All this time the scores of people on the train were sitting in terrified silence. Pa.s.sengers or train crews rarely interfere in a case of this kind.
Not even the train"s lights aided either side, for the two young recruits had taken pains to close in on the ledge sufficiently to escape illumination by the train"s lights.
Crack! crack! crack! This was a new note, coming from past the forward end of the ledge.
Almost in the same instant a howl sounded from behind the barrier of rock.
Then another voice was heard, shouting.
"Hold on! We surrender! Stop the shooting!"
Instantly this hail was answered by another. It sounded good to the young recruits as Major Davis roared from behind the forward end of the ledge:
"Then throw up your hands, keep them up, and walk into the train light where we can see you."
"You won"t shoot?" demanded the voice of the surrendering one.
"Not unless you attempt tricks," replied the voice of Major Davis.
"All right. Here I come."
A lone figure rose over the edge of the ledge, and a tall, masked man, holding his hands very high, strode toward the train, pa.s.sing between Hal and Noll, who instantly turned and covered him with their weapons.
"Where"s the other man?" demanded Major Davis, still invisible in the blackness beyond.
"You"ll find him behind the ledge," returned the surrendered one. "He"s hurt too bad to move."
"Overton," called the major, "keep your weapon trained right on that prisoner. Terry, join me behind the ledge."
"Yes, sir," answered both recruits.
Noll was quickly with the major on the further side of the ledge. Here they speedily found a masked man, short and rather thick-set, who had the appearance of being unconscious. He was breathing with great effort, a deep crimson spot appearing on his right breast.
"May I ask, sir, about the man you went under the train to get?" queried Noll.
"He"s dead, my man," replied Major Davis very quietly.
"Shall I try to lift this man, sir?"
"No; take his revolver, and search him for other weapons, as far as you can do so without disturbing the fellow and putting him in more pain.
We"ll let that hiding train crew move the casualties to the baggage car."
So Noll completed his search, while the conductor, baggage-master and some of the brakemen, noting that the firing had stopped, ventured forth.
"You trainmen take care of the dead and wounded," directed Major Davis crisply. "Terry, rejoin your comrade. I shall have to trouble you two men to stand guard over the prisoners in the baggage car until we reach Salida."
Both recruits saluted. Noll returned to the track in time to find that the first man whom he and Hal had bowled over was just coming back to his senses.
CHAPTER XII
THE ROOKIES REACH FORT CLOWDRY
ONCE more the train was under way. The engineer had taken his uncoupled engine some distance up the track, but had returned when sent for, and now the train, twenty additional minutes late, was crawling up the steep grade.
The wounded men lay on the floor of the car, receiving the attentions of a physician who had been found among the pa.s.sengers.
The unwounded ones stood in a corner at the forward end of the car, Private Hal Overton, revolver in hand, watching the men closely.
Noll, a revolver in either hand, stood a little past the middle of the car, looking wholly businesslike.
Major Davis, having gone back to make sure that his own belongings were safe, now returned to the baggage car.
"Fellow," he asked of the tall prisoner, "what on earth made you stop this train?"
"Hard up," replied the man sullenly. "And a friend told us that the last time he held up a mail train, he and his pal found twelve thousand dollars in the registered mail pouches."
"You"ll find at least twelve years in the mail pouches this trip,"
retorted Major Davis grimly.
Half an hour later a stop was made at a little tank station, to enable Major Davis to wire ahead to Salida for officers to be in readiness when they arrived.
Then the train crawled on again through the inky darkness. Noll relieved Hal, presently, though there seemed little need of alertness. The two prisoners capable of fighting looked pretty well cowed. Down at the rear end of the car, covered with a rubber blanket, lay the rigid remains of the man killed by the major.
Something more than an hour late the train pulled in at Salida. There was a crowd on hand, including four sheriff"s officers. These latter came to the baggage car just before the train stopped.
"Will you take full responsibility for the prisoners now?" asked Major Davis of one officer who led the rest and who displayed his badge.
"Yes, sir," replied the deputy sheriff.
"Then I"ll go and have something to eat," smiled the major dryly. "My men, do you eat here, too?"
"Yes, sir," Hal answered, saluting.
It was not an invitation to join their officer. Both recruits fully understood that. The gulf of discipline prevents officers and men eating together.
On the platform before the station-building Major Davis halted long enough to say:
"My men, I appreciate your help to-night. It would have been too much for me alone. You men stood by me like soldiers. As a United States Army officer I would have felt disgraced had I allowed a United States mail car to be rifled without striking a blow to stop it."
"It was a daring thing to do, sir," Hal ventured, with another salute.
"It was my plainest sort of duty, as an officer," replied Major Davis, returning the salute.
"May I ask, sir," ventured Hal, "whether it would have been our duty, had we been armed, and you not on the train?"