Mr. Schofield made a gesture of impatience.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “You can’t incriminate yourself any more than you are incriminated. Besides, all I’m going to do to you is fire you, and I’d do that if you never spoke another word in your life. I’ve said hanging is too good for you, but I’m going to let somebody else take the trouble of having you convicted. This won’t be your last scrape—unless you make a decided ’bout face! But I’ll get Nolan,” he added. “I’ll get Nolan, if it takes a dozen years.”
“Oh, all right,” said Nevins, looking vastly relieved. "You’re welcome to Nolan; and I’m going to get as far away from here as my money will carry me. I don’t want to see Nolan, myself. It was this way. I heard that order for the freight sent to West Junction, and then, pretty soon, came the order for the special to me. Nolan was here in the office at the time, and I remarked to him that if the freight could be held up half an hour or so after it left West Junction, it would be just the chance he was looking for.
“‘I’ll fix that,’ he said, ‘if you’ll keep that order off the hook.’
“I promised him I would, and he ran out and hooked on to a freight that was just pulling out for Wadsworth. He dropped off at West Junction, and it was pretty dark by that time, so he was able to remove the dope and packing from one of the journal-boxes of the D. W. & I. freight without any one seeing him. Then the train started, and he got aboard, and rode back on it until the hot-box stopped it. Then he dropped off, cut an air-hose, to be sure they couldn’t get here ahead of time, and then started to walk the rest of the way back.
“I put the order in my pocket, went to supper as soon as West relieved me, and then hurried back so that I would be sure to get the order back on the hook. The only thing I was afraid of was that Nolan wouldn’t be able to hold the freight long enough, and that it would pull in here ahead of the special. I was pretty sure, though, that even in that case I could get the order back on the hook without any one seeing me. I left my lunch-basket behind, and if there hadn’t been any other way, I was going back after it, and jab the order on the hook when West wasn’t looking. So there wasn’t much risk, after all.”
“No,” said Mr. Schofield, bitterly, “not for you. But how about the people in the special?”
“Well,” answered Nevins, deliberately, “I don’t believe I fully realized what was going to happen until the special came singing down the track. Then I turned sort of sick at my stomach; but I kept my head enough to raise the window, and put the order on the hook. Then I heard that fellow coming for me and lit out. But I wasn’t fast enough.”
“I’d ’a’ got you,” remarked Jack, grimly, “if I’d had to chase you clear across to ’Frisco.”