Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1902-02-21
CHAPTER iii.

A NIGHTS WORK ON THE ALKALI PLAINS
l hurried Miss Cullen into the car
and, after boiling the rear door, tool
down my winchester from its rack.
"I'm going forward" I told her
"and will tell my boys to bolt the from,
door; so you'll be as safe in here as il
Chicago
In another minute was on my front
platform. Dropping down between the
two cars, crept along beside-indeed
half under--Mr Cullens special. After
my previous conclusion, my surprise
can be judged when at the farther end
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 hand in this deal, Mr.. Superin-
itendent, and haven't been potted. The
scoundrels broke for cover the moment
we opened fire. -
By this time there We're 90 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 l 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 rifle, 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 / had heard The shooting had
brought the rest of the robbers tumbling
off the cars, and the captain and Cullen
had fired the rest of the shots at them
ms they scattered / 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 brakeman who had followed
me to set him at liberty, l 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 mail sack
pulled over his head, and the utmost
confusion among the pouches and sort
ing compartments, while scattered over
the floor were a great many letters. Set
l., 7 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 COW
cred the clerk with a revolver the other
lad tied and sacked" him Two more
mad gone forward and done the same to
,he express agent. Another had climbed
over the tender and ordered the runner
% hold up. All this was the regular pro-
,ramme as l had explained TO Miss
Cullen, but here had been q variation
which had never heard of being done
md of which couldn't fathom the OBJ
ect. When the train had been stopped,
he man on the tender had ordered the
ireman to dump his fire, and now it was
ying in the roadbed and threatening to
urn through the ties, so my first order
vas to extinguish it and my second was
o start new fire and get up steam as :
uickly us possible. From all l could
earn there were eight men concerned
n the attempt, and I confess shook
ny head in puzzlement why that num- ,
er should have allowed themselves to
e scared off so easily. {
(TO BE CONTINUED