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diff --git a/23180.txt b/23180.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..72db832 --- /dev/null +++ b/23180.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1359 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Denver Express, by A. A. Hayes + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Denver Express + From "Belgravia" for January, 1884 + +Author: A. A. Hayes + +Release Date: October 24, 2007 [EBook #23180] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DENVER EXPRESS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE DENVER EXPRESS + +By A. A. Hayes + +From "Belgravia" for January, 1884 + + + + +I + +Any one who has seen an outward-bound clipper ship getting under way, +and heard the "shanty-songs" sung by the sailors as they toiled at +capstan and halliards, will probably remember that rhymeless but +melodious refrain-- + + "I'm bound to see its muddy waters, + Yeo ho! that rolling river; + Bound to see its muddy waters, + Yeo ho! the wild Missouri." + +Only a happy inspiration could have impelled Jack to apply the adjective +"wild" to that ill-behaved and disreputable river which, tipsily bearing +its enormous burden of mud from the far Northwest, totters, reels, +runs its tortuous course for hundreds on hundreds of miles and which, +encountering the lordly and thus far well-behaved Mississippi at Alton, +and forcing its company upon this splendid river (as if some drunken +fellow should lock arms with a dignified pedestrian), contaminates it +all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. + +At a certain point on the banks of this river, or rather--as it has +the habit of abandoning and destroying said banks--at a safe distance +therefrom, there is a town from which a railroad takes its departure, +for its long climb up the natural incline of the Great Plains, to the +base of the mountains; hence the importance to this town of the large +but somewhat shabby building serving as terminal station. In its smoky +interior, late in the evening and not very long ago, a train was nearly +ready to start. It was a train possessing a certain consideration. For +the benefit of a public easily gulled and enamored of grandiloquent +terms, it was advertised as the "Denver Fast Express"; sometimes, with +strange unfitness, as the "Lightning Express"; "elegant" and "palatial" +cars were declared to be included therein; and its departure was one of +the great events of the twenty-four hours in the country round about. A +local poet described it in the "live" paper of the town, cribbing from +an old Eastern magazine and passing off as original the lines-- + + "Again we stepped into the street, + A train came thundering by + Drawn by the snorting iron steed + Swifter than eagles fly. + Rumbled the wheels, the whistle shrieked, + Far rolled the smoky cloud, + Echoed the hills, the valleys shook, + The flying forests bowed." + +The trainmen, on the other hand, used no fine phrases. They called it +simply "Number Seventeen"; and, when it started, said it had "pulled +out." + +On the evening in question, there it stood, nearly ready. Just behind +the great hissing locomotive, with its parabolic headlight and its +coal-laden tender, came the baggage, mail, and express cars; then the +passenger coaches, in which the social condition of the occupants seemed +to be in inverse ratio to their distance from the engine. First came +emigrants, "honest miners," "cowboys," and laborers; Irishmen, Germans, +Welshmen, Mennonites from Russia, quaint of garb and speech, and +Chinamen. Then came along cars full of people of better station, and +last the great Pullman "sleepers," in which the busy black porters were +making up the berths for well-to-do travelers of diverse nationalities +and occupations. + +It was a curious study for a thoughful observer, this motley crowd of +human beings sinking all differences of race, creed, and habits in +the common purpose to move westward--to the mountain fastnesses, the +sage-brush deserts and the Golden Gate. + +The warning bell had sounded, and the fireman leaned far out for the +signal. The gong struck sharply, the conductor shouted, "All aboard," +and raised his hand; the tired ticket-seller shut his window, and the +train moved out of the station, gathered way as it cleared the outskirts +of the town, rounded a curve, entered on an absolutely straight line, +and, with one long whistle from the engine, settled down to its work. +Through the night hours it sped on, past lonely ranches and infrequent +stations, by and across shallow streams fringed with cottonwood trees, +over the greenish-yellow buffalo grass near the old trail where many a +poor emigrant, many a bold frontiersman, many a brave soldier, had laid +his bones but a short time before. + +Familiar as they may be, there is something strangely impressive about +all-night journeys by rail, and those forming part of an American +transcontinental trip are almost weird. From the windows of a night +express in Europe or the older portions of the United States, one looks +on houses and lights, cultivated fields, fences, and hedges; and, hurled +as he may be through the darkness, he has a sense of companionship and +semi-security. Far different is it when the long train is running over +those two rails which, seen before night sets in, seem to meet on the +horizon. Within all is as if between two great seaboard cities; the +neatly dressed people, the uniformed officials, the handsome fittings, +the various appliances for comfort. Without are now long dreary levels, +now deep and wild canyons, now an environment of strange and grotesque +rock-formations, castles, battlements, churches, statues. The antelope +fleetly runs, and the coyote skulks away from the track, and the gray +wolf howls afar off. It is for all the world, to one's fancy, as if +a bit of civilization, a family or community, its belongings and +surroundings complete, were flying through regions barbarous and +inhospitable. + +From the cab of Engine No. 32; the driver of the Denver Express saw, +showing faintly in the early morning, the buildings grouped about the +little station ten miles ahead, where breakfast awaited his passengers. +He looked at his watch; he had just twenty minutes in which to run the +distance, as he had run it often before. Something, however, traveled +faster than he. From