"You'll save time and searching, gentlemen, if you'll tote it out.

If we've got to go through every one of you we'll try to make it pay." The significant threat was not unheeded.

The passenger who had first moved when the stage stopped put his hand to his breast.
"T'other pocket first, if you please," said the voice.
The man laughed, drew a pistol from his hip pocket, and, under the strong light of the lantern, laid it on a spot in the road indicated by the voice.

A thick envelope, taken from his breast pocket, was laid beside it.

"I told the d--d fools that gave it to me, instead of sending it by express, it would be at their own risk," he said apologetically.
"As it's going with the express now it's all the same," said the inevitable humorist of the occasion, pointing to the despoiled express treasure-box already in the road.
The intention and deliberation of the outrage was plain enough to Hale's inexperience now.