“I am sorry you lost so much, Miss Wainwright,” he told her. “But, after all, I did not lose so much as you. Her dark, deep-pupiled eyes, long-lashed as Diana’s, swept round to meet his coolly. “That’s a true word. My reputation has gone glimmering for fair, I guess.” He laughed ruefully. “I shouldn’t wonder, ma’am, when election time comes round, if the boys ain’t likely to elect to private life the sheriff that lay down before a bunch of miscreants.” “Why did you do it?” His humorous glance roamed round the car. “Now, I couldn’t think it proper for me to shoot up this sumptuous palace on wheels. And wouldn’t some casual passenger be likely to get his lights put out when the band began to play? Would you want that Boston church to be shy a preacher, ma’am?” Her lips parted slightly in a curve of scorn. “I suppose you had your reasons for not interfering.” “Surely, ma’am. I hated to have them make a sieve of me.” “Were you afraid?” “Most men are when Wolf Leroy’s gang is on the war path.” “Wolf Leroy?” “That was Wolf who came in to see they were doing the job right. He’s the worst desperado on the border—a sure enough bad proposition, I reckon. They say he’s part Spanish and part Indian, but all pisen. Others say he’s a college man of good family. I don’t know about that, for nobody knows who he really is. But the name is a byword in the country. People lower their voices when they speak of him and his night-riders.” “I see. And you were afraid of him?” “Very much.” Her narrowed eyes looked over the strong lines of his lean face and were unconvinced. “I expect you found a better reason than that for not opposing them.” He turned to her with frank curiosity. “I’d like real well to have you put a name to it.” But he was instantly aware that her interest had been side tracked. Major Mackenzie had entered the car and was coming down the aisle. Plainer than words his eyes asked a question, and hers answered it. The sheriff stopped him with a smiling query: “Hit hard, major?” Mackenzie frowned. “The scoundrels took thirty thousand from the express car, I understand. Twenty thousand of it belonged to our company. I was expecting to pay off the men next Tuesday.” “Hope we’ll be able to run them down for you,” returned Collins cheerfully. “I suppose you lay it to Wolf Leroy’s gang?” “Of course. The work was too well done to leave any doubt of that.” The major resumed his seat behind Miss Wainwright. To that young woman the sheriff repeated his unanswered question in the form of a statement. “I’m waiting to learn that better reason, ma’am.” She was possessed of that spice of effrontery more to be desired than beauty. “Shall we say that you had no wish to injure your friends?” “My friends?” Her untender eyes mocked his astonishment. “Do I choose the wrong word?” she asked, with an audacity of a courage that delighted him. “Perhaps they are not your friends—these train robbers? Perhaps they are mere casual acquaintances?”