How it would have ended I don’t know, but as they sprang off the car platform Miss Cullen came out on it, and stood there, one hand holding on to the door-way, as if she needed support, and the other covering her heart. It was too far for me to see her face, but the whole attitude expressed such suffering that it was terrible to see. What was more, her position put her in range of every shot the cowboys might fire at the five as they charged. If I could have stopped them I would have done so, but, since that was impossible, I cried,—
“Mr. Camp, I’ll surrender the letters.”
“Hold on, boys,” shouted Baldwin; “wait till we get the property he stole.” And, coming through the crowd, he threw the noose off my neck.
“Don’t shoot, Mr. Cullen,” I yelled, as my friends halted and raised their rifles, and, fortunately, the cowboys had opened up enough to let them hear me and see that I was free of the rope.
Escorted by Camp, Baldwin, and the cowboys, I walked towards them. On the way Baldwin said, in a low voice, “Deliver the letters, and we’ll tell the boys there has been a mistake. Otherwise—”
When we came up to the five, I called to them that I had agreed to surrender the letters. While I was saying it, Miss Cullen joined them, and it was curious to see how respectfully the cowboys took off their hats and fell back.
“You are quite right,” Mr. Cullen called. “Give them the letters at once.”
“Oh, do, Mr. Gordon,” said Madge, still white and breathless with emotion. “The money is nothing. Don’t think—” It was all she could say.
I felt pretty small, but with Camp and Baldwin, now reinforced by Judge Wilson, I went to the station, ordered the agent to open the safe, took out the three letters, and handed them to Mr. Camp, realizing how poor Madge must have felt on Hance’s trail. It was a pretty big take down to my pride I tell you, and made all the worse by the way the three gloated over the letters and over our defeat.
“We’ve taught you a lesson, young man,” sneered Camp, as after opening the envelopes, to assure himself that the proxies were all right, he tucked them into his pocket. “And we’ll teach you another one after to-day’s election.”