y," he retorted airily, pretending not to see
my hand.

I never claimed to have a good temper, and it was all I could do
to hold myself in. I turned to Miss Cullen to wish her a pleasant
trip, and the thought that this might be our last meeting made me
forget even Lord Ralles.

"I hope it isn't good-by, but only _au revoir_," she said.
"Whether or no, you must let us see you some time in Chicago, so
that I may show you how grateful I am for all the pleasure you
have added to our trip." Then, as I stepped down off my platform,
she leaned over the rail of 218, and added, in a low voice, "I
thought you were just as brave as the rest, Mr. Gordon, and now I
think you are braver."

I turned impulsively, and said, "You would think so, Miss Cullen,
if you knew the sacrifice I am making." Then, without looking at
her, I gave the signal, the bell rang, and No. 3 pulled off. The
last thing I saw was a handkerchief waving off the platform of
218.

When the train dropped out of sight over a grade, I swallowed the
lump in my throat and went to the telegraph instrument. I wired
Coolidge to give the alarm to Fort Wingate, Fort Apache, Fort
Thomas, Fort Grant, Fort Bayard, and Fort Whipple, though I
thought the precaution a mere waste of energy. Then I sent the
brakeman up to connect the cut wire.

"Two of the bullets struck up here, Mr. Gordon," the man called
from the top of the pole.

"Surely not!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, sir," he responded. "The bullet-holes are brand-new."

I took in the lay of the land, the embers of the fire showing me
how the train had lain. "I don't wonder nobody was hit," I
exclaimed, "if that's a sample of their shooting. Some one was a
worse rattled man than I ever expect to be. Dig the bullets out,
Douglas, so that we can have a look at them."

He brought them down in a minute. They proved to be Winchesters,
as I had expected, for they were on the side from which the
robbers must have fired.

"That chap must have been full of Arizona tangle-foot, to have
fired as wild as he did," I ejaculated, and walked over to
where the mail-car had stood, to see just how bad the shooting
was. When I got there and faced about, it was really impossible
to believe any man could have done so badly, for raising my
own Winchester to the pole put it twenty degrees out of range
and nearly forty degrees in the air. Yet there were the
cartridge-shells on the ground, to show that I was in the place
from which the shots