They seemed to know precisely what the trainmen would do, and were prepared to meet it. Either the man called White had watched this train on some previous night or he had taken some other precaution to discover precisely what would happen when the train stopped at the tank, for they went into their parts when the event arrived precisely as though they had drilled for it and were entering at the cue of some director. We were hidden in the bushes close beside the tank when the train rolled in. To me it seemed immense, gigantic, in the darkness. The blinding headlight, the roar, and grating of the brakes seemed to make a bewildering confusion. I think I should not have moved from the bushes, in such confusion was I thrown, had I not been between the two men; and as it happened, I got up with them. We waited until the engine had taken water and the conductor and porter had made their round of the train; then we slipped out of our hiding place as the train pulled out. We swung on to the rear platform of the express car precisely at the moment that the porter climbed on to the steps of the same platform at the other side. Mooney jammed his gun into the man’s face. The porter nearly lost his hold on the rail of the car with terror. “My God!” he muttered. “Don’t shoot.” We must have presented every element of terror to him—the deadly weapons and the three looming figures in their black peaked caps. “Keep still,” said Mooney. “Do what you are told and you won’t get hurt.” White tried the door to the express car; it was open. He pitched away the ax, seized the porter by the shoulders, and he and Mooney rushed the express car, using the body of the terrorized porter for a shield against any bullet that might be fired. To their surprise they found the baggage master, mail clerk and express messenger all sitting on the floor eating lunch from dinner buckets. There was no resistance. They all threw up their hands almost with a single motion. “Which is the express messenger?” said Mooney. “I am,” replied one of the men. “I want what you have in the way box,” he said. The messenger denied having anything. “Give me your key and I will find out.” Mooney went about the thing with deliberation. He unlocked the box, took out all packages, and put them in his loot sack. Then he left White to stand guard over the men while he took the mail clerk into the mail car to see what he could get there. All this time I was standing at my post between the two cars looking through the glass door into the faces of the passengers. I could see the faces of the men before me clearly, for I was looking from the dark into the lamplight. Nevertheless I felt as though their eyes were fixed on me and each man had a weapon in his pocket; but no one moved toward my end of the car.