elves at home at his hotel. He joked and talked familiarly about
the more notorious sections of the town, warned them to be on the
lookout for thugs, and finally excused himself and entered the baggage
compartment.

Pete saw Brevoort lean forward and hastily snatch up a crumpled slip of
paper which had dropped from the conductor's pocket as he got up.
Brevoort scanned the paper, crumpled it, and tossed it out in the aisle.

"We didn't see that," he told Pete.

"What was it?"

"Forget it," said Brevoort, as the door opened and the conductor,
glancing about, finally saw and recovered the service wire. "Running
orders," he said, as he stuffed it in his pocket and moved on down the
aisle. Pete gazed out of the window, apparently absorbed in looking at
the desert. Brevoort rolled a cigarette, and nodded casually.

The door in the far end of the car slammed. Brevoort turned to Pete.
"Look straight ahead and--listen. That paper you saw was a telegraph
from the agent at Sanborn sayin' a man had been found shot, and to
watch out for two cow-punchers that bought tickets for El Paso--which
is us. That's how we came to stop at the junction back there, which
ain't a regular stop. It means there'll be a marshal waitin' for us at
El Paso."

"Then let's git off this doggone thing," suggested Pete.

"She stops onct before we git in," said Brevoort. "It's gittin'
dark--and we got one chanct. When she slows down, we go into the
baggage-car there and tell the boss we're lookin' for our war-bag,
which we didn't have. Jest about the time she stops, we drop off. The
side door's open."

"We'll be plumb afoot," said Pete.

"Yes. And we'll have to hole up somewhere till we git some
store-clothes--and change our looks--and mebby our luck, which is
runnin' bad right now."

"Do we split up when we hit town?" queried Pete.

"We got to: and you want to git rid of that there cash just as quick as
you kin. Got any of your own money on you?"

"Got a couple of month's pay. You got the tickets. I'll give you
that."

"Forget it! Small change don't count right now. Awhile back I was
thinkin' of puttin' it up to you that we split the big money and take a
little pasear up to Alaska, where it ain't so warm. The Spider dassent
squeal to the law, bein' in bad hisself. We could sure make a get-away
with it. But that there telegraph done settled that deal."

"It was settled afore that, Ed."

"Meanin' you wouldn't split, any