ky-pilot. No white chips on this plate, parson. It's a contribution to
the needy heathen. You want to be generous. How much do you say?"

The man of the cloth reluctantly said thirty dollars, a Lincoln penny,
and a silver-plated watch inherited from his fathers. The watch was
declined with thanks, the money accepted without.

The Pullman porter came into the car under compulsion of a revolver in
the hand of a fourth outlaw, one in a black mask. His trembling finger
pointed out the satchel and suit-case of Major Mackenzie, and under
orders he carried out the baggage belonging to the irrigation engineer.
Collin observed that the bandit in the black mask was so nervous that
the revolver in his hand quivered like an aspen in the wind. He was
slenderer and much shorter than the Mexican, so that the sheriff decided
he was a mere boy.

It was just after he had left that three shots in rapid succession rang
out in the still night air.

The red-bandannaed one and his companion, who had apparently been
waiting for the signal, retreated backward to the end of the car, still
keeping the passengers covered. They flung rapidly two or three bullets
through the roof, and under cover of the smoke slipped out into the
night. A moment later came the thud of galloping horses, more shots,
and, when the patter of hoofs had died away--silence.

The sheriff was the first to break it. He thrust his brown hands deep
into his pockets and laughed--laughed with the joyous, rollicking
abandon of a tickled schoolboy.

"Hysterics?" ventured the mining engineer sympathetically.

Collins wiped his eyes. "Call 'em anything you like. What pleases me is
that the reverend gentleman should have had this diverting experience
so prompt after he was wishing for it." He turned, with concern, to
the clergyman. "Satisfied, sir? Did our little entertainment please, or
wasn't it up to the mark?"

But the transported native of Pekin was game. "I'm quite satisfied, if
you are. I think the affair cost you a hundred dollars or so more than
it did me."

"That's right," agreed the sheriff heartily. "But I don't grudge it--not
a cent of it. The show was worth the price of admission."

The car conductor had a broadside ready for him. "Seems to me you shot
off your mouth more than you did that big gun of yours, Mr. Sheriff."

Collins laughed, and clapped him on the back. "That's right. I'm a
regular phonograph, when you wind me up." He did not think it necessary