The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 30, 1904, Page 4

for weapons, the ring controlled the police power of the State and of the city. Let the word be passed that the employes of the Transwestern were kidnaping their receiver and the Gov- ernor, and many things might happen before “Red” Callahan should finish his long race to the westward. Thinking of these things, David Kent walked uptown when he might have taken a car. When the toxin of panic is in the air there is no antidote like vigorous action. Passing the Western Union central office he stopped to send Ormsby a sec- ond telegram, reporting progress and asking him to be present in' person at the denouement to put the facts on the wire at the earliest possible instant of time. rything depends upon this,” he added, when he had made the mes- sage otherwise emphatic. “If we miss the morning papers we are done.” While he was pocketing his change at the receiving clerk’s pigeon-hole, a cab rattled up with a horse at a gallop, and Stephen Hawk sprang out. Kent saw through the plate-glass front and turned quickly to the public writ- ing-desk, hoping to be overlooked. He was. For once in a way the ex-dis- trict attorney was too nearly rattled to be fully alert to his surroundings. desk; and Hawk wrote his message, after two or three false starts, almost at Kent's elbow. Kent heard the clink of coin and the low-spoken urgings for haste at the recelving clerk's window; but he for- bore to move until the cab had rattled v Then he gathered up the spoiled left behind by Hawk and othed them out. Two of them bore hing but the date line, made illegi- it would seem, by the writer's - and nervousness. But at the third attempt Hawk had got as far as the address: “To all Transwestern agents on Western Division.” Kent stepped quickly to the re- celver’s window. The only expedient he could think of was open to re- proach, but it was no time to be over- scrupulous. “Pardon me,” he began, “but didn't the gentleman who was just here for- get to sign his message?” The little hook caught its minnow. The receiving clerk was folding Hawk's w age to place it in the leather car- rier of the pneumatic tube, but he opened and examined it. “No,” he said; “it's signed all right; . Halkett, G. 8. " “Ah!” said Kent. “That's a little Mr. Halkett is out of town, and s gentleman, Mr. Hawk, 1g not in his partment. I believe I should investi- a little before sending that, if I . g thus sown the small seed of suspicion, which, by the by, fell on barren soil, Kent lost no time in calling up M'Tosh over the nearest telephone. “De¢ our agents on the western divi sion handle Western Union business?” he arked. The reply came promptly. “Yes; locally. The W. U. has an in- dependent line to Breezeland Inn and eyond.” our right-of-way man has just a telegram to all agents, signing Halkett’s name. I don’t know what he said in it, but you can figure that out for yourself.” 3 “You bet I can!” was the emphatic And then: ‘“Where are you “I'm at the Clarendon public ‘phone, but I am going over to the Argus office. I'll Jet you know when I leave there. Good-by.” When Kent reached the night edi- tor’s den on the third floor of the Ar- gus building he found Hildreth im- mersed chin-deep in a sea of work. But he quickly extricated himself and cleared a chair for his visitor. Praise be!” he ejaculated. “I was beginning to get anxious. Large things are happening, and you didn’t turn up. I've had Manville wiring all over town A for you™ What are some of the large things?” sked Kent, lighting his first cigar ce dinner. “Well, for one; do you know that your peopleyare on the verge of the much-talked-of strike?” “Yes; I knew it this morning. That was what I wanted you to suppress in the evening edition.” “I suppressed it all right; I didn't know it—day and date, I mean. They kept it beautifully quiet. But that isn't all. Something is happening at the capitol. 1 was over at the club a little while ago and Hendricks was there. Somebody sent in a note and he posi- tively ran to get out. When I came back I sent Rogers over to Cassatti’s to see if he could find you. There was 2 junta dinner confab on; Meigs, Sena- tor Crowley, three or four of the ring aldermen and half a dozen wa-ward politicians. Rogers has a nose for news, and when he had phoned me you weren't there he hung around on the edges.” “Good men you have, Hildreth. What did the unimpeachable Rogers see?” “He saw on a large scale just what I had seen on a small one; somebody pup-passed a note in, and when it had gone the round of the dinner table those fellows tumbled over each other trying to get away.” “Is that all?” Kent inquired. “No. Apart from his nose, Rogers is gifted with horse sense. When the din- ner crowd boarded an uptown car our man paid fare to the same conductor. He wired me from the Hotel Bruns- wick a few minutes ago. There is some sort of a caucus going on in Hen- dricks’ office in the capitol and mum- messengers are flving in all directions.” “And you wanted me to come an tell you all the whys and whetrefores?” Kent suggested. “I told the chief I'd bet a bub-blind