Now I found both her and her aunt in a great state of alarm.
"It's nothing serious, is it, Mr. Anstruther?" asked the elder lady, seizing my arm. "Some one here says that we are attacked by robbers."
Before I could answer, a man wearing a cowboy's high-crowned hat and a mask across the upper part of his face, appeared at the door of the car and gave the command—
"Hands up!"
He carried a revolver pointed upwards over his shoulder in such a position that he could have brought it down at once. At first I refused to elevate my hands as a fat Brazilian was doing near me, and this evoked another word of command—
"Hands up! Sharp!"
"Do put your hands up, dear," came the soft trembling voice of Dolores; "do, to please me."
My two hands shot up most willingly, immediately.
"Ladies," the man proceeded, in far from a disagreeable voice, "you have no need to fear. Our chief has fined each first-class passenger a hundred dollars; second-class passengers fifty dollars. If those amounts are placed on the seats, our collector will be round in a minute or two to take them up, then you will be at liberty to proceed."
At that moment another man, similarly attired, armed, and masked, joined the other at the door.