Now thats all settled, yed better waltz in and have your whiskey and coffee afore the stage starts. Ye kin comfort yourselves that it aint stolen or pizoned, even if it is served up to ye by Snapshot Harrys niece! With another easy gesture she swung the demijohn over her arm, and, offering a tin cup to each of the men, filled them in turn.
The ice thus broken, or perhaps thus perilously skated over, the passengers were as profuse in their thanks and apologies as they had been constrained and artificial before. Heckshill and Frenshaw vied with each other for a glance from the audacious Flo. If their compliments partook of an extravagance that was at times ironical, the girl was evidently not deceived by it, but replied in kind. Only the expressman who seemed to have fallen under the spell of her audacious glances, was uneasy at the license of the others, yet himself dumb towards her. The lady discreetly drew nearer to the fire, the old woman, and her coffee; Hiram subsided into his apathetic attitude by the fire.
A shout from the road at last proclaimed the return of Yuba Bill and his helpers. It had the singular effect of startling the party into a vague and uneasy consciousness of indiscretion, as if it had been the voice of the outer world of law and order, and their manner again became constrained. The leave-taking was hurried and perfunctory; the diplomatic Heckshill again lapsed into glittering generalities about the best of friends parting. Only the expressman lingered for a moment on the doorstep in the light of the fire and the girls dancing eyes.
I hope, he stammered, with a very youthful blush, to come the next timewithwitha better introduction.
Uncle Harrys, she said, with a quick laugh and a mock curtsey, as she turned away.
Once out of hearing, the party broke into hurried comment and criticism of the scene they had just witnessed, and particularly of the fair actress who had played so important a part, averring their emphatic intention of wresting the facts from Yuba Bill at once, and cross-examining him closely; but oddly enough, reaching the coach and that redoubted individual, no one seemed to care to take the initiative, and they all scrambled hurriedly to their seats without a word. How far Yuba Bills irritability and imperious haste contributed to this, or a fear that he might in turn catechise them kept them silent, no one knew. The cynically observant passenger was not there; he and the sole occupant of the box-seat, they were told, had joined the clearing party some moments before, and would be picked up by Yuba Bill later on.
Five minutes after Bill had gathered up the reins, they reached the scene of obstruction. The great pine-tree which had fallen from the steep bank above and stretched across the road had been partly lopped of its branches, divided in two lengths, which were now rolled to either side of the track, leaving barely space for the coach to pass. The huge vehicle slowed up as Yuba Bill skillfully guided his six horses through this narrow alley, whose tassels of pine, glistening with wet, brushed the panels and sides of the coach, and effectually excluded any view from its windows. Seen from the coach top, the horses appeared to be cleaving their way through a dark, shining olive sea, that parted before and closed behind them, as they slowly passed. The leaders were just emerging from it, and Bill was gathering up his slackened reins, when a peremptory voice called, Halt! At the same moment the coach lights flashed upon a masked and motionless horseman in the road. Bill made an impulsive reach for his whip, but in the same instant checked himself, reined in his horses with a suppressed oath, and sat perfectly rigid. Not so the expressman, who caught up his rifle, but it was arrested by Bills arm, and his voice in his ear!
Too late!were covered!dont be a dd fool!
The inside passengers, still encompassed by obscurity, knew only that the stage had stopped. The outsiders knew, by experience, that they were covered by unseen guns in the wayside branches, and scarcely moved.
I didnt think it was the square thing to stop you, Bill, till youd got through your work, said a masterful but not unpleasant voice, and if youll just hand down the express box, Ill pass you and the rest of your load through free. But as were both in a hurry, youd better look lively about it.
Hand it down, said Bill gruffly to the expressman.
The expressman turned with a white check but blazing eyes to the compartment below his seat. He lingered, apparently in some difficulty with the lock of the compartment, but finally brought out the box and handed it to another armed and masked figure that appeared mysteriously from the branches beside the wheels.
Thank you! said the voice; you can slide on now.
And thank you for nothing, said Bill, gathering up his reins. Its the first time any of your kind had to throw down a tree to hold me up!
Youre lying, Bill!though you dont know it, said the voice cheerfully. Far from throwing down a tree to stop you, it was I sent word along the road to warn you from crashing down upon it, and sending you and your load to h-ll before your time! Drive on!
