Hell's Belle Read Online Free

there'd be a delay at Evanston while wagons went back for the people
and goods on the stranded cars. It would be simple enough to find Miss Vogel
and switch bags before the reunited passengers embarked on the next leg of
their trip.
    Twila wasn't going
to trust a porter, and the conductor had enough distracting him at the present.
With so many distraught and angry folks aboard, he didn't need the additional
complication of a mix-up over two small bags. She could fix this problem
herself. And she would, just as soon as they reached the next station. She kept
a tight grip on the satchel's handle and began picturing how she's slip away to
return the precious necklace without either of the nosy Bell men knowing she'd
ever had it.
     
    * * *
     
    "What do you
mean, there isn't any baggage? I watched the porter take my trunk to the
rear car with my own eyes!"
    "And a very
fine trunk it was, too," his companion announced, glaring at the railroad
employee. "Are you saying the railroad has lost all our things? I say,
there should be recompense for that, surely!"
    Twila listened to
the heated exchange in numb shock. The same kind of shock she saw mirrored on
the faces of other passengers. They'd disembarked at the Evanston station and
waited for several hours, only to be told there was no point in waiting. Their
luggage was gone. Every single piece of it.
    Apparently
Conductor Digby hadn't been a hapless victim of circumstance; rather he'd been
the inside man working with a team of robbers. Instead of stopping the train
and robbing all its passengers, they planted a man within the railroad staff
itself. He uncoupled the two cars, stranding them in open country. Robbers
surrounded the cars once they rolled to a stop. The passengers inside the
sleeper lost their money, watches, jewelry. The flagman was trussed and gagged.
Wagons were loaded with all the trunks and grippes from the caboose storage
bins.
    It was a quick,
bloodless, efficient robbery. Clever indeed.
    Someone in the
Central Pacific management decided it wouldn't be wise to deliver a carload of
angry and shaken robbery victims to Evanston. After giving passengers verbal
assurance that no one was in any danger, proof to the contrary would only
exacerbate an already tense, unpleasant situation. So the Vogels and their
cohorts had been escorted back to Green River's station. Everyone here in
Evanston was being urged to complete their sojourn to Ogden and points beyond.
    Without their bags.
    However, no one
needed a ticket for travel beyond this point. Refunds would be issued for all
fares paid. Meals and beverages would be free. And passengers were asked to
begin a formal accounting of items lost in the robbery. Railroad staff began
handing out pencils and scraps of paper.
    "You're going
to say your gowns were the finest satins and velvet, young lady. This is
typical of your foul luck! The least you can do is see we receive a boon out of
this nightmare."
    Twila didn't even
bother looking up at her fuming uncle. She meekly accepted the pencil and began
her list.
     

CHAPTER 3
     
    "I think I
speak for everyone present," her uncle boldly proclaimed. "Not a one
among us is anxious to sleep aboard your infernal contraption. I demand we be
put up in hotel rooms for the night, and set out again at daybreak. I will not
risk having my very clothing stolen off my back while I close my eyes in
sleep."
    Uncle Fletcher,
always the master of overreaction and drama.
    Unless a robber had
a desperate craving for musty wool and the odor of mothballs, Twila couldn't
imagine why anyone would want his clothing.
    But his melodramatic
ploy worked. Within seconds, other voices angrily joined in, demanding free
lodging. Beefy fists clenched, male faces went florid or grim and pasty, while
females looked pale and frightened. Defeated, barely holding back more tears.
The company representative had little choice.
    "All right.
We'll consort with the local establishments and make arrangements.