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the state line into South Carolina, I can get out of this thing. I m terribly uncomfortable. I m not
wanted in South Carolina.
She glanced into the coffin, at the bags of money. There were several, all of them stuffed full. It
was a king s ransom, and she d just agreed to help the bank recover it. Well, she sighed, there was a
reward. She wouldn t have to go to prison. She d be free of Eli. And she d even be able to get John
back. Claire was no match for her. She smiled.
You look very smug, Eli muttered, wiping his sweaty brow.
Everything is going our way, isn t it? she asked cheerfully, and stared out the window at the
passing scenery as she began to work out a happier future in the privacy of her mind.
WHEN THE TRAIN PULLED in to the Augusta station, several men in suits rushed forward, and John went
out to meet them. While Claire watched from the compartment she was still sharing with Mrs.
Cornwall, the men came aboard the train. Minutes later, she saw a shocked, defeated-looking Eli
Calverson being led away in handcuffs. Beside him, a man wearing a star on his lapel was carrying
several bags of the sort used by banks.
John came back into the compartment quickly. Sorry to leave you here, Mrs. Cornwall, but
Claire and I must get off the train and go back to Atlanta at once. Come, dearest, he added, dragging
Claire up by the hand. Have a pleasant trip, he told Mrs. Cornwall.
Thank you, young man. I hope things go well for both of you, the widow said.
They waved to her as they rushed down through the passenger car, out the back door, and down
the steps to the platform. Diane was standing a little apart with two uniformed men, weeping
noiselessly into a handkerchief while her husband looked back with furious anger and outrage as he
was spirited away.
My poor, poor Eli. Diane sniffed. Oh, his poor mind was so twisted. He couldn t have known
what he was doing, could he? She looked up at the impressionable young lawman with a face that
would have melted stone.
The young man patted her gloved hand. Of course not. Now, don t you worry, Mrs. Calverson.
We ll take excellent care of you. Here, let us get tickets for you on the train back to Atlanta.
Not on the same train with my husband? she asked, with real fear. Oh, I simply couldn t bear
it!
No, ma am. He ll be going on a special train, he replied. Don t you worry about that. We ll
take care of everything. Oh, Mr. Hawthorn, he called to John, grinning. Are you and your wife
traveling back with us, too?
Indeed we are, John said. He smiled at Diane, but he had Claire by the hand and showed no
sign of letting go.
If Diane was surprised by the attention he showed Claire, she handled it well. She managed a
weak smile for the Hawthorns and then linked her arm with that of the young Pinkerton man and
walked into the depot with him. It was understandable that John wouldn t approach her in public, she
supposed. After all, they had to keep up appearances. Surely that was his rationale,s as well. She
smiled prettily at the young Pinkerton man, who beamed back at her and began to talk about himself.
She encouraged him. She knew how to handle men, and this one was no challenge at all. Men
could always be flattered into doing anything if one appealed to their vanity by asking them about
their jobs or their lives. It was really amazing how much unwanted information came flowing out.
She went with him to a seat on the train far removed from the ones that John and Claire were
able to get. It didn t seem to take so long to get back to Atlanta as it had to reach Liberty. In a very
short time, it seemed, they pulled up under the Spanish facade of the Atlanta railroad station depot and
passengers began to disembark on the platform.
PINKERTONS MET THE TRAIN, among them Matt Davis, who hadn t yet left for the home office in
Chicago. But instead of taking charge of the prisoner, which another senior agent might have done, he
let the young arresting Pinkerton officer take Calverson into the local jail. It made the young man
dizzy with self-esteem and amused Claire, who watched him lead his prisoner away as if he d won at
the races.
And now I really am going home, Matt told John, his eyes twinkling with amusement. He
wasn t in the trunks, so where was he?
He was hidden in a coffin, of all places! John chuckled. With his wife in the mail car beside it
playing the part of the grieving widow. It might have worked, except that a real widow came and sat
with Claire and me and mentioned the beautiful young widow in the mail car whose husband s coffin
came aboard at Colbyville. He shook his head. She didn t realize that she was solving a robbery. I
suppose we should have told her. It would have made her day.
Matt glanced past John and Claire at the dispossessed widow, around whom two other Pinkerton
men swarmed helpfully. And what about her? he asked.
She ll get the reward, John said. Afterward, I daresay she ll land on her feet.
Matt nodded. There s quite a sizable reward, put up by the board of directors of the bank, he
said. I suppose you knew?
Yes, John said. They weren t too warm with their welcomes after I was released from jail,
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