Perry Hawley, the local manager of the company, together with Len Rogers, the armed guard, had just returned from the depot, where the money had been turned over to them and receipted for. Hawley had unlocked the door of the office and had stepped in, followed by Rogers, when a masked desperado appeared suddenly out of the darkness, disarmed the guard and manager, took the money, passed through the door and locked it after him, and vanished as silently as he had come. Before leaving, he warned his victims that the place would be covered for ten minutes and at any attempt to call for help they would be shot. Notwithstanding this, the imprisoned men risked their lives by raising the alarm. Further down the page Mackenzie discovered that the desperado was still at large, but that Sheriff Bolt expected shortly to lay hands on him. "I'll bet a dollar Nick Bolt didn't make any such claim to the reporter. He ain't the kind that brags," Mackenzie told himself. He folded the paper and returned to his room to make preparation to return to his ranch. The buzz of the telephone called him to the receiver. The voice of Cullison reached him. "That you, Mac. I'll be right up. No, don't come down. I'd rather see you alone." The owner of the Circle C came right to business. "I've made a raise, Mac, and while I've got it I'm going to skin off what's coming to you." He had taken a big roll of bills from his pocket, and was counting off what he had lost to his friend. The latter noticed that it all seemed to be in twenties. "Twelve hundred. That squares us, Mac." The Scotchman was vaguely uneasy without a definite reason for his anxiety. Only last night Cullison had told him not a single bank in town would advance him a dollar. Now he had money in plenty. Where had he got it? "No hurry at all, Luck. Pay when you're good and ready." "That's now." "Because I'll only put it in the Cattlemen's National. It's yours if you need it." "I'll let you know if I do," his friend nodded. Mackenzie's eye fell on a copy of the _Sentinel_ protruding from the other's pocket. "Read about the hold-up of the W. & S. Express? That fellow had his nerve with him." "Sho! This hold-up game's the easiest yet. He got the drop on them, and there was nothing to it. The key was still in the lock of the door. Well, when he gets through he steps out, turns the key, and rides away." "How did he know there was money coming in last night?" "There's always a leak about things of that sort. Somebody talks. I knew it myself for that matter." "You knew! Who told you?" "That's a secret, Mac. Come to think of it, I wish you wouldn't tell anybody that I knew. I don't want to get the man who told me in trouble." "Sure I won't." He passed to another phase of the subject. "The _Sentinel_ says Bolt expects to catch the robber. Think he will?"