" laughed Fred.
"If they were worth so much to you, I suppose they can't be worth any
less to the G.S.," I replied.
"Fortunately, there is no way that he can learn where they are," said
Mr. Cullen.
"Don't let's stand still," cried Miss Cullen. "Mr. Gordon, I'll run
you a race to the end of the platform." She said this only after
getting a big lead, and she got there about eight inches ahead of me,
which pleased her mightily. "It takes men so long to get started," was
the way she explained her victory. Then she walked me beyond the end
of the boarding to explain the working of a switch to her. That it was
only a pretext she proved to me the moment I had relocked the bar, by
saying--
"Mr. Gordon, may I ask you a question?"
"Certainly," I assented.
"It is one I should ask papa or Fred, but I am afraid they might not
tell me the truth. You will, won't you?" she begged, very earnestly.
"I will," I promised.
"Supposing," she continued, "that it became known that you have those
letters? Would it do our side any harm?"
I thought for a moment, and then shook my head. "No new proxies could
arrive here in time for the election," I said, "and the ones I have
will not be voted."
She still looked doubtful, and asked, "Then why did papa say just now,
'Fortunately'?"
"He merely meant that it was safer they shouldn't know."
"Then it is better to keep it a secret?" she asked, anxiously.
"I suppose so," I said, and then, added, "Why should you be afraid of
asking your father?"
"Because he might--well, if he knew, I'm sure he would sacrifice
himself; and I couldn't run the risk."
"I am afraid I don't understand?" I questioned.
"I would rather not explain," she said, and of course that ended the
subject.
Our exercise taken, we went back to the Cullens' car, and Madge left
us to write some letters. A moment later Lord Ralles remembered he had
not written home recently, and he too went forward to the dining-room.
That made me call myself--something, for not having offered Miss
Cullen the use of my desk in 97. Owing to this the two missed part of
the big game we were playing; for barely were they gone when one
of the servants brought a card to Mr. Cullen, who looked at it and
exclaimed, "Mr. Camp!" Then, after a speaking pause, in which we all
exchanged glances, he said, "Bring him in."
On Mr. Camp's entrance he looked so much surprised as we had all done
a moment before. "I beg your pardon for intruding, Mr. Cullen," he
said. "I was told that this was Mr. Gordon's car, and I wish to see
him."
"I am Mr. Gordon."
"You are traveling with Mr. Cullen?" he inquired, with a touch of
suspicion in his manner.
"No," I answered. "My special is the next car, and I was merely
enjoying a cigar here."
"Ah!" said Mr. Camp. "Then I won't interrupt your smoke, and will only
relieve you of those letters of mine."
I took a good pull at my cigar, and blew the smoke out in a cloud
slowly to gain time. "I don't think I follow you," I said.
"I understand that you have in your possession three letters addressed
to me."
"I have," I assented.
"Then I will ask you to deliver them to me."
"I can't do that."
"Why not?" he challenged. "They're my property."
I produced the Postmaster-General's telegram and read it to him.
"Why, this is infamous!" Mr. Camp cried. "What use will those letters
be after the eighteenth? It's a conspiracy."
"I can only obey instructions," I said.
"It shall cost you your position if you do," Mr. Camp threatened.
As I've already said, I haven't a good temper, and when he told me
that I couldn't help retorting--
"That's quite on a par with most G.S. methods."
"I'm not speaking for the G.S., young man," roared Mr. Camp. "I speak
as a director of the Kansas & Arizona. What is more, I will have those
letters inside of twenty-four hours."
He made an angry exit, and I said to Fred, "I wish you would stroll
about and spy out the proceedings of the enemy's camp. He may
telegraph to Washington, and if there's any chance of the
Postmaster-General revoking his order I must go back to Flagstaff on
No. 4 this afternoon."
"He sha'n't do anything that I don't know about till he goes to bed,"
Fred promised. "But how the deuce did he know that you had those
letters?"
That was just what we were all puzzling over, for only the occupants
of No. 218 and myself, so far as I knew, were in a position to let Mr.
Camp hear of that fact.
As Fred made his exit he said, "Don't tell Madge that there is a new
complication, for the dear girl has had worries enough already."
Miss Cullen not rejoining us, and Lord Ralles presently doing so, I
went to my own car, for he and I were not good furniture for the same
room. Before I had been there long, Fred came rushing in.
"Camp and Baldwin have been in consultation with a lawyer," he said,
"and now the three have just boarded those cars," pointing out the
window at the branch-line train that was to leave for Phoenix in two
minutes.
"You must go with them," I urged, "and keep us informed as to what
they do, for they evidently are going to set the law on us, and the
G.S. has always owned the Territorial judges, so they'll stretch a
point to oblige them."
"Have I time to fill a bag?"
