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 Forks,
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 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 travelling-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."