the smoky station out of which the train passed +the night before, along the slender wire stretched on rough poles at the +side of the track, a spark of that mysterious something which we call +electricity flashed at the moment he returned the watch to his pocket; +and in five minutes' time the station-master came out on the platform, a +little more thoughtful than his wont, and looked eastward for the smoke +of the train. With but three of the passengers in that train has this +tale especially to do, and they were all in the new and comfortable +Pullman "City of Cheyenne." One was a tall, well-made man of about +thirty--blond, blue-eyed, bearded, straight, sinewy, alert. Of all in +the train he seemed the most thoroughly at home, and the respectful +greeting of the conductor, as he passed through the car, marked him as +an officer of the road. Such was he--Henry Sinclair, assistant engineer, +quite famed on the line, high in favor with the directors, and a rising +man in all ways. It was known on the road that he was expected in +Denver, and there were rumors that he was to organize the parties for +the survey of an important "extension." Beside him sat his pretty young +wife. She was a New Yorker--one could tell at first glance--from the +feather of her little bonnet, matching the gray traveling dress, to +the tips of her dainty boots; and one, too, at whom old Fifth Avenue +promenaders would have turned to look. She had a charming figure, brown +hair, hazel eyes, and an expression at once kind, intelligent, and +spirited. She had cheerfully left a luxurious home to follow the young +engineer's fortunes; and it was well known that those fortunes had been +materially advanced by her tact and cleverness. + +The third passenger in question had just been in conversation with +Sinclair and the latter was telling his wife of their curious meeting. +Entering the toilet-room at the rear of the car, he said, he had begun +his ablutions by the side of another man, and it was as they were +sluicing their faces with water that he heard the cry: + +"Why, Major, is that you? Just to think of meeting you here!" + +A man of about twenty-eight years of age, slight, muscular, wiry, had +seized his wet hand and was wringing it. He had black eyes, keen and +bright, swarthy complexion, black hair and mustache. A keen observer +might have seen about him some signs of a _jeunesse orageuse_, but his +manner was frank and pleasing. Sinclair looked him in the face, puzzled +for a moment. + +"Don't you remember Foster?" asked the man. + +"Of course I do," replied Sinclair. "For a moment I could not place you. +Where have you been and what have you been doing?" + +"Oh," replied Foster, laughing, "I've braced up and turned over a new +leaf. I'm a respectable member of society, have a place in the express +company, and am going to Denver to take charge." + +"I am very glad to hear it, and you must tell me your story when we have +had our breakfast." + +The pretty young woman was just about to ask who Foster was, when the +speed of the train slackened, and the brakeman opened the door of the +car and cried out in stentorian tones: + +"Pawnee Junction; twenty minutes for refreshments!" + + + + +II + +When the celebrated Rocky Mountain gold excitement broke out, more than +twenty years ago, and people painted "Pike's Peak or Bust" on the canvas +covers of their wagons and started for the diggings, they established a +"trail" or "trace" leading in a southwesterly direction from the old one +to California. + +At a certain point on this trail a frontiersman named Barker built a +forlorn ranch-house and _corral_, and offered what is conventionally +called "entertainment for man and beast." + +For years he lived there, dividing his time between fighting the Indians +and feeding the passing emigrants and their stock. Then the first +railroad to Denver was built, taking another route from the Missouri, +and Barker's occupation was gone. He retired with his gains to St. Louis +and lived in comfort. + +Years passed on, and the "extension" over which our train is to pass +was planned. The old pioneers were excellent natural engineers and their +successors could find no better route than they had chosen. Thus it was +that "Barker's" became, during the construction period, an important +point, and the frontiersman's name came to figure on time-tables. +Meanwhile the place passed through a process of evolution which would +have delighted Darwin. In the party of engineers which first camped +there was Sinclair, and it was by his advice that the contractors +selected it for division headquarters. Then came drinking "saloons" +and gambling houses--alike the inevitable concomitant and the bane +of Western settlements; then scattered houses and shops and a shabby +so-called hotel, in which the letting of miserable rooms (divided from +each other by canvas partitions) was wholly subordinated to the business +of the bar. Before long, Barker's had acquired a worse reputation than +even other towns of its type, the abnormal and uncanny aggregations of +squalor and vice which dotted the plains in those days; and it was at +its worst when Sinclair returned thither and took up his quarters in the +engineers' building. The passion for gambling was raging, and to pander +thereto were collected as choice a lot of desperadoes as ever "stacked" +cards or loaded dice. It came to be noticed that they were on excellent +terms with a man called "Jeff" Johnson, who was lessee of the hotel; and +to be suspected that said Johnson, in local parlance, "stood in with" +them. With this man had come to Barker's his daughter Sarah, commonly +known as "Sally," a handsome girl, with a straight, lithe figure, fine +features, reddish auburn hair, and dark-blue eyes. It is but fair to say +that even the "toughs" of a place like Barker's show some respect for +the other sex, and Miss Sally's case was no exception to the rule. The +male population admired her; they said she "put on heaps of style"; but +none of them had seemed to make any progress in her good graces. + +On a pleasant afternoon just after the track had been laid some miles +west of Barker's, and construction trains were running with some +regularity to and from the end thereof, Sinclair sat on the rude veranda +of the engineers' quarters, smoking his well-colored meerschaum and +looking at the sunset. The atmosphere had been so clear