“Yes, my appetite doesn’t seem to have
left me in spite of what I went through. I didn’t
take much in that restaurant. I was too anxious
to get away with the mail.”
Jack drank the coffee, and it made him feel better.
Then he said:
“Now for the mail. I want to see it opened,
Jennie, so I’ll know just what it was I brought
through.”
“But you’re not going on through to Rainbow
Ridge to-night, are you?” she asked anxiously.
“I guess not,” was his answer. “Can’t
tell though, until I see what’s in the mail.
I may have to.”
“Well, we’ll just not let you!”
exclaimed Mrs. Blake with vigor. “If there
is anything that has to go through I’ll get Tim,
or some one else, to ride the trail. We’ll
even send two men if necessary.”
“Oh, I can’t give up that way!”
Jack protested.
“Well, maybe there isn’t anything to carry,”
suggested Jennie. “I’ll open the
mail and we’ll look.”
She turned the key in the lock of the first sack,
and spilled the contents out on the sorting table.
Almost the first thing she and Jack saw was a flat
package, sealed with red wax. Jack quickly turned
it over.
“It’s for Mr. Argent!” he exclaimed.
“I wonder if these can be the important letters
and plans he is expecting? They must be, and that’s
why Ryan tried to get them!”
Jennie said nothing, but looked at Jack with troubled
eyes.
THE MASKED MAN
For a few seconds the two young people remained looking
alternately at one another, and then at the packet
which they guessed contained the long-expected and
important papers. The red wax, with which the
package was sealed, gleamed in the lamp-light, for
one had been set aglow. It was dark early on
this night, as clouds overcast the sky.
“Yes, these must be the papers Mr. Argent is
expecting,” Jack said, musingly. “I
wonder what I’d better do about them?”
“What is there to do?” asked Mrs. Blake.
“Well, I think I ought to take them to him.
I feel all right now. The effects of that drug
has passed off, and—”
“Nonsense!” exclaimed Jennie’s mother;
“you shall do nothing of the sort. No trip
to Rainbow Ridge to-night!”
“But he may want them!” insisted Jack.
“And I promised to bring them through for him.
I think I must go.”
“Please don’t,” pleaded Jennie.
“We can lock the letters in the safe here, and
you can take them the first thing in the morning.
You know you were told not to make a night trip unless
it was absolutely necessary, and it isn’t.
There isn’t anything here that must go through
before morning,” and she rapidly sorted over
the mail and express matter to prove what she said.
“And didn’t Mr. Argent tell you not to
take the risk of a night trip just for these letters?”
asked Mrs. Blake.
“Yes, he did, but—”
