Yuba Bill grimly; "but ef any gentleman
will only lend him an opery glass, mebbe he can see round the curve and
over the other side o' the hill where it is. Now, then," addressing the
stranger with the lantern, "bring along your axes, can't ye?"

"Here's one, Bill," said an officious outside passenger, producing
the instrument he had taken from its strap in the boot. It was the
"regulation" axe, beautifully shaped, highly polished, and utterly
ineffective, as Bill well knew.

"We ain't cuttin' no kindlin's," he said scornfully; then he added
brusquely to the stranger: "Fetch out your biggest wood axe--you've got
one, ye know--and look sharp."

"I don't think Bill need be so d----d rough with the stranger,
considering he's saved the coach a very bad smash," suggested a
reflective young journalist in the next seat. "He talks as if the man
was responsible."

"He ain't quite sure if that isn't the fact," said the express
messenger, in a lowered voice.

"Why? What do you mean?" clamored the others excitedly.

"Well--THIS is about the spot where the up coach was robbed six months
ago," returned the messenger.

"Dear me!" said the lady in the back seat, rising with a half hysterical
laugh, "hadn't we better get out before they come?"

"There is not the slightest danger, madam," said a quiet, observant man,
who had scarcely spoken before, "or the expressman would not have told
us; nor would he, I fancy, have left his post beside the treasure on the
box."

The slight sarcasm implied in this was enough to redden the expressman's
cheek in the light of the coach lamp which Yuba Bill had just unshipped
and brought to the window. He would have made some tart rejoinder, but
was prevented by Yuba Bill addressing the passengers: "Ye'll have to put
up with ONE light, I reckon, until we've got this job finished."

"How long will it last, Bill?" asked the man nearest the window.

"Well," said Bill, with a contemptuous glance at the elegant coach axe
he was carrying in his hand, "considerin' these purty first-class highly
expensive hash choppers that the kempany furnishes us, I reckon it may
take an hour."

"But is there no place where we can wait?" asked the lady anxiously. "I
see a light in that house yonder."

"Ye might try it, though the kempany, as a rule, ain't in the habit
o' makin' social calls there," returned Bill, with a certain grim
significance. Then, turning to some outside passengers, he added, "Now,
then! t