during the day +that glimpses were had of Long's and Pike's peaks, and as the young +engineer gazed at the gorgeous cloud display he was thinking of the +miners' quaint and pathetic idea that the dead "go over the Range." + +"Nice-looking, ain't it, Major?" asked a voice at his elbow, and he +turned to see one of the contractors' officials taking a seat near him. + +"More than nice-looking to my mind, Sam," he replied. "What is the news +to-day?" + +"Nothin' much. There's a sight of talk about the doin's of them faro an' +keno sharps. The boys is gettin' kind o' riled, fur they allow the game +ain't on the square wuth a cent. Some of 'em down to the tie-camp wuz +a-talkin' about a vigilance committee, an' I wouldn't be surprised ef +they meant business. Hev yer heard about the young feller that come in a +week ago from Laramie an' set up a new faro-bank?" + +"No. What about him?" + +"Wa'al, yer see he's a feller thet's got a lot of sand an' ain't afeard +of nobody, an' he's allowed to hev the deal to his place on the square +every time. Accordin' to my idee, gamblin's about the wust racket a +feller kin work, but it takes all sorts of men to make a world, an' ef +the boys is bound to hev a game, I calkilate they'd like to patronize +his bank. Thet's made the old crowd mighty mad an' they're a-talkin' +about puttin' up a job of cheatin' on him an' then stringin' him up. +Besides, I kind o' think there's some cussed jealousy on another lay as +comes in. Yer see the young feller--Cyrus Foster's his name--is sweet on +thet gal of Jeff Johnson's. Jeff was to Laramie before he come here, an' +Foster knowed Sally up thar. I allow he moved here to see her. Hello! Ef +thar they ain't a-coming now." + +Down a path leading from the town past the railroad buildings, and well +on the prairie, Sinclair saw the girl walking with the "young feller." +He was talking earnestly to her and her eyes were cast down. She looked +pretty and, in a way, graceful; and there was in her attire a noticeable +attempt at neatness, and a faint reminiscence of bygone fashions. A +smile came to Sinclair's lips as he thought of a couple walking up Fifth +Avenue during his leave of absence not many months before, and of a +letter many times read, lying at that moment in his breast-pocket. + +"Papa's bark is worse than his bite," ran one of its sentences. "Of +course he does not like the idea of my leaving him and going away to +such dreadful and remote places as Denver and Omaha and I don't know +what else; but he will not oppose me in the end, and when you come on +again--" + +"By thunder!" exclaimed Sam; "ef thar ain't one of them cussed sharps +a-watchin' 'em." + +Sure enough a rough-looking fellow, his hat pulled over his eyes, half +concealed behind a pile of lumber, was casting a sinister glance toward +the pair. + +"The gal's well enough," continued Sam; "but I don't take a cent's wuth +of stock in thet thar father of her'n. He's in with them sharps, sure +pop, an' it don't suit his book to hev Foster hangin' round. It's ten to +one he sent that cuss to watch 'em, Wa'al, they're a queer lot, an' +I'm afeared thar's plenty of trouble ahead among 'em. Good luck to you, +Major," and, he pushed back his chair and walked away. + +After breakfast next morning, when Sinclair was sitting at the table +in his office, busy with maps and plans, the door was thrown open, and +Foster, panting for breath, ran in. + +"Major Sinclair," he said, speaking with difficulty, "I've no claim on +you, but I ask you to protect me. The other gamblers are going to hang +me. They are more than ten to one. They will track me here; unless you +harbor me, I'm a dead man." + +Sinclair rose from his chair in a second and walked to the window. A +party of men were approaching the building. He turned to Foster: + +"I do not like your trade," said he; "but I will not see you murdered +if I can help it. You are welcome here." Foster said "Thank you," stood +still a moment, and then began to pace the room, rapidly clinching his +hands, his whole frame quivering, his eyes flashing fire--"for all the +world," Sinclair said, in telling the story afterward, "like a fierce +caged tiger." + +"My God!" he muttered, with concentrated intensity, "to be _trapped_, +trapped like this!" + +Sinclair stepped quickly to the door of his bedroom and motioned Foster +to enter. Then there came a knock at the outer door, and he opened it +and stood on the threshold erect and firm. Half a dozen "toughs" faced +him. + +"Major," said their spokesman, "we want that man. + +"You can not have him, boys." + +"Major, we're a-goin' to take him." + +"You had better not try," said Sinclair, with perfect ease and +self-possession, and in a pleasant voice. "I have given him shelter, and +you can only get him over my dead body. Of course you can kill me, but +you won't do even that without one or two of you going down; and then +you know perfectly well, boys, what will happen. You _know_ that if you +lay your finger on a railroad man it's all up with you. There are five +hundred men in the tie-camp, not five miles away, and you don't need to +be told that in less than one hour after they get word there won't be a +piece of one of you big enough to bury." + +The men made no reply. They looked him straight in the eyes for a +moment. Had they seen a sign of flinching they might have risked the +issue, but there was none. With muttered curses, they slunk away. +Sinclair shut and bolted the door, then opened the one leading to the +bedroom. + +"Foster," he said, "the train will pass here in half an hour. Have you +money enough?" + +"Plenty, Major." + +"Very well; keep perfectly quiet and I will try to get you safely off." +He went to an adjoining room and called Sam, the contractor's man. He +took in the situation at a glance. + +"Wa'al Foster," said he, "kind o' 'close call' for yer, warn't it? Guess +yer'd better be gittin' up an' gittin' pretty lively. The train boys +will take yer through an' yer kin come back when this racket's worked +out." + +Sinclair glanced at his watch, then he walked to the window and looked +out. On a small _mesa_, or elevated plateau, commanding the path to the +railroad, he saw a number of men with rifles. + +"Just as I expected," said he. "Sam, ask one of the boys to go down to +the track and, when the train arrives, tell the conductor to come here." + +In a few minutes the whistle was heard and the