第20章

The jolt nearly threw Key from the top,but a moment later it was still more difficult to keep his seat in the headlong fury of their progress.Again and again the lash descended upon the maddened horses,until the whole coach seemed to leap,bound,and swerve with every stroke.Cries of protest and even distress began to come from the interior,but the driver heeded it not.A window was suddenly let down;the voice of the professional man saying,"What's the matter?We're not followed.You are imperiling our lives by this speed,"was answered only by,"Will some of ye throttle that d--d fool?"from the driver,and the renewed fall of the lash.The wayside trees appeared a solid plateau before them,opened,danced at their side,closed up again behind them,--but still they sped along.Rushing down grades with the speed of an avalanche,they ascended again without drawing rein,and as if by sheer momentum;for the heavy vehicle now seemed to have a diabolical energy of its own.It ground scattered rocks to powder with its crushing wheels,it swayed heavily on ticklish corners,recovering itself with the resistless forward propulsion of the straining teams,until the lights of Three Pine Station began to glitter through the trees.Then a succession of yells broke from the driver,so strong and dominant that they seemed to outstrip even the speed of the unabated cattle.Lesser lights were presently seen running to and fro,and on the outermost fringe of the settlement the stage pulled up before a crowd of wondering faces,and the driver spoke.

"We've been held up on the open road,by G--d,not THREE MILES from whar ye men are sittin'here yawpin'!If thar's a man among ye that hasn't got the soul of a skunk,he'll foller and close in upon 'em before they have a chance to get into the brush."Having thus relieved himself of his duty as an enforced noncombatant,and allowed all further responsibility to devolve upon his recreant fellow employees,he relapsed into his usual taciturnity,and drove a trifle less recklessly to the station,where he grimly set down his bruised and discomfited passengers.As Key mingled with them,he could not help perceiving that neither the late "orator's"explanation of his exemption from their fate,nor the driver's surly corroboration of his respectability,had pacified them.For a time this amused him,particularly as he could not help remembering that he first appeared to them beside the mysterious horseman who some one thought had been identified as one of the masks.But he was not a little piqued to find that the fair unknown appeared to participate in their feelings,and his first civility to her met with a chilling response.Even then,in the general disillusion of his romance regarding her,this would have been only a momentary annoyance;but it strangely revived all his previous suspicions,and set him to thinking.Was the singular sagacity displayed by the orator in his search purely intuitive?

Could any one have disclosed to him the secret of the passengers'hoards?Was it possible for HER while sitting alone in the coach to have communicated with the band?Suddenly the remembrance flashed across him of her opening the window for fresh air!She could have easily then dropped some signal.If this were so,and she really was the culprit,it was quite natural for her own safety that she should encourage the passengers in the absurd suspicion of himself!His dying interest revived;a few moments ago he had half resolved to abandon his quest and turn back at Three Pines.Now he determined to follow her to the end.But he did not indulge in any further sophistry regarding his duty;yet,in a new sense of honor,he did not dream of retaliating upon her by communicating his suspicions to his fellow passengers.When the coach started again,he took his seat on the top,and remained there until they reached Jamestown in the early evening.Here a number of his despoiled companions were obliged to wait,to communicate with their friends.

Happily,the exemption that had made them indignant enabled him to continue his journey with a full purse.But he was content with a modest surveillance of the lady from the top of the coach.

On arriving at Stockton this surveillance became less easy.It was the terminus of the stage-route,and the divergence of others by boat and rail.If he were lucky enough to discover which one the lady took,his presence now would be more marked,and might excite her suspicion.But here a circumstance,which he also believed to be providential,determined him.As the luggage was being removed from the top of the coach,he overheard the agent tell the expressman to check the "lady's"trunk to San Luis.Key was seized with an idea which seemed to solve the difficulty,although it involved a risk of losing the clue entirely.There were two routes to San Luis,one was by stage,and direct,though slower;the other by steamboat and rail,via San Francisco.If he took the boat,there was less danger of her discovering him,even if she chose the same conveyance;if she took the direct stage,--and he trusted to a woman's avoidance of the hurry of change and transshipment for that choice,--he would still arrive at San Luis,via San Francisco,an hour before her.He resolved to take the boat;a careful scrutiny from a stateroom window of the arriving passengers on the gangplank satisfied him that she had preferred the stage.There was still the chance that in losing sight of her she might escape him,but the risk seemed small.And a trifling circumstance had almost unconsciously influenced him--after his romantic and superstitious fashion--as to this final step.