As black and seemingly as lifeless as the coal which men had sought there was the cavern where she crouched. Alexander wondered why the sound of her pistol, which must have thundered in ragged echoes through the shaft, had not brought back the others. Now she was trapped and there was no conceivable possibility of escape. At the touch of unclean fingers she had seen red and struck out--and the rest had followed as an avalanche follows a slipping stone.

At last when the breathless stillness could no longer be borne, she cautiously stooped and raked her hand back and forth until it came in contact with a loose stone. She must force those silent antagonists to some sort of action so she tossed the missile outward and as it struck with a light clatter, a waiting pistol barked and Alexander's own roared back at the tiny spurt of flame.

Instantly, too, three others spoke, aimed at her flash and she heard the spatter of lead against stone nearby. In the confined s.p.a.ce the fusillade bellowed blatantly, and slowly diminishing echoes lingered after the firing itself ceased. Then once more the silence which was more trying than gunnery settled.

Slowly an idea dawned in the girl's mind, and strengthened into conviction. If the main group who had trailed out with torches had been anywhere nearby, that crescendo of noise must have recalled them in hot haste. That they had not come back must indicate that they had never meant to return. They had permanently departed, leaving her in the hands of a quartette selected as a robbing party, and an execution squad. With that realization the matter resolved itself into a new phase. She would eventually be murdered here in this rat-hole unless she could, one by one, shoot to death the four unseen men who were her companions there. Four enemies stood between herself and freedom--and four cartridges were left in her weapon.

At last she crept cautiously out and made her tedious way to the center of the place again. She must do something and the audacious plan born of necessity involved the need of a light. If her hand felt flesh instead, her pistol was ready.

But after much noiseless groping she came upon the overturned lantern and she had encountered nothing else.

Back in the lee of the rock she boldly struck a match, kindled the wick--and still as she reached up and set the thing on the boulder's top the unbroken silence held.

She had hoped to draw their fire and account for some of them at least, but now as she peeped cautiously out she found to her astonishment that except for herself the cavern was empty.

She also became sure of another thing. Her saddle-bags were gone.

She came out then and having repossessed herself of her rifle took up a position well to one side of the shaft's opening where anyone who entered must pa.s.s her muzzle, but she did not venture into the pa.s.sage itself because she was sure that that way lay an ambuscade.

Then, beside the sickly illumination within, she recognized a new waver of kerosene rays from beyond the entrance.

There was no sound, except that of very stealthy feet, and the light came slowly.

Alexander hastened hack to her rock, holding close to the walls of the cavern as she went, then ensconcing herself there, almost invisible in the shadow, she waited with parted lips and a c.o.c.ked rifle.

CHAPTER XII

Time had hung heavy on Jack Halloway's hands after he had heard Brent announce his departure. The chair sc.r.a.ped on the floor, had been his only a.s.surance that the other had understood him and that might, within possibility, have been a coincidence. Still Brent's promptness in cutting him off on the arrival of the operator had seemed a hopeful sign indicating team-work.

Halloway had declared himself a man who took joy in the savage strain which that civilization had failed to quench out of his nature. Now that strain was mounting into volcano stirrings presaging an eruption.

If he could free himself there would ensue a tempest of wreckage about that railroad station such as Samson brought down between the pillars of the temple--but no chances had been taken in his binding.

He did not relish the thought of being left there over night, yet he strongly doubted whether they would venture to take him out on the streets in the sight of possible friends.

He fell to wondering what they would do with him. Except in extremity, they would hardly murder him out of hand, and yet to explain to him why they had treated him so hardly, would be a delicate matter. But the answer lay in the operator's total freedom from suspicion that his captive had read the wire. So far as that backwoods Machiavelli divined, there was no link establishing himself with the conspiracy to rob, and when the time came he thought he could clear his skirts by a simple means.

Night had fallen when at last the prisoner heard the door open and saw the Agent enter, accompanied by the two gunmen who had been his companions that morning. They came with a lantern and the telegraph man held a heavy rasp in his hand. Halting before the bound figure, he spoke slowly and with a somewhat shamefaced note of apology.

"I reckon I've got ter pray yore forgiveness, Stranger," he began. "A right mean sort of mistake 'pears ter hev took place--but hit war one I couldn't help without I defied ther law."

"How's thet?" demanded Halloway shortly, and his informant went on.

