Therefore; a quarter of an hour before the arrival of the express which was to carry Orlando Guise's mother to her sick sister three hundred miles down the line, a goodly number of citizens had gathered at the station-far more than usually watched the entrance or exit of the express.
Mazarine's wagon and steaming horses were tied up outside the station, and inside on the platform Moses-not-much, as Mazarine had been called by Jonas Billings, marched up and down, his snaky little eyes blinking at the doorway of the station reception-room.

People came and some of them nodded to him derisively.

Some, with more hardihood, asked him if he was going East; if he was expecting anyone; if he was seeing somebody off.
A good many asked him the last question, because, as the minutes had passed, Burlingame had arrived.

He had also disclosed his great joke to those who would carry it far and near, together with the news that Louise had taken flight.

The last fact, however, was known to several people, because more than one had seen the Young Doctor and Patsy Kernaghan taking Louise to Nolan Doyle's ranch.
It was dusk.