conductor entered the +building. Receiving his instructions, he returned, and immediately on +engine, tender, and platform appeared the trainmen, with _their_ rifles +covering the group on the bluff. Sinclair put on his hat. + +"Now, Foster," said he, "we have no time to lose. Take Sam's arm and +mine, and walk between us." + +The trio left the building and walked deliberately to the railroad. Not +a word was spoken. Besides the men in sight on the train, two behind the +window-blinds of the one passenger coach, and imseen, kept their fingers +on the triggers of their repeating carbines. It seemed a long time, +counted by anxious seconds, until Foster was safe in the coach. + +"All ready, conductor," said Sinclair. "Now, Foster, good-by. I am +not good at lecturing, but if I were you, I would make this the +turning-point in my life." + +Foster was much moved. + +"I will do it, Major," said he; "and I shall never forget what you have +done for me to-day. I am sure we shall meet again." + +With another shriek from the whistle the train started. Sinclair and +Sam saw the men quietly returning the firearms to their places as it +gathered way. Then they walked back to their quarters. The men on the +_mesa_, balked of their purpose, had withdrawn. + +Sam accompanied Sinclair to his door, and then sententiously remarked: +"Major, I think I'll light out and find some of the boys. You ain't +got no call to know anything about it, but I allow it's about time them +cusses was bounced." + +Three nights after this, a powerful party of _Vigilantes_, stern and +inexorable, made a raid on all the gambling dens, broke the tables and +apparatus, and conducted the men to a distance from the town, where they +left them with an emphatic and concise warning as to the consequences +of any attempt to return. An exception was made in Jeff Johnson's +cases--but only for the sake of his daughter--for it was found that many +a "little game" had been carried on in his house. + +Ere long he found it convenient to sell his business and retire to a +town some miles to the eastward, where the railroad influence was not +as strong as at Barker's. At about this time, Sinclair made his +arrangements to go to New York, with the pleasant prospect of marrying +the young lady in Fifth Avenue. In due time he arrived at Barker's with +his young and charming wife and remained for some days. The changes +were astounding. Commonplace respectability had replaced abnormal +lawlessness. A neat station stood where had been the rough contractor's +buildings. At a new "Windsor" (or was it "Brunswick"?) the performance +of the kitchen contrasted sadly (alas! how common is such contrast +in these regions) with the promise of the _menu_. There was a tawdry +theatre yclept "Academy of Music," and there was not much to choose in +the way of ugliness between two "meeting-houses." + +"Upon my word, my dear," said Sinclair to his wife, "I ought to be +ashamed to say it, but I prefer Barker's _au naturel_." + +One evening, just before the young people left the town, and as Mrs. +Sinclair sat alone in her room, the frowsy waitress announced "a lady," +and was requested to bid her enter. A woman came with timid mien into +the room, sat down, as invited, and removed her veil. Of course the +young bride had never known Sally Johnson, the whilom belle of Barker's, +but her husband would have noticed at a glance how greatly she was +changed from the girl who walked with Foster past the engineers' +quarters. It would be hard to find a more striking contrast than was +presented by the two women as they sat facing each other: the one in the +flush of health and beauty, calm, sweet, self-possessed; the other still +retaining some of the shabby finery of old days, but pale and haggard, +with black rings under her eyes, and a pathetic air of humiliation. + +"Mrs. Sinclair," she hurriedly began, "you do not know me, nor the like +of me. I've got no right to speak to you, but I couldn't help it. Oh! +please believe me, I am not real downright bad. I'm Sally Johnson, +daughter of a man whom they drove out of the town. My mother died when +I was little, and I _never_ had a show; and folks think because I live +with my father, and he makes me know the crowd he travels with, that I +must be in with them, and be of their sort. I never had a woman speak a +kind word to me, and I've had so much trouble that I'm just drove wild, +and like to kill myself; and then I was at the station when you came in, +and I saw your sweet face and the kind look in your eyes, and it came +in my heart that I'd speak to you if I died for it." She leaned eagerly +forward, her hands nervously closing on the back of a chair. "I suppose +your husband never told you of me; like enough he never knew me; but +I'll never forget him as long as I live. When he was here before, there +was a young man"--here a faint color came in the wan cheeks--"who was +fond of me, and I thought the world of him, and my father was down on +him, and the men that father was in with wanted to kill him; and Mr. +Sinclair saved his life. He's gone away, and I've waited and waited for +him to come back--and perhaps I'll never see him again. But oh! dear +lady, I'll never forget what your husband did. He's a good man, and he +deserves the love of a dear good woman like you, and if I dared I'd pray +for you both, night and day." + +She stopped suddenly and sank back in her seat, pale as before, and +as if frightened by her own emotion. Mrs. Sinclair had listened with +sympathy and increasing interest. + +"My poor girl," she said, speaking tenderly (she had a lovely, soft +voice) and with slightly heightened color, "I am delighted that you came +to see me, and that my husband was able to help you. Tell me, can we not +do more for you? I do not for one moment believe you can be happy with +your present surroundings. Can we not assist you to leave them?" + +The girl rose, sadly shaking her head. "I thank you for your words," she +said. "I don't suppose I'll ever see you again, but I'll say, God bless +you!" + +She caught Mrs. Sinclair's hand, pressed it to her lips, and was gone. + +Sinclair found his wife very thoughtful when he came home, and he +listened with much interest to her story. + +"Poor girl!" said he; "Foster is the man to help her. I wonder where he +is? I must inquire about him." + +The next day they proceeded on their way to San Francisco, and