“All cinched up an’ ready to go,” replied Rathburn.
“How soon you going to start?” asked Sautee as he unlocked the door.
“By midnight,” Rathburn answered.
Sautee held out his hand before he slipped out of the door and was gone.
Rathburn quickly busied himself with his slicker pack. He took out a gun which he changed for the gun in his holster. Then he stuck his regular gun into his waistband on the left. He took out the package and examined it. It was sealed at each end. Then Rathburn did a queer thing. He cut the string and paper near the seals and removed the small box within. He next emptied the box of its paper-wrapped contents and substituted the first thing of equal weight which he could lay his hands on––a moleskin glove which was among the things in the slicker pack. He replaced the box in its wrappings and drew from one of his pockets a small bottle of glue.
“First time I ever stole anything from a hotel desk,” he muttered to himself as he glued the paper back into place; “but I sure had the proper hunch when I grabbed this.”
Next he retied the string, adding a piece from his slicker pack to offset the shortness where it had been cut. When he had finished the package looked exactly as it had in the first place. It would take a close inspection to learn that it had been tampered with. The original contents of the package he thrust into his hat and pulled the hat well down on his head.
Then he extinguished the light and made his way downstairs and out the lobby into the street. He went quickly around to the barn where he astonished the man in charge by saddling his horse 135 and riding out without a word of explanation other than to toss him a five-dollar bill from the saddle.
“See you again to-morrow––maybe,” he called, grinning, as he rode into the night.
When Rathburn had passed behind the hotel and several other buildings on the same side of the street and gained the road leading westward toward the hogback, a slim shadow darted out of the trees, mounted a horse concealed some distance behind the barn, and slipped into a worn trail which nearly paralleled the road going west.