gher spots with
silver, intensifying the blackness of the shadows.

Clyde peered ahead to the limit of her restricted area of vision, for
the lights of a station or a town. There was none. Not even the lighted
square of a ranch-house window broke the night. Five minutes passed,
ten, and still the train remained motionless. Suddenly, at the forward
end of the coach, appeared the porter. Followed the occupants of the
smoking compartment, each with his hands on the shoulders of the man in
front of him in impromptu lockstep. Behind them came an apparition
which caused the passengers, after a first gasp of incredulity, to vent
their feelings in masculine oaths and little feminine screams of alarm.

This intruder was a large man, powerfully built. His hat was shoved
back from his forehead, but his face was concealed by a square of dark
cloth, cut with eyeholes. In his right hand he dandled with easy
familiarity an exceedingly long-barrelled revolver. His left hand
rested upon the twin of it, in a holster at his thigh. At his shoulder
was another man, similarly masked.

"Everybody sit quiet!" the first commanded crisply. "Gents will hook
their fingers on top of their heads, and keep them there. No call to be
frightened, ladies, 'long's the men show sense. My partner will pass
along the contribution bag. No holding out, and no talk. And just
remember I'll get the first man that makes a move."

Clyde had joined in the gasp of surprise, but she had not screamed.
Nita was trembling with excitement.

"I wouldn't have missed it for worlds!" the girl whispered. "Oh, Clyde,
isn't he a duck of a holdup? Will there be shooting? Haven't any of
these men got any nerve?"

Clyde became aware that the man in the seat opposite was speaking to
her out of the corner of his mouth, his hands prudently crossed on his
pate.

"If you have anything of special value--rings, watch, that sort of
stuff--get rid of it. Put it on the floor if you can, and kick it under
the seat ahead. Don't cache it in your own seat. Give him what money
you have--that's what he wants. Tell the kid next you to do the same.
And don't be nervous. You're as safe as if you were at home."

Clyde wore no rings. The few articles of jewellery she had brought with
her were already safely concealed beyond the masculine ken of any mere
train robber. But her watch was suspended around her neck by a thin
gold chain. The watch could be detached, but the chain itself must be
lif