Part 25 (2/2)

”I'll concede you two men,” he said, smiling.

”No, indeed!” she exclaimed, half indignantly. ”If I can't beat you evenly I don't want to win at all. Just because I'm a girl you'll handicap yourself!”

”Oh well have it your own way,” he agreed, smiling at her energetic words.

”Well, isn't this better than riding on the lonesome mountain trail, thinking every minute you're going to be held up?” asked Jennie, when one game had been finished, Jack winning as usual.

”It certainly is!” he agreed, as he looked around the pleasant room. ”But then, you know, business before pleasure.”

”Not when it isn't absolutely necessary,” remarked Mrs. Blake.

The living rooms of Jennie and her mother were upstairs, over the post office and the express department. There was a spare room that Jack used when he remained over night with his relatives.

”But I think I'll not sleep there to-night,” he said, when preparations were being made for retiring.

”Why not?” asked Jennie.

”I want to be down here, near the safe,” Jack replied, nodding toward the steel box in which the Argent letters and some registered mail had been placed for security until morning. ”I suppose nothing will happen,” he went on, ”but I shall feel better if I am down here.”

”But there is no place to sleep--no bed,” objected Jennie.

”A blanket and the soft side of a board will do for me,” Jack answered, with a laugh. ”I've camped out and slept on the ground often enough not to mind one night of discomfort. Don't worry, I'll be comfortable enough here.”

”We can bring down the old lounge if you insist on sleeping here,” Mrs.

Blake said.

”Well, I should like to, if you don't mind,” Jack answered. And so it was arranged. Jennie and her mother went up stairs, and Jack, without undressing, stretched out on the couch, pulling the blankets over him, for the night was cool with the approach of fall.

Jack's improvised bedroom was in a part of the post office, and in the room adjoining stood the safe, containing the valuable letters. By peering out of a nearby door Jack could have a glimpse of the strong box.

”Maybe I'll have my trouble for my pains,” Jack reasoned, ”but I'll worry less this way. I wonder if they'll really make any attempt to get in here?”

He hardly knew what to think. When he recalled the desperate chance Ryan had taken to get possession of what he must have known was in the mail sack, Jack was sure the attempt would not easily be given up. But as the plotters had so far been successfully evaded and their tricks set at naught, it might be that they would give up now.

”It's about six of one and half a dozen of the other,” Jack mused, ”and I think the odds are in my favor.”

He did not feel sleepy. Perhaps the after-effects of the drug were such as to produce an abnormally active state of the brain, and the brain must be quiet to have sleep come. For a time Jack lay quietly on his couch. Then he had an attack of the fidgets, and he tossed restlessly to and fro.

Up stairs all was quiet, and he hoped his aunt and cousin were sleeping in comfort. Now and then Jack a.s.sured himself that his revolver was ready to his hand. As the hours were ticked off on the office clock, Jack became more and more nervous.

”Come, this won't do!” he told himself. ”I won't be fit for much to-morrow if I don't get some sleep, and I may have a hard day of it. Guess I'll get up and have a drink of water. I've heard that's a good thing to do when one can't sleep.”

He tried to move about cautiously, so as not to disturb Jennie and her mother. But as often happens when one moves about in the dark, objects are struck that one hardly knew were in the room. The things all seem to ma.s.s themselves under foot.

Jack banged into a table, and knocked over a chair.

”Oh!” screamed Jennie from the room above. ”Mother! Jack! They've come!”

<script>