The angry Bill waited for no second comment, but laying his whip over the backs of his team, drove furiously forward. So rapidly had the whole scene passed that the inside passengers knew nothing of it, and even those on the top of the coach roused from their stupor and inglorious inaction only to cling desperately to the terribly swaying coach as it thundered down the grade and try to keep their equilibrium. Yet, furious as was their speed, Yuba Bill could not help noticing that the expressman from time to time cast a hurried glance behind him. Bill knew that the young man had shown readiness and nerve in the attack, although both were hopeless; yet he was so much concerned at his set white face and compressed lips that when, at the end of three miles unabated speed, they galloped up to the first station, he seized the young man by the arm, and, as the clamor of the news they had brought rose around them, dragged him past the wondering crowd, caught a decanter from the bar, and, opening the door of a side room, pushed him into it and closed the door behind them.
Look yar, Brice! Stop it! Quit it right thar! he said emphatically, laying his large hand on the young fellows shoulder. Be a man! Youve shown you are one, green ez you are, for you had the sand in yethe clear grit to-night, yet youd have been a dead man now, if I hadnt stopped ye! Man! you had no show from the beginning! Youve done your level best to save your treasure, and Im your witness to the kempany, and proud of it, too! So shet your head andand, pouring out a glass of whiskey, swaller that!
But Brice waved him aside with burning eyes and dry lips.
You dont know it all, Bill! he said, with a half choked voice.
All what?
Swear that youll keep it a secret, he said feverishly, gripping Bills arm in turn, and Ill tell you.
Go on!
THE COACH WAS ROBBED BEFORE THAT!
Wot yer say? ejaculated Bill.
The treasurea packet of greenbackshad been taken from the box before the gang stopped us!
The h-ll, you say!
Listen! When you told me to hand down the box, I had an ideaa dd fool one, perhapsof taking that package out and jumping from the coach with it. I knew they would fire at me only; I might get away, but if they killed me, Id have done only my duty, and nobody else would have got hurt. But when I got to the box I found that the lock had been forced and the money was gone. I managed to snap the lock again before I handed it down. I thought they might discover it at once and chase us, but they didnt.
And then thar war no greenbacks in the box that they took? gasped Bill, with staring eyes.
No!
Bill raised his hand in the air as if in solemn adjuration, and then brought it down on his knee, doubling up in a fit of uncontrollable but perfectly noiseless laughter. Oh, Lord! he gasped, hol me afore I bust right open! Hush, he went on, with a jerk of his fingers towards the next room, not a word o this to any one! Its too much to keep, I know; its nearly killing me! but we must swaller it ourselves! Oh, Jerusalem the Golden! Oh, Brice! Think o that face o Snapshot Harrys ez he opened that treasure box afore his gang in the brush! And he allers so keen and so easy and so cock sure! Created snakes! Id go through this every trip for one sight of him as he just riz up from that box and cussed! He again shook with inward convulsions till his face grew purple, and even the red came back to the younger mans cheek.
But this dont bring the money back, Bill, said Brice gloomily.
Yuba Bill swallowed the glass of whiskey at a gulp, wiped his mouth and eyes, smothered a second explosion, and then gravely confronted Brice.
When do you think it was taken, and how?
It must have been taken when I left the coach on the road and went over to that settlers cabin, said Brice bitterly. Yet I believed everything was safe, and I left two menboth passengersone inside and one on the box, that man who sat the other side of you.
Jee whillikins! ejaculated Bill, with his hand to his forehead, the men I clean forgot to pick up in the road, and now I reckon they never intended to be picked up, either.
No doubt a part of the gang, said Brice, with increased bitterness; I see it all now.
No! said Bill decisively, that aint Snapshot Harrys style; hes a clean fighter, with no underhand tricks. And I dont believe he threw down that tree, either. Look yer, sonny! he added, suddenly laying his hand on Brices shoulder, a hundred to one that that was the work of a couple o dd sneaks or traitors in that gang who kem along as passengers. I never took any stock in that coyote who paid extra for his box-seat.
Brice knew that Bill never looked kindly on any passenger who, by bribing the ticket agent, secured this favorite seat, which Bill felt was due to his personal friends and was in his own selection. He only returned gloomily:
I dont see what difference it makes to us which robber got the money.
