"Was there only one man? And did you see him?" Melissy asked
breathlessly.
He scarcely noticed her excitement, or if he did, it seemed to him only
natural under the circumstances.
"I expect there were more, but we saw only one. Didn't see much of him. He
was screened by the bushes and wore a black mask. So long as the stage was
in sight he never moved from that place; just stood there and kept us
covered."
"But how could he rob you if he didn't come out?" she asked in wide-eyed
innocence.
"He didn't rob us any. He must 'a' heard of the shipment of gold, and
that's what he was after. After he'd got us to rights he made me throw the
box down in the road. That's where it was when he ordered us to move on
and keep agoing."
"And you went?"
"José handled the lines, but 't would 'a' been the same if I'd held them.
That gun of his was a right powerful persuader." He stopped to shake a
fist in impotent fury in the air. "I wish to God I could meet up with him
some day when he didn't have the drop on me."
"Maybe you will some time," she told him soothingly. "I don't think you're
a bit to blame, Alan. Nobody could think so. Ever so many times I've heard
Dad say that when a man gets the drop on you there's nothing to do but
throw up your hands."
"Do you honest think so, Melissy? Or are you just saying it to take the
sting away? Looks like I ought to 'a' done something mor'n sit there like
a bump on a log while he walked off with the gold."
His cheerful self-satisfaction was under eclipse. The boyish pride of him
was wounded. He had not "made good." All over Cattleland the news would be
wafted on the wings of the wind that Alan McKinstra, while acting as
shotgun messenger to a gold shipment, had let a road agent hold him up for
the treasure he was guarding.
"Very likely they'll catch him and get the gold back," she suggested.
"That won't do me any good," he returned gloomily. "The only thing that
can help me now is for me to git the fellow myself, and I might just as
well look for a needle in a haystack."
"You can't tell. The robber may be right round here now." Her eyes,
shining with excitement, passed the crowd moving in and out of the store,
for already the news of the hold-up had brought riders and ranchmen
jogging in to learn the truth of the wild tale that had reached them.