CHAPTER VII
A CHANGE OF BASE
We did not reach Flagstaff till seven, and I told the stage-load to take possession of their car, while I went to my own. It took me some time to get freshened up, and then I ate my breakfast; for after riding seventy-two miles in one night even the most heroic purposes have to take the side-track. I think, as it was, I proved my devotion pretty well by not going to sleep, since I had been up three nights, with only such naps as I could steal in the saddle, and had ridden over a hundred and fifty miles to boot. But I couldn’t bear to think of Miss Cullen’s anxiety, and the moment I had made myself decent, and finished eating, I went into 218.
The party were all in the dining-room, but it was a very different-looking crowd from the one with which that first breakfast had been eaten, and they all looked at me as I entered as if I were the executioner come for victims.
“Mr. Cullen,” I began, “I’ve been forced to do a lot of things that weren’t pleasant, but I don’t want to do more than I need. You’re not the ordinary kind of road agents, and, as I presume your address is known, I don’t see any need of arresting one of our own directors as yet. All I ask is that you give me your word, for the party, that none of you will try to leave the country.”
“Certainly, Mr. Gordon,” he responded. “And I thank you for your great consideration.”
“I shall have to report the case to our president, and, I suppose, to the Postmaster-General, but I sha’n’t hurry about either. What they will do, I can’t say. Probably you know how far you can keep them quiet.”
“I think the local authorities are all I have to fear, provided time is given me.”
“I have dismissed the sheriff and his posse, and I gave them a hundred dollars for their work, and three bottles of pretty good whiskey I had on my car. Unless they get orders from elsewhere, you will not hear any further from them.”