moved slightly in his harness. But this only appeared to accentuate
the profound stillness. The moments were growing interminable, when the
voice, so near as to startle Hale, broke once more from the surrounding
obscurity.

"Good-night!"

It was the signal that they were free. The driver's whip cracked like
a pistol shot, the horses sprang furiously forward, the huge vehicle
lurched ahead, and then bounded violently after them. When Hale could
make his voice heard in the confusion--a confusion which seemed greater
from the colorless intensity of their last few moments' experience--he
said hurriedly, "Then that fellow was there all the time?"

"I reckon," returned his companion, "he stopped five minutes to cover
the driver with his double-barrel, until the two other men got off with
the treasure."

"The TWO others!" gasped Hale. "Then there were only THREE men, and we
SIX."

The man shrugged his shoulders. The passenger who had given up the
greenbacks drawled, with a slow, irritating tolerance, "I reckon you're
a stranger here?"

"I am--to this sort of thing, certainly, though I live a dozen miles
from here, at Eagle's Court," returned Hale scornfully.

"Then you're the chap that's doin' that fancy ranchin' over at Eagle's,"
continued the man lazily.