hal Providence, I AIN'T IN IT! No, sir, I
ain't in it!"

II.

It was with mixed emotions that the passengers heard that a delay of
fifteen minutes to tighten certain screw-bolts had been ordered by the
autocratic Bill. Some were anxious to get their breakfast at Sugar Pine,
but others were not averse to linger for the daylight that promised
greater safety on the road. The Expressman, knowing the real cause of
Bill's delay, was nevertheless at a loss to understand the object of it.
The passengers were all well known; any idea of complicity with the road
agents was wild and impossible, and, even if there was a confederate
of the gang among them, he would have been more likely to precipitate a
robbery than to check it. Again, the discovery of such a confederate--to
whom they clearly owed their safety--and his arrest would have been
quite against the Californian sense of justice, if not actually illegal.
It seemed evident that Bill's quixotic sense of honor was leading him
astray.

The station consisted of a stable, a wagon shed, and a building
containing three rooms. The first was fitted up with "bunks" or sleeping
berths for the employees; the second was the kitchen; and the third
and larger apartment was dining-room or sitting-room, and was used
as general waiting-room for the passengers. It was not a refreshment
station, and there was no "bar." But a mysterious command from the
omnipotent Bill produced a demijohn of whiskey, with which he hospitably
treated the company. The seductive influence of the liquor loosened the
tongue of the gallant Judge Thompson. He admitted to having struck a
match to enable the fair Pike Countian to find her ring, which, however,
proved to have fallen in her lap. She was "a fine, healthy young
woman--a type of the Far West, sir; in fact, quite a prairie blossom!
yet simple and guileless as a child." She was on her way to Marysville,
he believed, "although she expected to meet friends--a friend, in
fact--later on." It was her first visit to a large town--in fact, any
civilized centre--since she crossed the plains three years ago. Her
girlish curiosity was quite touching, and her innocence irresistible.
In fact, in a country whose tendency was to produce "frivolity and
forwardness in young girls, he found her a most interesting young
person." She was even then out in the stable-yard watching the horses
being harnessed, "preferring to indulge a pardonable healthy young
curiosity than t