"But I don't understand. You said--" She gave him a chance to
explain.

"It ain't meant you should. You'll understand plenty at the
proper time."

He offered her his hand again. "We're slowing down for Apache.
Good-by--till next time."

The suede glove came forward, and was buried in his handshake.

He understood it to be an unvoiced apology of its owner for her
suspicions, and his instinct was correct. For how could her
doubts hold their ground when he had showed himself a sharer in
her secret and a guardian of it? And how could anything sinister
lie behind those frank, unwavering eyes or consist with that
long, clean stride that was carrying him so forcefully to the
vestibule?

At Apache no telegrams were found waiting for those who had been
expecting them. Communication with the division superintendent at
Tucson uncovered the fact that no message of the hold-up had yet
reached him. It was an easy guess for Collins to find the reason.

"We're in the infant class, major," he told Mackenzie, with a
sardonic laugh. "Leroy must have galloped down the line direct to
the station after the hold-up. Likely enough he went into the
depot just as we went out. That gives him the other hour or two
he needs to make his getaway with the loot. Well, it can't be