Ye dont, said Bill, raising his head, with a sudden twinkle in his eyes. Then ye dont know Snapshot Harry. Do ye suppose hes goin to sit down and twiddle his thumbs with that skin game played on him? No, sir, he continued, with a thoughtful deliberation, drawing his fingers slowly through his long beard, he spotted itand smelt out the whole trick ez soon ez he opened that box, and thats why he didnt foller us! Hell hunt those sneak thieves into h-ll but what hell get em, and, he went on still more slowly, by the livin hokey! I reckon, sonny, thats jest how yell get your chance to chip in!
I dont understand, said Brice impatiently.
Well, said Bill, with more provoking slowness, as if he were communing with himself rather than Brice, Harrys mighty proud and high toned, and to be given away like this has cut down into his heart, you bet. It aint the money hes thinkin of; its this split in the gangthe loss of his power ez boss, ye seeand ef he could get hold o them chaps hed let the money slide ez long ez they didnt get it. So youve got a detective on your side thats worth the whole police force of Californy! Ye never heard anything about Snapshot Harry, did ye? asked Bill carelessly, raising his eyes to Brices eager face.
The young man flushed slightly. Very little, he said. At the same time a vision of the pretty girl in the settlers cabin flashed upon him with a new significance.
Hes more than half white, in some ways, said Bill thoughtfully, and they say he lives somewhere about here in a cabin in the bush, with a crippled sister and her darter, who both swear by him. It mightnt be hard to find himef a man was dead set on it.
Brice faced about with determined eyes. ILL DO IT, he said quietly.
Ye might, said Bill, still more deliberately stroking his beard, mention my name, ef ye ever get to see him.
Your name, ejaculated the astonished Brice.
My name, repeated Bill calmly. He knows its my bounden duty to kill him ef I get the chance, and I know that hed plug me full o holes in a minit ef thar war a necessity for it. But in these yer affairs, sonny, it seems to be the understood thing by the kempany that Im to keep fiery young squirts like you, and chuckle-headed passengers like themjerking his thumb towards the other roomfrom gettin themselves killed by their rashness. So ontil the kempany fill the top o that coach with men who aint got any business to do BUT fightin other men who aint got any other business to do BUT to fight themthe odds are agin us! Harry has always acted square to methats how I know he aint in this sneak-thief business, and why he didnt foller us, suspectin suthin, and Ive always acted square to him. All the same, Id like ter hev seen his face when that box was opened! Lordy! Here Bill again collapsed in his silent paroxysm of mirth. Ye might tell him how I laughed!
I would hardly do that, Bill, said the young man, smiling in spite of himself. But youve given me an idea, and Ill work it out.
Bill glanced at the young fellows kindling eyes and flushing cheek, and nodded. Well, rastle with that idea later on, sonny. Ill fix you all right in my report to the kempany, but the rest you must work alone. Ive started out the usual posse, circus-ridin down the road after Harry. Hed be a rough customer to meet just now, continued Bill, with a chuckle, ef thar was the ghost of a chance o them comin up with him, for him and his gang is scattered miles away by this. He paused, tossed off another glass of whiskey, wiped his mouth, and saying to Brice, with a wink, Its about time to go and comfort them thar passengers, led the way through the crowded barroom into the stage office.
The spectacle of Bills humorously satisfied face and Brices bright eyes and heightened color was singularly effective. The inside passengers, who had experienced neither the excitement nor the danger of the robbery, yet had been obliged to listen to the hairbreadth escapes of the others, pooh-poohed the whole affair, and even the outsides themselves were at last convinced that the robbery was a slight one, with little or no loss to the company. The clamor subsided almost as suddenly as it had arisen; the wiser passengers fashioned their attitude on the sang-froid of Yuba Bill, and the whole coach load presently rolled away as complacently as if nothing had happened.
IIThe robbery furnished the usual amount of copy for the local press. There was the inevitable compliment to Yuba Bill for his well-known coolness; the conduct of the young expressman, who, though new to the service, displayed an intrepidity that only succumbed to numbers, was highly commended, and even the passengers received their meed of praise, not forgetting the lady, who accepted the incident with the light-hearted pleasantry characteristic of the Californian woman. There was the usual allusion to the necessity of a Vigilance Committee to cope with this organized lawlessness but it is to be feared that the readers of The Red Dog Clarion, however ready to lynch a horse thief, were of the opinion that rich stage express companies were quite able to take care of their own property.