im?" asked Clinch musingly.

"What would be said agin a man that give up that sum o' money, like a
chaw of tobacco, for the asking? Why, there were but three men, as far
ez we kin hear, that did the job. And there were four passengers inside,
armed, and the driver and express messenger on the box. Six were robbed
by THREE!--they were a sweet-scented lot! Reckon they must hev felt
mighty small, for I hear they got up and skedaddled from the station
under the pretext of lookin' for the robbers." He laughed again, and the
laugh was noisily repeated by his five companions at the other end of
the room.

Hale, who had forgotten that the stranger was only echoing a part of
his own criticism of eight hours before, was on the point of rising with
burning cheeks and angry indignation, when the lazily uplifted eye of
Clinch caught his, and absolutely held him down with its paralyzing and
deadly significance. Murder itself seemed to look from those cruelly
quiet and remorseless gray pupils. For a moment he forgot his own rage
in this glimpse of Clinch's implacable resentment; for a moment he
felt a thrill of pity for the wretch who had provoked it. He remained
motionless and fascinated in his chair as the lazy lids closed like a
sheath over Clinch's eyes again. Rawlins, who had probably received the
same glance of warning, remained equally still.

"They haven't heard the last of it yet, you bet," continued the
infatuated stranger. "I've got a little statement here for the
newspaper," he added, drawing some papers from his pocket; "suthin' I
just run off in the coach as I came along. I reckon it'll show things up
in a new light. It's time there should be some change. All the cussin'
that's been usually done hez been by the passengers agin the express and
stage companies. I propose that the Company should do a little cussin'
themselves. See? P'r'aps you don't mind my readin' it to ye? It's just
spicy enough to suit them newspaper chaps."

"Go on," said Colonel Clinch quietly.

The man cleared his throat, with the preliminary pose of authorship, and
his five friends, to whom the composition was evidently not unfamiliar,
assumed anticipatory smiles.

"I call it 'Prize Pusillanimous Passengers.' Sort of runs easy off the
tongue, you know.

"'It now appears that the success of the late stagecoach robbery near
the Summit was largely due to the pusillanimity--not to use a more
serious word'"--He stopped, and looked explanatorily to