Bart had "stuck" the stage at the agreed point, only to be told by Tabor that the expected $30,000 shipment for that week had been withheld. Not then suspicious, Bart had accepted the statement as fact, expressed his hope that they'd have better luck next time, and was disappearing into the brush when Tabor fired upon him. The bullet struck a silver plate in Bart's back that had been placed there to repair a wound received during a Seattle gun-fight some years before.
The blow staggered him, but he was uninjured. Turning as his friend was in the act of firing again, he had brought down the traitor with a single shot.
A hurried search of the express book showed that the currency shipment had been made. Driving the stage off the trail, Bart had examined the load thoroughly but had found no bank package. He concluded that Tabor had concealed it somewhere along the trail, meaning to get the whole of the loot for himself after putting the blame on the friend he expected to kill.
Watchful for flaws in the widow's account, Seymour seized upon a seeming one. "But if Bart had been killed in the brush, no loot would have been found on him," he pointed out. "Tabor still would have been held responsible for the currency."
"They had planned in advance," she smiled wearily, "that Tabor should report his stage robbed by three masked men. He need only have sworn that the other two got away with the bank package."
Seymour made mental note of at least one way of checking up on Mrs. Caswell's account, then asked her about the uniform.
"Your bag was the only thing on the wagon that Bart thought might be of use to him," she admitted with an air of frankness that was convincing. "He brought it here--to a room he was supposed to have been renting from me--in the half story above the restaurant. When I found him there trying on the suit, he told me about his hard luck."
The sergeant felt that the crux of the interview was approaching, but meant to get at it gradually, retaining the full advantage of the confidence he had established.
"The idea of impersonating an officer of the Mounted--was that merely to assure him a getaway for the Tabor killing?" he asked.
"Partly to delay an investigation of that by pretending to have undertaken it himself; more to help him in another enterprise he had in view up the creeks."