ow."

"That's right," agreed the agent.

"But I won't be here to read it. My engagements take me south. I'll make
a present to the great Lieutenant O'Connor of the information. We're
headed south, tell him. And tell Mr. Sheriff Collins, too--happy to
entertain him if he happens our way. If it would rest your hands
any there's no law against putting them in your trousers pockets, my
friend."

From outside there came a short sharp whistle. The man on the counter
answered it, and slipped at once to the floor. The door opened, to let
in another masked form, but one how different from the first! Here was
no confidence almost insolent in its nonchalance. The figure was slight
and boyish, the manner deprecating, the brown eyes shy and shrinking
He was so obviously a novice at outlawry that fear sat heavy upon his
shoulders. When he spoke, almost in a whisper, his teeth chattered.

"All ready, sir."

"The wires are cut?" demanded his leader crisply.

"Yes, sir."

"On both sides?"

"On both sides."

His chief relieved the operator of the revolver in his desk, broke it,
emptied out the shells, and flung them through the window, then tossed
the weapon back to its owner.

"You'll not shoot yourself by accident now," he explained, and with that
he had followed his companion into the night.

There came to the station agent the sound of galloping horses, growing
fainter, until a heavy silence seemed to fill the night. He stole to the
door and locked it, pulled down the window blinds, and then reloaded
his revolver with feverish haste. This done, he sat down before his keys
with the weapon close at hand and frantically called for Tucson over and
over again. No answer came to him, nor from the other direction when he
tried that. The young bandit had told the truth. His companions had cut
the wires and so isolated from the world for the time the scene of the
hold-up. The agent understood now why the leader of the outlaws had
honored him with so much of his valuable time. He had stayed to hold
back the telegrams until he knew the wires were cut.

CHAPTER 3. THE SHERIFF INTRODUCES HIMSELF

Bear-trap Collins, presuming on the new intimacy born of an exciting
experience shared in common, stepped across the aisle, flung aside Miss
Wainwright's impedimenta, and calmly seated himself beside her. She
was a young woman capable of a hauteur chillier than ice to undue
familiarity, but she did not choose at this moment to resent