Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-04-03
CHAPTER III.

A NIGHTS WORK ON THE ALKALI PLAINS
I hurried Miss Cullen into the car,
and, 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 was on my front
platform. Dropping down between the
two cars, I crept along beside-indeed
half under-Mr. Cullen special. After
my previous conclusion, my surprise
can be judged when at the farther end
I found the two Britishers and Albert
Cullen standing there, in the most ex-
posed position possible. 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 Rallies, "we've
had a hand in this deal, Mr. Superin-
tendent, and haven't been potted. The
scoundrels broke for cover the moment
we opened fire."
By this time there were 30 passen-
gers about our group, all of them ask
ing questions at once, making it diff
cult to learn just what had happened,
but so far as could piece the answers
together the poker players curiosity
had been aroused by the long stop, and,
looking out, they had seen single man,
with a rife, standing by the engine.
Instantly arming themselves, Lord
Rallies let fly both barrels at him, and
in turn was the target for the first four
shots I had heard The shooting had
brought the rest of the robbers tumbling
off the cars, and the captain and Cullen
had fred the rest Of the shots at them
as they scattered I didn't stop to hear
more, but went forward to see what the
road agents had got away with.
found the express agent tied hand
and foot in the corner Of his car, and,
telling q brakeman who had followed
me to set him at liberty, I turned 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 the fuse that lay on the
floor, as if dropped suddenly. But the
safe was intact.
Passing into the mail car, found the
clerk tied to a post, with q mail sack
pulled over his head, and the utmost
confusion among the pouches and sort
ing compartments, while scattered over
the floor were great many letters. Set
ting him at liberty, asked him if he
could tell whether mail had been taken,
and, after glance at the confusion, he
said he could not know till he had ex-
amined.
Having taken stock of the harm done,
began asking questions. Just after we
had left Sanders two masked men had
entered the mail car and while one cov-
cred the clerk with revolver the other
had tied and "sacked" him. Two more
had gone forward and done the same to
the express agent Another had climbed
over the tender and ordered the runner
to hold up. All this was the regular pro-
gramme, as I had explained to Miss
Cullen, but here had been q variation
which I had never heard of being done
and of which I couldn't fathom the oh,
ject. When the train had been stopped,
the man on the tender had ordered the
fireman to dump his fire, and now it was
lying in the roadbed and threatening tc
burn through the ties, so my first order
was to extinguish it and my second was
to start a new fire and get up steam as
quickly ms possible From all I could
learn there were eight men concerned
in the attempt, and I confess I shook
my head in puzzlement why that mum
ber should have allowed themselves tc
be scared off so easily.
My wonderment grew when called
on the conductor for his tickets. These
showed nothing but two from Albu.
ouerque, one from Laglna and four
from Coolidge. This latter would have
looked hopeful but for the fact that it
was party of three women and man.
Going back beyond Lamy didn't give