I was endeavoring to express my contrition when Haldane laughed. "I am not sure that you are the only person responsible for the destruction of my furniture."
Mackay had started before our conversation was finished, and it cost Boone and me a long gallop to come up with him, while it was only by dint of hard riding that we eventually reached the station some hours after the departure of the train. Mackay first of all wired to the stations down the line, and then explained: "That's just a useless duty. Yon man is keen enough to know he might find the troopers waiting for him. He'll leave the cars at the flag station where there's nobody to detain him, and, buying a horse at the first ranch, strike south for the border. It would be desirable that we grip him before he reaches it."
Because various formalities must be gone through before a Canadian offender is handed over by the Americans, this was clear enough, though I did not see how it was to be accomplished, until Mackay had exchanged high words with the station agent. A freight locomotive and an empty stock car rolled out of the siding, and we took our places therein, men and horses together.
"Sorry I haven't got a new bogie drawing-room for you, but it's getting time the police gave some other station a share of their business," said the exasperated railroad official. I also overheard him tell the engineer: "You have got to be back by daylight, and needn't be particular about shaking them."
It was not the fault of the engineer if he did not shake the life out of us. Canadian lines are neither metalled nor ballasted with much solidity; and with only one car to steady it the huge machine appeared to leap over each inequality of the track. There was also nipping frost in the air, the prairie glittered under the stars, and bitter draughts pulsed through the lurching car. It was not an easy matter to keep the horses on their feet or to maintain our own balance, but the swish of the dust and the rattle of flung-up ballast brought some comfort as an indication of our speed.
"It's a steeplechase already," gasped Boone, holding on by a head-rope as we roared across a bridge. "I looked at the gauge-glass, and the engineer can hardly have full steam up yet. We'll be lucky to escape with whole limbs when he has."
The prediction was fully justified, for the bouncing, jolting, and hammering increased with the pace, and I made most of the journey holding fast by a very cold rail as for my life, while half-seen through the rush of ballast I watched the prairie race past. When one could look forward there was nothing visible but a field of dancing stars and a smear of white below, athwart which the blaze of the great headlamp drove onwards with the speed of a comet. All of us were thankful when the locomotive was pulled up before a lonely shed, and while we dragged the horses out the man who drove it, grinning at his stoker, said: "I guess there's no bonus for beating the record on this contract?"
"No," said Mackay dryly. "Ye have the satisfaction of knowing ye served the State."
By good fortune we found a sleepy man in the galvanized iron shed, and he informed us that Lane had alighted from the last train and started on foot towards the nearest ranch, which lay about a league away. Inside of fifteen minutes we were pounding on its door, and the startled owner said that the man we asked for had bought a good horse from him, and inquired the shortest route to the American frontier.
"Four hours' start," said Mackay, as we proceeded again. "Ye can add another three for the making of inquiries and searching for his trail. It will be a close race, I'm thinking."