'em off myself--later on."

So while the giant stood with outstretched hands, the other filed
through a link at the middle of the chain, and together the four men
left the baggage room and went into the outer office. Its door was
closed but Halloway, who walked ahead, laid a hand on the knob and
paused to inquire, without rancor, "I reckon ye aims ter give me back
my gun, don't ye?"

The operator promptly produced the weapon from the drawer of his table
and Halloway made no examination to see whether it came back to him
full-chambered or empty.

He had his own guess on that score, but he wished to appear
unsuspicious just now, so he thrust the thing into its holster.

Then deliberately he turned the key in the door and that was, for a
time, his last deliberate act. Seizing the fellow who stood nearest
him, he swung him forward and held him as a partial shield before his
own body.

"Thar's three of ye hyar," he announced in an abruptly ominous voice,
"and one of me. Ef any man makes a move ter draw a gun, I aims
straightway ter break this feller's neck. Don't let no man move from
where he stands at!"

Astonishment enforced a momentary obedience, save that the man upon
whose shoulders the gigantic hands lay--not as yet heavily--attempted
to squirm away. Iron-like fingers bit into his flesh and, wincing with
a smothered yell of pain, he stood trembling. Halloway passed one hand
over his hostage's shoulder and drew the pistol from its holster--then
he sent the fellow spinning from him like a top, and covered the
others, who huddled close together. "Yore guns--grip-fust--an'
speedily," he directed, in that still voice that carried terror, and
brought immediate obedience.

"Ye promised us--thet ye wouldn't hold us accountable," whined the
operator, and Halloway laughed, as he unloaded the captured pistols and
tossed them into a corner.

"What I promised war not ter visit no revengeance on ther wrong
fellers," he corrected. "Never mind how I knows hit--but I does know
thet no message ever come from ther Coal City town marshal. Ther one
that did come told about a plot ter lay-way an' rob a woman--an' ther
three of ye war in on hit."

The terror of the unaccountable and wholly mystifying situation held
them now in its paralysis. In no conceivable way could he have learned
these things--yet he knew them and fears crowded as they wondered what
else he might know as well.

But Halloway allowed them little le