I started to rise, but she checked the movement and said, “Don’t trouble yourself. I thought you would know without moving. I really don’t care to know.”
I took out my watch, and was startled to find it was twenty minutes past twelve. I wasn’t so green as to tell Miss Cullen so, and merely said, “By the time, this must be Sanders.”
“Do we stop long?” she asked.
“Only to take water,” I told her, and then went on with what I had been speaking about when she shivered. But as I talked it slowly dawned on me that we had been standing still some time, and presently I stopped speaking and glanced off, expecting to recognize something, only to see alkali plain on both sides. A little surprised, I looked down, to find no siding. Rising hastily, I looked out forward. I could see moving figures on each side of the train, but that meant nothing, as the train’s crew, and, for that matter, passengers, are very apt to alight at every stop. What did mean something was that there was no water-tank, no station, nor any other visible cause for a stop.
“Is anything the matter?” asked Miss Cullen.
“I think something’s wrong with the engine or the road-bed, Miss Cullen,” I said, “and, if you’ll excuse me a moment, I’ll go forward and see.”
I had barely spoken when “bang! bang!” went two shots. That they were both fired from an English “express” my ears told me, for no other people in this world make a mountain howitzer and call it a rifle.
Hardly were the two shots fired when “crack! crack! crack! crack!” went some Winchesters.
“Oh! what is it?” cried Miss Cullen.
“I think your wish has been granted,” I answered hurriedly. “We are being held up, and Lord Ralles is showing us how to—”