Miss Dividends Part 39

It is arranged that Harry is to do the work of the fireman, who is on the train, and whom they dare not take the risk of arousing; Buck is to turn the switch to put the locomotive on the main track, and to board them as they pa.s.s him, which they will do very quietly.

Leaving the engineer quietly making his preparations, Lawrence walks cautiously across, not towards Miss Travenion's car, but towards the sleeper behind it--the one he occupies.

From that he cautiously approaches the other, looks in, and finds it empty of all save Miss Travenion, who has apparently hurriedly dressed, and is seated, confronted by two men, who evidently have her in their keeping, as one says: "Don't be scared; we'll take good care of you, even if you have been tryin' to rob the Mormon Church!"

Catching these words in the outer darkness of the rear compartment, Lawrence knows that Kruger has already had his say, and for some reason left the girl. Harry is glad of this, for feeling the revolver in his belt, he fears he might have killed the Mormon, which would probably not have saved either himself or his sweetheart.

In this he is doubtless right. For while he has been holding conference with the engineer, Kruger, followed by four or five of his satellites, and accompanied by the conductor, who is expostulating with him, has entered the car.

"Now, ye keep quiet!" he says to that official. "We've got a warrant for this young lady, for a.s.sistin' her daddy to run away with half a million dollars' worth of Utah Central stock. There's the doc.u.ments, sworn to by the sheriff of Heber City, Utah, before a Probate Judge."

"A Utah judge has got no jurisdiction in Wyoming," answers the conductor.

"No! But this is made returnable," says Lot, "before the United States District Judge, and Wyoming's part of his district, and that gives us authority. Don't step in the way of the law, young man. Besides"--here he looks round at his following, and remarks: "We're goin' to execute this warrant any way, an' ye ain't got the power to stop us! I've sized ye up, an' ye've got two n.i.g.g.e.r porters, two brakesmen, an' yerself.

We've twelve men armed with Winchesters, an' we've got the drop on yer train-hands, mail agent, an' Wells, Fargo's messenger, for they're surrounded and cut off from ye. Now the sheriff's goin' to serve his papers."

At this moment, the negro porter, who has just awakened, flies out of the car shrieking: "For de Lord! Road agents!"

"Ye see how much good he'd do ye!" guffaws Kruger to the conductor.

"Now," he continues, "ye step back an' let me do my business polite!"

"Not unless you agree to report with the young lady at Evanston, before you take her into Utah," says the dethroned autocrat of the train.

"That we will do, certain!" replies Lot, with a wink to the sheriff.

"Now ye wake her up."

Thus commanded, the conductor raps upon Miss Travenion's stateroom door, and to her inquiries, asks her to dress herself, stating there are some gentlemen on business, who must see her at once.

"Very well! Let them wait!" answers the young lady quietly, though there is a tremor in her voice.

She keeps them waiting so long that one of the men mutters: "The gal must be rigging herself out for a dance," and Lot himself knocks on her stateroom door, saying, "Miss Ermie, come out quick! It's Kruger, yer daddy's friend, who's talkin' to ye."

"You here?" she cries through the door. "What has happened to my father, that you come to me?"

And he says: "The sheriff here has got a little business with ye. Yer daddy has disappeared."

"A--ah!" And it's all she can do to keep from bursting out and upbraiding him, telling him what she knows, and so ruining the chance Lawrence is preparing for her.

"Yes, yer daddy has gone, and the Utah Central stock that belonged to the Mormon Church has gone with him, an' the sheriff here thinks it's in yer possession, and has sworn out a warrant agin ye, an' is here to execute it. An' I come along with him to make it as light for ye, as possible. He thought ye'd got clean away from him, but heerd the train was stopped here by snow, an' so he come on to get ye. But before he takes ye, I want to tell ye a few little things. Come out!"

Then hearing the noise of the moving bolt in Erma's door, Kruger says to the men with him: "Just step back a leetle into the smoking-room, while I talk to the girl."

"All right, bishop!" answers the sheriff, who seems entirely under Lot's domination.

The men withdraw as Erma comes out and stands before Bishop Kruger, her beauty perhaps at this moment appealing to him more than it ever did--for excitement has added a l.u.s.tre to her eye, and she seems so helpless, and so much in his power.

He mutters, his eyes blinking a little at the radiance that is before him: "Now, Ermie, ye can make everything quite easy for yerself!"

"Indeed--how?" She tries very hard to conceal it, but some scorn will get into her voice.

"By givin' up the stock quiet!"

"Ah! then you will let me go?"

"Oh, no! The sheriff wouldn't do that; but when he takes ye back to Utah, I'll go bail for ye, an' I'll take ye down to my home in Kammas Prairie, where ye'll be nice an' comfortable, an' I'll look after ye."

"You are always very good to me," says the girl with a sneer, though he doesn't detect it, and replies: "Yes, I'll be better to ye than ye know!"

And she, trying to act her part, to prevent any suspicion in his mind, thanks him with so much apparent heartiness that the old satyr loses his head, and chuckles: "Now, that's the right kind o' talk. Now yer lookin' beautiful as one o' the angels of Zion. I've been havin' my eye on ye, an' I'm goin' to exalt ye, an' take ye into my family."

"Take me into your family--as a _daughter_?"

"No, as a _wife_, for I love ye!"

And looking to her like an ogre, he would advance to her, whispering: "By this kiss of peace, I take ye into my family!"

But she has forgotten to act now, and scorn is in her eye, hatred in her voice, and loathing in her shudder. She says hoa.r.s.ely: "BACK! don't dare to sully me by the touch of your finger! I loathe you as I do your iniquitous church!"

"Ye blasphemer!" he cries. "This is the second time. I'll be hard on ye now, an' bring ye down from yer high horse. Where's that stock of the Utah Central?"

"Find it!" jeers Erma.

"I will!" he answers, "and then I'll make ye sorry ye turned yer nose up at Lot Kruger!"

Raising his voice, he shouts: "Sheriff, come in an' take yer prisoner, an' make a search of her baggage! She's got the stolen goods with her, I reckon!"

A second later the girl is placed under arrest.

But a quick though thorough search of the baggage she has with her, shows that the Utah Central stock, that Kruger knows the Mormon Church must have, is not in her possession.

He says: "Sheriff, step off a leetle; I'll reason with this child, to see if I can't get from her the locality of the stolen goods."

So, coming to her again, he mutters: "Ye'd better take things reasonable, an' tell me where that ar' stock is! I WILL KNOW!"

But she laughs in his face, and cries: "Find it!"

"Now," he says, "I ain't 'customed to bein' sa.s.sed by women. I'll have it out o' ye! Tell me, or I'll treat ye as I do my own darters, when they disobey me!"

His brutal hand is upraised, and in another second this exotic from far-away Murray Hill will receive what she had never felt before--a box on her dainty ear. But she, forgetting prudence, forgetting Harry's counsel, pants, "I dare you! Do you think I have no one here to avenge me?"

"Who?" asks Kruger, suspiciously, his hand still lifted.

"Who?" echoes Erma--"who?" Then, remembering in time, she turns her speech and laughs. "That stock is safe in the hands of Wells, Fargo & Co., where you dare not touch it!" and unwittingly paves the way for her own escape.

"Oh ho!" guffaws Lot. "It's on the train. We'll see if we dare not touch it!"

He calls to his men, who are in the smoking-room: "Two of ye look after her here, though there ain't any great danger of Miss Dainty's running very far in this snow. That stock is in Wells, Fargo & Co.'s safe, an'

we'll have it now. It's right here on the train, boys. We've got a warrant that will hold us up in this business!"