“How stupid of me,” muttered Bell. “I forgot that only narrow-gauge railroads run through the Rocky Mountains.”

“Don’t feel bad,” said Bronson. “I never thought of it either.”

Irvine struck the table with his fist in frustration. “He’ll never bite the hook, knowing that he can’t escape in his private freight car.”

Bell smiled tightly. “He has his strengths, but he also has his weaknesses. I’m counting on his greed and his ego, his sense of invincibility. I’m certain he will take the bait and attempt to rob the bank in Telluride. The challenge is too mighty for him to ignore.”

“I wish you the best of luck,” said Bronson. “If anybody can catch the Butcher, you can.”

“What about you, Horace? Any luck on tracing the bandit’s gun?”

“Nothing encouraging,” Bronson said soberly. “New firearm purchases don’t have to be registered. All any buyer has to do is lay down the money and walk out with the gun. We’ve drawn a blank with dealers. Even if they remember who they sold a Colt thirty-eight automatic to, they won’t give out any names.”

Irvine stared at a wall without seeing it. “It would seem, gentlemen, that all our hard-earned leads have turned into blind alleys.”

“Setbacks, yes,” Bell muttered softly. “But the game isn’t over—not yet. We still have a chance to make the final score.”

22

CROMWELL SAT AT THE TABLE, EATING HIS BREAKFAST and reading the morning paper. He folded the first section on a front-page article and passed it across the table to Margaret without comment.

She read it, her eyes squinting as the story hit home, then she looked up quizzically. “Do you intend on going for it?”

“I find it very tempting,” he replied. “It’s as though a gauntlet was thrown at my feet.”

“What do you know about Telluride?”

“Only what I’ve read. It lies in a box canyon. Has an extensive red-light district, and Butch Cassidy robbed the San Miguel Valley Bank there in 1889.”

“Was he successful?”

Cromwell nodded. “He and his gang got away with over twenty thousand dollars.”

“I suppose you’re thinking if he could do it, you could do it.”

“Cassidy conducted an amateur holdup and rode away on horses,” Cromwell said pompously. “My methods are more scientific.”

“If Telluride is in a box canyon, there is only one way in and one way out. A posse would have time to stop a train and search the cars.”

“I can’t use my boxcar anyway. It will have to be left behind.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The railroad running in and from Telluride is the Rio Grande Southern. The tracks are narrow gauge, the rails too closely spiked for my Southern Pacific car. I’ll just have to find another means of leaving town without the threat of capture.”

Margaret scrutinized the story again. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

“I don’t consider feelings. I work with hard facts, and I play it safe by taking into account every contingency, no matter how small.”

She watched him across the table as he poured another cup of coffee. “You’ll need help with this job.”

He looked over his cup. “What have you got in mind?”

“I’ll come with you.”

“What about your little journey to Juneau, Alaska?”

“I’ll simply postpone it.”

Cromwell considered that for a few moments. “I can’t put you at risk.”

“You haven’t failed yet,” Margaret admonished him. “But, this time, you may need me.”

He was quiet for a while. Then he smiled. “I do believe you’d come along if I ordered you not to.”

She laughed. “Have I ever bowed to your demands yet?”

“Not even when we were children,” he said, remembering. “Though you were two years younger, I could never get the upper hand.”

She patted a napkin against her red lips. “It’s settled, then. We’re in this job together.”

He sighed. “You win. But I hope I won’t be sorry I didn’t put you on the boat to Alaska.”

“What do you want me to do?”

He stared down at the table, as if seeing an abstract image, while he circled his fork on the tablecloth. “Take a train to Colorado tomorrow and then make a connection to Telluride.”

She stared at him. “You want me to leave before you?”

He nodded. “I’ll deviate from my usual routine. Instead of my spending time mingling with the locals and studying the bank operation, you can do it. As a woman, you can conduct a close scrutiny without arousing suspicion.”

“A woman in Telluride?” she mused. “I’ll have to pass myself off as a prostitute.”

“Better yet, claim that you’re an abandoned wife whose husband left her to strike it rich in the mines and disappeared. That way no one will be suspicious of you asking questions and snooping around.”

“But in order to live and eat, I have to find work in a bordello.”

“Have it your own way,” he said, resigning himself as always to his sister’s whimsical ways.

“And you?”

“I’ll come a few days later, after I’ve checked out the shipment and firmed up my plans for the robbery and our getaway.” He paused and gazed at her with a look of brotherly love. “I must be mad for involving you in such a risky venture.”

“I’m mad, too.” She laughed a lilting laugh. “Insane with excitement and a growing rage for adventure.” She threw him the feminine expression of a cat about to leap on a mouse. “Of course, the thought of acting like a prostitute is an attraction I find delicious.”

“Spare me the details.”

Then she suddenly became serious. “What about Isaac Bell?”

He shrugged. “What about him?”

“He seems to show up everywhere, maybe even Telluride.”

“The thought crossed my mind, but, once I verify the currency shipment, I believe that pretty much eliminates him. He’s too busy chasing ghosts all over San Francisco to show up out of the blue in Telluride.”

“I don’t trust him any more than I can throw this house.”

He laughed. “Cheer up, sister dear. This will be a walk in the park just like the other robberies. You’ll see.”