Often this train carried large amounts of bullion
and currency east, and I supposed they had heard that there was a
shipment to go through that night.
I was standing with my back to the table, and just then I heard the
despatcher say that the Flyer was thirty minutes late from the west. I
put my hands quietly behind me and let the right rest on the key. I then
carefully opened the key and had just begun to speak to the despatcher
when one of the men suspected me and said to the leader, "Bill, watch
that little cuss. He's monkeying with the instrument and may give them
warning."
I stopped, closed the key, and was trying to look unconcerned, when
"Bill," said that "to stop all chances of further trouble," they would
bind and gag me. Thereupon two of the men tied my hands in front of me,
bound my legs securely, and thrust a villainously dirty gag in my mouth.
When this was done, "Bill" said, "Throw him across those blamed
instruments so they will keep quiet." They flung me upon the table,
face downwards, so that the relay was just under my stomach, and of
course my weight against the armature of the relay stopped the clicking
of the sounder.
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