"Plenty," I assured him, and, going out, I ordered the train held till
I should give the word.
"What does it all mean?" asked Miss Cullen, joining me.
I laughed, and replied, "I'm doing a braver thing even than your party
did; I'm holding up a train all by my lonesome."
"But my brother came dashing in just now and said he was starting for
Phoenix."
"Let her go," I called to the conductor, as Fred jumped aboard; and
the train pulled out.
"I hope there's nothing wrong?" Madge questioned, anxiously.
"Nothing to worry over," I laughed. "Only a little more fun for our
money. By the way, Miss Cullen," I went on, to avoid her questions,
"if you have your letters ready, and will let me have them at once, I
can get them on No. 4, so that they'll go East to-night."
Miss Cullen blushed as if I had said something I ought not to have,
and stammered, "I--I changed my mind, and--that is--I didn't write
them, after all."
"I beg your pardon--I ought to have known; I mean, it's very natural,"
I faltered and stuttered, thinking what a dunce I had been not to
understand that both hers and Lord Ralles's letters had been only a
pretext to get away from the rest of us.
My blundering apology and evident embarrassment deepened Miss Cullen's
blush five-fold, and she explained, hurriedly, "I found I was tired,
and so, instead of writing, I went to my room and rested."
I suppose any girl would have invented the same yarn, yet it hurt me
more than the bigger one she had told on Hance's trail. Small as the
incident was, it made me very blue, and led me to shut myself up in my
own car for the rest of that afternoon and evening. Indeed, I couldn't
sleep, but sat up working, quite forgetful of the passing hours, till
a glance at my watch startled me with the fact that it was a quarter
of two. Feeling like anything more than sleep, I went out on the
platform, and, lighting a cigar, paced up and down, thinking of--well,
thinking.
The night agent was sitting in the station, nodding, and after I had
walked for an hour I went in to ask him if the train to Phoenix had
arrived on time. Just as I opened the door, the telegraph instrument
began clicking, and called Ash Fork. The man, with the curious ability
that operators get of recognizing their own call, even in sleep, waked
up instantly and responded, and, not wishing to interrupt him, I
delayed asking my question till he should be free. I stood there
thinking of Madge, and listening heedlessly as the instrument ticked
off the cipher signature of the sending operator, and the "twenty-four
paid." But as I heard the clicks ..... .... which meant ph, I suddenly
became attentive, and when it completed "Phoenix" I concluded Fred was
wiring me, and listened for what followed the date. This is what the
instrument ticked:--
... .... . . .. .. .-. .-. .. .. .- ...- .- ..... .- .. ..
. . . .. ..- -. - .. .. .- ... .... .-. . . . .. -.- ... .- .
.. .. ... . . . -. .- -... . .- - . .. .- .. - .. . . .- -..
...- . - - .. . . - . - .... . .. . . .-. . . . .. - .. .. .-.
.. ...- . - . . -.. .- .. .. -. . - - . . - - . .. .- ..
-. .- .- .. . .. .. ...- .. -. - -. .-. . .. . . - - .....
.... . . . -. .. .-.. ..... . .. . ..... .- .- - . -.. - . .
.. -- -- . - .. .- - . - .. .. ... . . .. ...- . .....
. . .. . - - ..... - . . . .. .. .. - - .- -. -.. .- - - ..-
... .. ... ... ..- . -.. -... .. .. -.-. ..- - .. -.. - -. .- -
..-... . . -. ... .. - -. - .... . . . -.. . . . .. . . ..
. .- - - .....
That may not look particularly intelligible, but if the Phoenix
operator had been talking over the 'phone to me he couldn't have said
any plainer--
"Sheriff yavapai county ash forks arizona be at rail road station
three forty-five today to meet train arriving from phoenix prepared to
immediately serve peremptory mandamus issued tonight by judge wilson
sig theodore e camp."
My question being pretty thoroughly answered, I went back and
continued my walk; but before five minutes had passed, the operator
came out, and handed me a message. It was from Fred, and read thus:--
"Camp, Baldwin, and lawyer went at once to house of Judge Wilson,
where they stayed an hour. They then returned with judge to station,
and after despatching a telegram have taken seats in train for Ash
Fork, leaving here at three twenty-five. I shall return with them."
A bigger idiot than I could have understood the move. I was to be
hauled before Judge Wilson by means of mandamus proceedings, and, as
he was notoriously a G.S. judge, and was coming to Ash Fork solely
to oblige Mr. Camp, he would unquestionably declare the letters the
property of Mr. Camp and order their delivery.
Apparently I had my choice of being a traitor to Madge, of going to
prison for contempt of court, or of running away, which was not far
off from acknowledging that I had done something wrong. I didn't like
any one of the options.