Then the four men, taking with them the mail and express
pouches, galloped away in the darkness.
A QUEER DISCOVERY
Left to himself, tied tightly with the ropes that
cut into his wrists and made his legs ache, poor Jack
lay in a sort of stupor. He could hardly understand
what had happened, and his head hurt him very much
where he had been struck. He was lying on the
road at one side of the trail. Overhead he could
see the stars twinkling. It was still very quiet.
“Not much chance of any one coming along the
trail to-night,” mused Jack. It was the
first thought that had come clearly to him, and, in
a measure, it served to rouse him from his stupor.
Then his brain seemed to clear.
“I’ve got to do something! I can’t
lie here and wait for some one to come and help me!”
he decided, Already there was more vigor in the activity
of his mind.
Jack’s first idea, as soon as he had begun to
think clearly, was that he must loosen his bonds.
To this end he writhed and struggled as he lay on
his back. He managed to roll over on his side,
but he found himself more uncomfortable than in his
first position, and soon rolled back to that.
During this operation he tried, by every means in
his power, to stretch or strain the knots. He
thought if he could only get one of the bonds to give
he might manage to get one hand out.
“And if I can do that, I’ll soon be clear,”
Jack reasoned, “But it isn’t going to
be easy to get one hand out.”
It did not take him long to discover this. The
robbers had done their work well. They were taking
no chances. Jack rested after his struggles.
His head ached worse than ever because of the rush
of blood to it from the strain.
“I wonder if it will do any good to call?”
he mused. “I’m going to try.
But I’ve got to get my breath first.”
A little later he began shouting and calling for help,
doing it at intervals. But he had not much hope.
He was on the lonesomest part of the trail, which,
at best, was seldom traveled. Often days would
pass without any one, save the pony express rider,
going over the mountain.
“I might as well save my breath, I guess,”
reasoned Jack. “This is only playing me
out. Maybe they’ll come for me when Sunger
gets home. Whoever sees him without me and the
mail will know something has happened. The only
trouble is they won’t know where to look.
But it’s my best chance, I think.”
He lay quiet for a period, thinking over the momentous
events that had just occurred.
“I wonder who those men were, and what they
were after,” mused Jack. “There wasn’t
enough valuable stuff in the express packages to make
four men risk state’s prison for it. It
must have been the mail they were after. And
nothing of great value was in the mail, except the
letters for Mr. Argent. Of course, they were
what they wanted. And in that case he ought to
know who would be most interested in taking them.
We may be able to arrest the men yet.