matters +drifted on at Barker's much as before. Johnson had, after an absence of +some months, come back and lived without molestation amid the shifting +population. Now and then, too, some of the older residents fancied they +recognized, under slouched sombreros, the faces of some of his former +"crowd" about the "Ranchman's Home," as his gaudy saloon was called. + +Late on the very evening on which this story opens, and they had been +"making up" the Denver Express in the train-house on the Missouri, "Jim" +Watkins, agent and telegrapher at Barker's, was sitting in his little +office, communicating with the station rooms by the ticket window. Jim +was a cool, silent, efficient man, and not much given to talk about +such episodes in his past life as the "wiping out" by Indians of the +construction party to which he belonged, and his own rescue by the +scouts. He was smoking an old and favorite pipe, and talking with one of +"the boys" whose head appeared at the wicket. On a seat in the station +sat a woman in a black dress and veil, apparently waiting for a train. + +"Got a heap of letters and telegrams there, ain't yer, Jim?" remarked +the man at the window. + +"Yes," replied Jim; "they're for Engineer Sinclair, to be delivered +to him when he passes through here. He left on No. 17, to-night." The +inquirer did not notice the sharp start of the woman near him. + +"Is that good-lookin' wife of his'n a-comin' with him?" asked he. + +"Yes, there's letters for her, too." + +"Well, good-night, Jim. See yer later," and he went out. The woman +suddenly rose and ran to the window. + +"Mr. Watkins," cried she, "can I see you for a few moments where no one +can interrupt us? It's a matter of life and death." She clutched the +sill with her thin hands, and her voice trembled. Watkins recognized +Sally Johnson in a moment. He unbolted a door, motioned her to enter, +closed and again bolted it, and also closed the ticket window. Then he +pointed to a chair, and the girl sat down and leaned eagerly forward. + +"If they knew I was here," she said in a hoarse whisper, "my life +wouldn't be safe five minutes. I was waiting to tell you a terrible +story, and then I heard who was on the train due here tomorrow night. +Mr. Watkins, don't, for God's sake, ask me how I found out, but I hope +to die if I ain't telling you the living truth! They're going to wreck +that train--No. 17--at Dead Man's Crossing, fifteen miles east, and rob +the passengers and the express car. It's the worst gang in the +country, _Perry's_. They're going to throw the train off the track, the +passengers will be maimed and killed--and Mr. Sinclair and his wife on +the cars! Oh! my God! Mr. Watkins, send them warning!" + +She stood upright, her face deadly pale, her hands clasped. Watkins +walked deliberately to the railroad map which hung on the wall and +scanned it. Then he resumed his seat, laid his pipe down, fixed his +eyes on the girl's face, and began to question her. At the same time +his right hand, with which he had held the pipe, found its way to the +telegraph key. None but an expert could have distinguished any change in +the _clicking_ of the instrument, which had been almost incessant; but +Watkins had "called" the head office on the Missouri. In two minutes the +"sounder" rattled out "_All right! What is it?_" + +Watkins went on with his questions, his eyes still fixed on the poor +girl's face, and all the time his fingers, as it were, playing with the +key. If he were imperturbable, so was _not_ a man sitting at a receiving +instrument nearly five hundred miles away. He had "taken" but a few +words when he jumped from his chair and cried: + +"Shut that door, and call the superintendent and be quick! Charley, +brace up--lively--and come and write this out!" With his wonderful +electric pen, the handle several hundreds of miles long, Watkins, +unknown to his interlocutor, was printing in the Morse alphabet this +startling message: + + _"Inform'n rec'd. Perry gang going to throw No. 17 off track + near --xth mile-post, this division, about nine to-morrow + (Thursday) night, kill passengers, and rob express and mail. + Am alone here. No chance to verify story, but believe it to + be on square. Better make arrangements from your end to + block game. No Sheriff here now. Answer."_ + +The superintendent, responding to the hasty summons, heard the message +before the clerk had time to write it out. His lips were closely +compressed as he put his own hand on the key and sent these laconic +sentences: "_O. K. Keep perfectly dark. Will manage from this end_." + +Watkins, at Barker's, rose from his seat, opened the door a little way, +saw that the station was empty, and then said to the girl, brusquely, +but kindly: + +"Sally, you've done the square thing, and saved that train. I'll take +care that you don't suffer and that you get well paid. Now come home +with me, and my wife will look out for you." + +"Oh! no," cried the girl, shrinking back, "I must run away. You're +mighty kind, but I daren't go with you." Detecting a shade of doubt in +his eye, she added: "Don't be afeared; I'll die before they'll know I've +given them away to you!" and she disappeared in the darkness. + +At the other end of the wire, the superintendent had quietly impressed +secrecy on his operator and clerk, ordered his fast mare harnessed, and +gone to his private office. + +"Read that!" said he to his secretary. "It was about time for some +trouble of this kind, and now I'm going to let Uncle Sam take care of +his mails. If I don't get to the reservation before the General's turned +in, I shall have to wake him up. Wait for me, please." + +The gray mare made the six miles to the military reservation in just +half an hour. The General was smoking his last cigar, and was alert in +an instant; and before the superintendent had finished the jorum of +"hot Scotch" hospitably tendered, the orders had gone by wire to the +commanding officer at Fort ------, some distance east of Barker's, and +been duly acknowledged. + +Returning to the station, the superintendent remarked to the waiting +secretary: + +"The General's all right. Of course we can't tell that this is not a +sell; but if those Perry hounds mean business they'll get all the fight +they want--and if they've got any souls--which I doubt--may the Lord +have mercy on them!" + +He prepared several despatches, two of which were as follows: + + Mr. Henry Sinclair: "On No. 17, Pawnee Junction: This + telegram your authority to take charge of train on which you + are, and demand obedience of all officials and trainmen on + road. Please do so, and act in accordance with information + wired station agent at Pawnee Junction." + + To the Station Agent: "Reported Perry gang will try wreck + and rob No. 17 near --xth mile-post, Denver Division, about + nine Thursday night. Troops will await train at Fort ----. + Car ordered ready for them. Keep everything secret, + and act in accordance with orders of Mr. Sinclair." + +"It's worth about ten thousand dollars," sententiously remarked +he, "that Sinclair's on that train. He's got both sand and brains. +Goodnight," and he went to bed and slept the sleep of the just. + + + + +III + +The sun never shone more brightly and the air was never more clear +and bracing than when Sinclair helped his wife off the train at Pawnee +Junction. The station-master's face fell as he saw the lady, but he +saluted the engineer with as easy an air as he could assume, and watched +for an opportunity to speak to him alone. Sinclair read the despatches +with an unmoved countenance, and after a few minutes' reflection simply +said: "All right. Be sure to keep the matter perfectly quiet." At +breakfast he was _distrait_--so much so that his wife asked him what was +the matter. Taking her aside, he at once showed her the telegrams. + +"You see my duty," he said. "My only thought is about you, my dear +child. Will you stay here?" + +She simply replied, looking into his face without a tremor: + +"My place is with you." Then the conductor called "All aboard," and the +train once more started. + +Sinclair asked Foster to join him in the smoking compartment and tell +him the promised story, which the latter did. His rescue at Barker's, he +frankly and gratefully said, _had_ been the turning point in his life. +In brief, he had "sworn off" from gambling and drinking, had found +honest employment, and was doing well. + +"I've two things to do now, Major," he added; "first, I must show my +gratitude to you; and next"--he hesitated a little--"I want to find that +poor girl that I left behind at Barker's. She was engaged to marry me, +and when I came to think of it, and what a life I'd have made her lead, +I hadn't the heart till now to look for her; but, seeing I'm on the +right track, I'm going to find her, and get her to come with me. Her +father's an--old scoundrel, but that ain't her fault, and I ain't going +to marry _him_." + +"Foster," quietly asked Sinclair, "do you know the Perry gang?" + +The man's brow darkened. + +"Know them?" said he. "I know them much too well. Perry is as ungodly a +cutthroat as ever killed an emigrant in cold blood, and he's got in +his gang nearly all those hounds that tried to hang me. Why do you ask, +Major?" + +Sinclair handed him the despatches. "You are the only man on the train +to whom I have shown them," said he. + +Foster read them slowly, his eyes lighting up as he did so. "Looks as if +it was true," said he. + +"Let me see! Fort ------. Yes, that's the --th infantry. Two of their +boys were killed at Sidney last summer by some of the same gang, and the +regiment's sworn vengeance. Major, if this story's on the square, that +crowd's goose is cooked, and _don't you forget it!_ I say, you must give +me a hand in." + +"Foster," said Sinclair, "I am going to put responsibility on your +shoulders. I have no doubt that, if we be attacked, the soldiers will +dispose of the gang; but I must take all possible precautions for the +safety of the passengers. We must not alarm them. They can be made to +think that the troops are going on a scout, and only a certain number +of resolute men need be told of what we expect. Can you, late this +afternoon, go through the cars, and pick them out? I will then put +you in charge of the passenger cars, and you can post your men on the +platforms to act in case of need. My place will be ahead.'' + +"Major, you can depend on me," was Foster's reply. "I'll go through the +train and have my eye on some boys of the right sort, and that's got +their shooting-irons with them." + +Through the hours of that day on rolled the train, still over the crisp +buffalo grass, across the well-worn buffalo trails, past the prairie-dog +villages. The passengers chatted, dozed, played cards, read, all +unconscious, with the exception of three, of the coming conflict +between the good and the evil forces bearing on their fate; of the fell +preparations making for their disaster; of the grim preparations making +to avert such disaster; of all of which the little wires alongside of +them had been talking back and forth. Watkins had telegraphed that he +still saw no reason to doubt the good faith of his warning, and Sinclair +had reported his receipt of authority and his acceptance thereof. +Meanwhile, also, there had been set in motion a measure of that power to +which appeal is so reluctantly made in time of peace. + +At Fort ------, a lonely post on the plains, the orders had that morning +been issued for twenty men under Lieutenant Halsey to parade at 4 p. m., +with overcoats, two days' rations, and ball cartridges; also for +Assistant Surgeon Kesler to report for duty with the party. Orders as to +destination were communicated direct to the lieutenant from the post +commander, and on the minute the little column moved, taking the road to +the station. The regiment from which it came had been in active service +among the Indians on the frontier for a long time, and the officers and +men were tried and seasoned fighters. Lieutenant Halsey had been well +known at the West Point balls as the "leader of the german." From the +last of these balls he had gone straight to the field, and three years +had given him an enviable reputation for _sang-froid_ and determined +bravery. He looked every inch the soldier as he walked along the trail, +his cloak thrown back and his sword tucked under his arm. The doctor, +who carried a Modoc bullet in some inaccessible part of his scarred +body, growled good-naturedly at the need of walking, and the men, +enveloped in their army-blue overcoats, marched easily by fours. +Reaching the station, the lieutenant called the agent aside, and with +him inspected, on a siding, a long platform car on which benches had +been placed and secured. Then he took his seat in the station and +quietly waited, occasionally twisting his long blond mustache. The +doctor took a cigar with the agent, and the men walked about or sat on +the edge of the platform. One of them, who obtained a surreptitious +glance at his silent commander, told his companions that there was +trouble ahead for somebody. + +"That's just the way the leftenant looked, boys," said he, "when we was +laying for them Apaches that raided Jones's Ranch and killed the women +and little children." + +In a short time the officer looked at his watch, formed his men, and +directed them to take their places on the seats of the car. They had +hardly done so when the whistle of the approaching train was heard. When +it came up, the conductor, who had his instructions from Sinclair, had +the engine detached and backed on the siding for the soldiers' car, +which thus came between it and the foremost baggage car when the train +was again made up. As arranged, it was announced that the troops were to +be taken a certain distance to join a scouting party, and the curiosity +of the passengers was but slightly excited. The soldiers sat quietly in +their seats, their repeating rifles held between their knees, and the +officer in front. Sinclair joined the latter, and had a few words with +him as the train moved on. A little later, when the stars were shining +brightly overhead, they passed into the express car, and sent for the +conductor and other trainmen, and for Foster. In a few words Sinclair +explained the position of affairs. His statement was received with +perfect coolness, and the men only asked what they were to do. + +"I hope, boys," said Sinclair, "that we are going to put this gang +to-night where they will make no more trouble. Lieutenant Halsey will +bear the brunt of the fight, and it only remains for you to stand by the +interests committed to your care. Mr. Express Agent, what help do +you want?" The person addressed, a good-natured giant, girded with a +cartridge belt, smiled as he replied: + +"Well, sir, I'm wearing a watch which the company gave me for standing +off the James gang in Missouri for half an hour, when we hadn't the +ghost of a soldier about. I'll take the contract, and welcome, to hold +_this_ fort alone." + +"Very well," said Sinclair. "Foster, what progress have you made?" + +"Major, I've got ten or fifteen as good men as ever drew a bead, and +just red-hot for a fight." + +"That will do very well. Conductor, give the trainmen the rifles from +the baggage car and let them act under Mr. Foster. Now, boys, I am sure +you will do your duty. That is all." + +From the next station Sinclair telegraphed "All ready" to the +superintendent, who was pacing his office in much suspense. Then he +said a few words to his brave but anxious wife, and walked to the rear +platform. On it were several armed men, who bade him good-evening, and +asked "when the fun was going to begin." Walking through the train, he +found each platform similarly occupied, and Foster going from one to the +other. The latter whispered as he passed him: + +"Major, I found Arizona Joe, the scout, in the smokin' car, and he's on +the front platform. That lets me out, and although I know as well as you +that there ain't any danger about that rear sleeper where the madam is, +I ain't a-going to be far off from her." Sinclair shook him by the hand; +then he looked at his watch. It was half-past eight. He passed through +the baggage and express cars, finding in the latter the agent sitting +behind his safe, on which lay two large revolvers. On the platform car +he found the soldiers and their commander sitting silent and imconcerned +as before. When Sinclair reached the latter and nodded, he rose and +faced the men, and his fine voice was clearly heard above the rattle of +the train. + +"Company, 'ten_tion!_" The soldiers straightened themselves in a second. + +"With ball cartridge, _load!_" It was done with the precision of a +machine. Then the lieutenant spoke, in the same clear, crisp, tones that +the troops had heard in more than one fierce battle. + +"Men," said he, "in a few minutes the Perry gang, which you will +remember, are going to try to run this train off the track, wound and +kill the passengers, and rob the cars and the United States mail. It +is our business to prevent them. Sergeant Wilson" (a gray-bearded +non-commissioned officer stood up and saluted), "I am going on the +engine. See that my orders are repeated. Now, men, aim low, and don't +waste any shots." He and Sinclair climbed over the tender and spoke to +the engine-driver. + +"How are the air-brakes working?" asked Sinclair. + +"First-rate." + +"Then, if you slowed down now, you could stop the train in a third of +her length, couldn't you?" + +"Easy, if you don't mind being shaken up a bit." + +"That is good. How is the country about the --xth mile-post?" + +"Dead level, and smooth." + +"Good again. Now, Lieutenant Halsey, this is a splendid head-light, and +we can see a long way with my night glass. I will have a----" + +"--2d mile-pole just past," interrupted the engine-driver. + +"Only one more to pass, then, before we ought to strike them. Now, +lieutenant, I undertake to stop the train within a very short distance +of the gang. They will be on both sides of the track, no doubt; and the +ground, as you hear, is quite level. You will best know what to do." + +The officer stepped back. "Sergeant," called he, "do you hear me +plainly?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Have the men fix bayonets. When the train stops, and I wave my sword, +let half jump off each side, run up quickly, and form line abreast of +the engine--not ahead." + +"Jack," said Sinclair to the engine-driver, "is your hand steady?" The +man held it up with a smile. "Good. Now stand by your throttle and your +air-brake. Lieutenant, better warn the men to hold on tight, and tell +the sergeant to pass the word to the boys on the platforms, or they will +be knocked off by the sudden stop. Now for a look ahead!" and he brought +the binocular to his eyes. + +The great parabolic head-light illuminated the track a long way in +advance, all behind it being of course in darkness. Suddenly Sinclair +cried out: + +"The fools have a light there, as I am a living man; and there is a +little red one near us. What can that be? All ready, Jack! By heaven! +they have taken up two rails. Now _hold on, all!