“Yes, Caruth, you can do nothing else but wait,” was the major’s reply.
CHAPTER XXIV.
TREACHERY.
The coach that carried the prisoner away from the fort progressed on its way until it neared Deep Dell Brook. Then Detective Raymond called out to the driver that the prisoner was not feeling very well, and he would like to give him a seat on top of the coach.
This was allowed, and a seat was arranged behind Surgeon Powell and Horseshoe Ned. Then on the coach went once more.
Neither Horseshoe Ned nor Surgeon Powell suspected treachery from behind them. They were prepared to resist any attempt at the rescue of the prisoner, should the coach be held up on the way.
But behind the surgeon and the driver a plot was going on.
The prisoner’s irons were quietly unlocked by Detective Raymond, and he was a free man.
Then, at a given signal, the two suddenly brought a revolver down upon the head of the man immediately in the front of each.
The coach was just moving out of Deep Dell Brook at the time. The blows were stunning ones, and the one delivered by the detective upon the head of the driver was very severe, for it cut to the bone, and was given with an indifference as to whether it killed or not.
The blow received by the Surgeon Scout was less severe, perhaps because the benumbed hands of the outlaw chief were not able to strike so hard or perhaps because the man admired Frank Powell as he had said that he did.