CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1901-11-07
CHAPTER III.


A NIGHTS WORK on THE ALKALI PLAINS
hurried Miss Cullen into the car,
and, after bolting the rear door, took
down my winchester from its rack
I'm going forward =" l 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, / crept along beside-indeed
halt under-Mr. Cullen's special After
my previous conclusion, my surprise
can be judged when at the farther end
found the two Britishers and Albert
Cullcn standing there, in the Liost ex-
posed POSITION possible. Joined them.
muttering to myself something about
Providence and fools.
Jaw. A" tirawled Cullen. ''here's Mr..
Gordon. just too late for the sport, by
Jovp"
Well" said Lord Rallies, we've
had hand in this deal. Mr.. Superin-
tendene, and haven't been potted- The
scoundrcls broke for cover the moment
we opened fire. p"
Bg this time there were 90 passen-
gers about our group, all of them ask
ing questions at once, making it diff
cult 10 learn just what had happened
but 20 far IS I could piece the answers
together the poker players curiosity
had ben aroused by the long stop. and,
hooking out, they had seen single man,
with rife, standing by the engine.
Instantly arrning themselves. Lord
Rall,s let fly both barrels at him, and
in turn was the target for the first four
shots / had heard The shooting had
brought the rest of the robbers tunbling
OF the cars. and the captain and Cullen
had fred the rest of the shots at them
ms they scattered 1 didn't stop to hear
moEe, 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 brakeman who had followed
me to set him at liberty, turned my
attention to the safe That the diversion
had not come n moment too soon was
shown by the dynamite cartridge already
in place and by the fuse that lay on the
floor. as il dropped suddenly. But the
safe was intact
Passing into the mail car. found the
clerk tied to post, with a mail sack
pulled over his head. and the utmosl
confusion among the pouches and sort
ing compartments. while scattered owe,
the fiocr were great many lottcrs Set
ting him at liberty, l asked him If he
could tell whether mail had been taken
and. after a glance AZ the confusion. he
said he could not know till he had eK-
aminesl
Having taken stock of the harm done,
l began asking questions just after We
had left Sanders two masked mCn had
entered the mail car and while one COW
cred the clerk with a revolver the other
had tied and "saclei'' him Two more
had gone forward and done the s;me &c
the express agent Another had climbed
over the tender and ordered the runner
10 hold up All this WAS the regular pro
gramme. as | had explained to Miss
Cullen but here had been variation
which had never heard of being done
and Of which couldn't fathom the OBJ
ject- When the train had been stopped.
the man OF the tender had ordered the
fireman to dump his fire, and now it was
lying in the roadbssd and threatening to
burn through the ties, so my first order
was to extinguish it and my second was
to start new fire and get up steam as
quickly AS possible. From all / could
learn there were eight men concerned
in the attempt. and l confess 1 shook
my head in puzzlement why that num-
her should have allowed themselves to
be scared off so easily.
My wondorinent grew when / called
on the conductor for his tickets. These
showed nothing but two from Albu-