_ Stop her!!" + +The engine-driver shut his throttle-valve with a jerk. Then, holding +hard by it, he sharply turned a brass handle. There was a fearful +jolt--a grating--and the train's way was checked. The lieutenant, +standing sidewise, had drawn his sword. He waved it, and almost before +he could get off the engine the soldiers were up and forming, still in +shadow, while the bright light was thrown on a body of men ahead. + +"Surrender, or you are dead men!" roared the officer. Curses and several +shots were the reply. Then came the orders, quick and sharp: + +"_Forward! Close up! Double-quick! Halt!_ Fire!"... It was speedily +over. Left on the car with the men, the old sergeant had said: + +"Boys, you hear. It's that ------ Perry gang. Now, don't forget Larry +and Charley that they murdered last year," and there had come from the +soldiers a sort of fierce, subdued _growl_. The volley was followed by a +bayonet charge, and it required all the officer's authority to save the +lives even of those who "threw up their hands." Large as the gang was +(outnumbering the troops), well armed and desperate as they were, every +one was dead, wounded, or a prisoner when the men who guarded the train +platforms ran up. The surgeon, with professional coolness, walked up to +the robbers, his instrument case under his arm. + +"Not much for me to do here, Lieutenant," said he. "That practice for +Creedmoor is telling on the shooting. Good thing for the gang, too. +Bullets are better than rope, and a Colorado jury will give them plenty +of that." + +Sinclair had sent a man to tell his wife that all was over. Then he +ordered a fire lighted, and the rails relaid. The flames lit a strange +scene as the passengers flocked up. The lieutenant posted men to keep +them back. + +"Is there a telegraph station not far ahead, Sinclair?" asked he. "Yes? +All right." He drew a small pad from his pocket, and wrote a despatch to +the post commander. + +"Be good enough to send that for me," said he, "and leave orders at +Barker's for the night express eastward to stop for us, and bring +a posse to take care of the wounded and prisoners. And now, my dear +Sinclair, I suggest that you get the passengers into the cars, and go on +as soon as those rails are spiked. When they realize the situation, +some of them will feel precious ugly, and you know we can't have any +lynching." + +Sinclair glanced at the rails and gave the word at once to the conductor +and brakemen, who began vociferating, "All aboard!" Just then Foster +appeared, an expression of intense satisfaction showing clearly on his +face, in the firelight. + +"Major," said he, "I didn't use to take much stock in special +Providence, or things being ordered; but I'm darned if I don't believe +in them from this day. I was bound to stay where you put me, but I was +uneasy, and wild to be in the scrimmage; and, if I had been there, I +wouldn't have taken notice of a little red light that wasn't much behind +the rear platform when we stopped. When I saw there was no danger there +I ran back, and what do you think I found? There was a woman in a dead +faint, and just clutching a lantern that she had tied up in a red scarf, +poor little thing! And, Major, it was Sally! It was the little girl that +loved me out at Barker's, and has loved me and waited for me ever since! +And when she came to, and knew me, she was so glad she 'most fainted +away again; and she let on as it was her that gave away the job. And I +took her into the sleeper, and the madam, God bless her!--she knew Sally +before and was good to her--she took care of her and is cheering her up. +And now, Major, I'm going to take her straight to Denver, and send for a +parson, and get her married to me, and she'll brace up, sure pop." + +The whistle sounded, and the train started. From the window of the +"sleeper" Sinclair and his wife took their last look at the weird scene. +The lieutenant, standing at the side of the track, wrapped in his cloak, +caught a glimpse of Mrs. Sinclair's pretty face, and returned her bow. +Then, as the car passed out of sight, he tugged at his mustache and +hummed: + + "Why, boys, why, + Should we be melancholy, boys + Whose business 'tis to die?" + +In less than an hour, telegrams having in the meantime been sent in +both directions, the train ran alongside the platform at Barker's; and +Watkins, imperturbable as usual, met Sinclair, and gave him his letters. + +"Perry gang wiped out, I hear, Major," said he. "Good thing for the +country. That's a lesson the 'toughs' in these parts won't forget for +a long time. Plucky girl that give 'em away, wasn't she? Hope she's all +right." + +"She is all right," said Sinclair with a smile. + +"Glad of that. By the way, that father of her'n passed in his checks +to-night. He'd got one warning from the Vigilantes, and yesterday they +found out he was in with this gang, and they was a-going for him; but +when the telegram come, he put a pistol to his head and saved them all +trouble. Good riddance to everybody, I say. The sheriff's here now, +and is going east on the next train to get them fellows. He's got a big +posse together, and I wouldn't wonder if they was hard to hold in, after +the 'boys in blue' is gone." + +In a few minutes the train was off, and its living freight--the just +and the unjust, the reformed and the rescued, the happy and the anxious. +With many of the passengers the episode of the night was already a thing +of the past. Sinclair sat by the side of his wife, to whose cheeks +the color had all come back; and Sally Johnson lay in her berth, faint +still, but able to give an occasional smile to Foster. In the station on +the Missouri the reporters were gathered about the happy superintendent, +smoking his cigars, and filling their note-books with items. In Denver, +their brethren would gladly have done the same, but Watkins failed to +gratify them. He was a man of few words. When the train had gone, and +a friend remarked: "Hope they'll get through all right, now," he simply +said: "Yes, likely. Two shots don't most always go in the same hole." +Then he went to the telegraph instrument. In a few minutes he could have +told a story as wild as a Norse _saga_, but what he said, when Denver +had responded, was only--"No. 17, fifty-five minutes late!" + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Denver Express, by A. A. 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