Page:Top-Notch Magazine, May 1 1915 (IA tn 1915 05 01).pdf/27

 he almost dropped his nickel-plated punch when his eyes fell on Ruthven.

"Seems like you just can't tear yourself away from this train," said he.

"Changed my mind again," remarked Ruthven. "How is the express messenger?"

"He's got a sore head, but that's all. Billings was mighty lucky, the way that matter turned out. Not a thing gone; he's checked over his stuff. That robber made a slick move, but it was only a flash in the pan. Where have you made up your mind to go?"

"Dry Wash."

Leason collected the amount due the railroad company, and then passed on to the end of the train.

Presently he came back and dropped into a vacant seat beside Ruthven. "You've got the straight of that express-car business, haven't you?" he queried. "One of the passengers was the holdup man. Between Bluffton and Okaday he sneaked to the express car, and either he found the door open or he picked the lock. He worked quietly and Billings didn't hear him. When he got into the car he hit the messenger over the head, and that gave him a chance to do as he pleased. But he didn't have time to monkey with the safe, where all the stuff worth while was locked up. You see, we were almost within sight of Okaday, and the robber had made a bad mistake in judging distances. All he could do was to drop off the car when we began to slow up for the town. And that's what he did. I told you that your friend had bought a ticket to Dry Wash?"

Ruthven nodded. "Don't call the fellow my friend, though," said he. "If he had been the man I thought he was he wouldn't have been that."

"Well, that chap is missing from among the passengers. I've gone through the train and he isn't aboard."

Ruthven started with surprise. "That means, then," he returned, "that he was the one who made the attempt on the express car!"

"I don't see how else you can figure it. His ticket read to Dry Wash, and he disappeared between Bluffton and Okaday. Why did he get off? Take it from me, he boarded Seventeen with the idea of rifling the messenger's safe. Billings had more than twenty thousand dollars in cash in his iron box. That is why I declare that Billings was mighty lucky."

"By George!" exclaimed Ruthven. "All this tallies with the character of Weasel Morrison. That is who the fellow was, and I was not mistaken, after all."

"You know him, eh?"

"I know of him. He pulled off a robbery in the Catskill Mountains some time ago, and that also turned out to be a flash in the pan. I was staying at the country home of a broker named Noyes, and Morrison made off with ten thousand dollars from a safe in Noyes' study. I had a little to do with getting the money back, and while that was going on I had an experience with the Weasel that fixed his face in my mind. At Bluffton, as Seventeen was pulling out, I thought I saw Morrison at a coach window. I was so sure it was Morrison, that I boarded the train. Then, later, when you told me"

He paused, greatly disturbed in mind. He was coming to the point where Lois McKenzie figured prominently in the affair, and he was sorry he had pursued the question so far.

"I believe I get you," said Leason. "I told you that Miss McKenzie rode on Seventeen from Williamsburg to Burt City, and that she sat with this—er—Morrison and talked with him. Miss McKenzie is a fine girl, and her father is a member of the legislature, and it isn't possible she would be on speaking terms with a crook. That is the way you reasoned when you finally