"Hysterics?" ventured the mining engineer sympathetically.

Collins wiped his eyes. "Call 'em anything you like. What pleases
me is that the reverend gentleman should have had this diverting
experience so prompt after he was wishing for it." He turned,
with concern, to the clergyman. "Satisfied, sir? Did our little
entertainment please, or wasn't it up to the mark?"

But the transported native of Pekin was game. "I'm quite
satisfied, if you are. I think the affair cost you a hundred
dollars or so more than it did me."

"That's right," agreed the sheriff heartily. "But I don't grudge
it--not a cent of it. The show was worth the price of admission."

The car conductor had a broadside ready for him. "Seems to me you
shot off your mouth more than you did that big gun of yours, Mr.
Sheriff."

Collins laughed, and clapped him on the back. "That's right. I'm
a regular phonograph, when you wind me up." He did not think it
necessary to explain that he had talked to make the outlaws talk,
and that he had noted the quality of their voices so carefully
that he would know them again among a thousand. Also he had
observed--other things--the garb of each of the men he had seen,
their weapons, their manner, and their individual peculiarities.

The clanking car took up the rhythm of the rails as the delayed
train plunged forward once more into the night. Again the clack