CHAPTER XXXIV
Caboose
SO GREAT is the power of money that it was not more than ten minutes before Rose was settled to rest in such comfort as the caboose on the end of the freight train afforded, while Alan and Barcus sat within its doorway and smoked, mutely speculating on the length of time that would elapse before the special train again appeared, and whether they dared hope its occupants would fail to notice the abandoned hand-car and draw the logical inference.
An hour passed without event, and evening drew its shades athwart the barren and inhospitable wastes of tumbled hills and arid plains. All seemed well, and no one aboard the freight suspected that, in the box-car next forward of the caboose, a woman in man's clothing lay perdue, chuckling impishly to herself in anticipation of the time and event she was biding with such patience as she could muster—time and event alike being hidden from her understanding.
Oh, most assuredly the time would come! Mark how events had already played into her hands, how Barcus had held her prisoner in the compartment
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