"Those lying on your desk. I say, have you sent them?"

"Not yet."

"Hand them over here."

The operator passed them across the counter without demur.

"Now reach for the roof."

Up shot the station agent's hands. The bandit glanced over the
written sheets and commented aloud:

"Huh! One from the conductor and one from Mackenzie. I expected
those. But this one from Collins is ce'tainly a surprise party. I
didn't know he was on the train. Lucky for him I didn't, or mebbe
I'd a-put his light for good and all. Friend, I reckon we'll
suppress these messages. Military necessity, you understand." And
with that he lightly tore up the yellow sheets and tossed them
away.

"The conductor will wire when he reaches Apache," the operator
suggested, not very boldly.

The outlaw rolled a cigarette deftly and borrowed a match. "He
most surely will. But Apache is seventy miles from here. That
gives us an extra hour and a half, and with us right now time is
a heap more valuable than money. You may tell Bucky O'Connor when
you see him that that extra hour and a half cinches our escape,
and we weren't on the anxious seat any without it."