t trains at night when they stopped for water.

About twelve-thirty in the morning my door opened suddenly, and a man
stepped quickly in. I was startled because this was almost the only man
except the pumper and the train crews that had been there since I came.
Once in a while a stray tramp had gone through, but this man was not a
tramp. He wore a long overcoat, buttoned to his chin, with the collar
turned up. A slouch hat pulled well down over his eyes so far concealed
his face that his features were scarcely visible. He came over to my
desk and gruffly asked, "What time is there a passenger train east
to-night?"

I answered that one went through at half past one, the Overland Flyer,
but it did not stop at Alfreda. Quick as a flash he pulled a revolver
and poking it in my face, said, "Young man, you turn your red-light and
stop that train or I'll make a vacancy in this office mighty d----d
quick."

[Illustration: "Two of the men tied my hands in front of me."]

The longer I gazed down the barrel of that revolver the bigger it grew,
and it looked to me as if it was loaded with buck-shot to the muzzle.
When it had grown to about the size of a gatling gun (and it didn't take
long to do it), I concluded that "discretion was the better part of
valor," and reached up and turned my red-light. Meanwhile the door
opened again, and three more men came in. They were masked and the
minute I saw them I knew they were going to make an attempt to hold up
the Overland Flyer. Often this train carried large amounts of bullion
and currency east, and I supposed they had heard that there was a
shipment to go through that night.

I was standing with my back to the table, and just then I heard the
despatcher say that the Flyer was thirty minutes late from the west. I
put my hands quietly behind me and let the right rest on the key. I then
carefully opened the key and had just begun to speak to the despatcher
when one of the men suspected me and said to the leader, "Bill, watch
that little cuss. He's monkeying with the instrument and may give them
warning."

I stopped, closed the key, and was trying to look unconcerned, when
"Bill," said that "to stop all chances of further trouble," they would
bind and gag me. Thereupon two of the men tied my hands in front of me,
bound my legs securely, and thrust a villainously dirty gag in my mouth.
When this was done, "Bill" said, "Throw him across those blamed
instruments so they will keep quiet.