"When thet message come from ther town marshal at Coal City, he warned us 'Violent man--take no chances.' Thet's why we fell on ye so severe an' tied ye up so tight."

"Wa'al," Halloway was schooling his demeanor warily into the middle course between a too ready forgiveness and a too bellicose resentment, "wa'al what air ye cravin' my pardon fer, then?"

"We've done heered ergin from Coal City--an' ther town marshal says thet hit war all a fool mistake--thar hain't no sufficient grounds ter hold ye on. He bids me set ye free forthwith."

"Go on, then, and do hit. I've done hed a belly-full of settin' here strapped ter this cheer."

But the operator hesitated.

"Afore I turns ye loose, I'd like ter feel plum sartin thet ye hain't holdin' no grudge."

Halloway knew that, should he seem easily placated, he would not be believed, so he spoke with a voice of stern yet just determination.

"So holp me G.o.d, I aims ter demand full payment fer this hyar day--but I aims ter punish ther right man. Ye says ye only acted on orders from an officer, don't ye?"

"Thet's true es text."

"All right then, ye hain't ther man I'm atter, ef that's so. Mistakes will happen. As ter ther other feller, I kin bide my time fer a spell.

I reckon my wrath won't cool none."

The Station Agent heaved a sigh of relief. "Hit's a right unfortunate thing," he declared sympathetically. "I've been studyin' erbout hit an' I said ter myself, 'what ef some enemy of his'n sent both them messages?'"

This seemingly innocent suggestion was by way of discounting the future when Halloway learned that the town marshal knew nothing of the matter.

The operator bent and unfastened the binders about the ankles and waist. That left only the handcuffs, and when he came to them once more a note of apologetic anxiety crept into his voice.

"Ther key ter them things is lost," he deprecated. "Ther best I kin do fer ye air ter file ther chain. Ye kin stick yore hands in yore pockets, though, an' n.o.body won't see 'em."

"Thet's good enough fer ther present time," a.s.sented Halloway. "Ef ye'll loan me thet file, I'll git 'em off myself--later on."

So while the giant stood with outstretched hands, the other filed through a link at the middle of the chain, and together the four men left the baggage room and went into the outer office. Its door was closed but Halloway, who walked ahead, laid a hand on the k.n.o.b and paused to inquire, without rancor, "I reckon ye aims ter give me back my gun, don't ye?"

The operator promptly produced the weapon from the drawer of his table and Halloway made no examination to see whether it came back to him full-chambered or empty.

He had his own guess on that score, but he wished to appear unsuspicious just now, so he thrust the thing into its holster.

Then deliberately he turned the key in the door and that was, for a time, his last deliberate act. Seizing the fellow who stood nearest him, he swung him forward and held him as a partial shield before his own body.

"Thar's three of ye hyar," he announced in an abruptly ominous voice, "and one of me. Ef any man makes a move ter draw a gun, I aims straightway ter break this feller's neck. Don't let no man move from where he stands at!"

Astonishment enforced a momentary obedience, save that the man upon whose shoulders the gigantic hands lay--not as yet heavily--attempted to squirm away. Iron-like fingers bit into his flesh and, wincing with a smothered yell of pain, he stood trembling. Halloway pa.s.sed one hand over his hostage's shoulder and drew the pistol from its holster--then he sent the fellow spinning from him like a top, and covered the others, who huddled close together. "Yore guns--grip-fust--an'

speedily," he directed, in that still voice that carried terror, and brought immediate obedience.

"Ye promised us--thet ye wouldn't hold us accountable," whined the operator, and Halloway laughed, as he unloaded the captured pistols and tossed them into a corner.

"What I promised war not ter visit no revengeance on ther wrong fellers," he corrected. "Never mind how I knows. .h.i.t--but I does know thet no message ever come from ther Coal City town marshal. Ther one that did come told about a plot ter lay-way an' rob a woman--an' ther three of ye war in on hit."

The terror of the unaccountable and wholly mystifying situation held them now in its paralysis. In no conceivable way could he have learned these things--yet he knew them and fears crowded as they wondered what else he might know as well.

But Halloway allowed them little leisure for abstract reflection.

"I've done throwed away them guns. I reckon ye knows whether mine's loaded or not--I don't. Now ther four of us air going ter hev a leetle frolic, right hyar an' now--a leetle four-cornered fight--jest fist an'