horse to a broken-down mule you could do it if anybody could.” “All right; listen: Something worse than an hour ago the Governor, his private secretary, Guilford, Hawk and Halkett started out on a special train to go to Gaston.” “What for?” interrupted the editor. “To meet Judge MacFarlane, Mr. Semple Falkland and the Overland offi- cials. You can guess what was to be done. “Sure. Your railroad was to be sold out, lock, stock and barrel; or leased to the Overland for ninety-nine years— which amounts to the same thing.” “Precisely. Well, by some unaccount- eble mishap the receiver's special was switched over to the western division at yard limits and the engineer sgems to think he has orders to proceed west- ward. At all events, that is what he Is doing. And the funny part of it is that he can't stop to find out his blun- der. The fast mail is right behind him, with the recelver's orders to smash anything that gets in its way; so you see—" > ‘“That will do,” said the night editor. “We d't_m't print falry stories in the “None the less, you are going to print this one to-morrow morning, just as I'm telling it to you,” Kent asserted confidently. “And when you get the epilogue you will say that it makes my little preface wearisome by contrast.” The light was slowly drawing in the editorial mind. “My heaven!” he exclaimed. “Kent, you're good for twenty years at the very lul-least!” “Am I? It occurs to me that the Prosecuting Attorney in the case will have a hard time proving anything. Doesn’t it look that way to you? At the worst, it is only an unhappy mis- understanding of orders. And if the end should happen to justify the means—" Hildreth shook his head gravely. “You don’t understand, David. If you could be sure of a falr-minded Judge and an unblased jury—you and those who are implicated with you; but you'll get neither in this machine-rid- den State.” “We are going to have both after you have filled your two columns—by the way, you are still saving those two columns for me, aren’'t you?—in to- morrow morning’s Argus. Or rather, I'm hoping there will be no need for either Judge or jury.” The night editor shook his head again and once more he sald, “My heaven!” adding: “What could you possibly hope to accomplish? You'll get the receiver and his big boss out of the State for a few minutes, or possibly for a few hours, if your strike makes them hunt up another railroad to return on. But what will it amount to? Getting rid of the receiver doesn’t annul the decree of the court.” 8 Kent fell bagk on his secretive habit yet once again. “1 don’t care to anticipate the cli- max, Hildreth. By 1 o'clock one of two things will have happened: Youwll get a wire that will make your back hair sit up, or I'll get one that will make me wish I'd never been born. Let it rest at that for tne present; you have work enough on hand to flll up the interval and if you haven't, you can distribute those affidavits I gave you among the compositors and get them into type. I want to see them in the paper to-morrow morning along with the other news.” “Oh, we can’'t do that, David! The time isn’t ripe. You know what I told you about—"" “If the time doesn’t ripen to-night, Hildreth, it never will. Do as I tell you and get that stuff into type. Do more; write the hottest editorial you can think of, demanding to know if it isn't time for the people to rise and clean out this stable once for all.” “By Jove! David, I've half a mum- mind to do it. If you'd only unbutton yourself a little and let me see what my backing is going to be—" “All in good season.” laughed Kent. “Your business for the present moment is to write; I'm going down to the Union statio “What for?” demanded the editor. “To see if our crazy engineer is still mistaking his orders properly.” “Hold on a minute. How did the enemy get wind of your plot so quick- ly? You can tell me that, can't you?” “Oh, yes; I told you Hawk was one of the party in the private car. He fell off at the yard limits station and came back to town:"” The night editor stood up and con- fronted his visitor. “David, you are either the coolest plunger that ever drew breath—or the bub-biggest fool. 1 wouldn’t be stand- ing in your shoes to-nignt for two such railroads as the T-W.” Kent laughed again and opened the door. “I suppose not. But you know there is no accounting for the difference in tastes. I feel as if I had never really lived before this night; the only thing that troubles me is the fear that some- body or something,will get in the way of my demented engineer.? He went out into the hall, but as Hildreth was closing the door he turned back. “There is one thing that I meant to say: When you get your two columns of sensation, you've got to be decent and share with the Associated Press.” “I'm dud-dashed if I do!” said Hil- dreth, fiercely. *‘Oh, yes, you will; just the bare facts, you know. You'll have all the excit- ing details for an ‘exclusive,’ to say nothing of the batch of affidavits in the oil scandal. And it is of the last im- portance to me that the facts shall be known to-morrow morning wherever the Associated has a wire.” “‘Go way,” said the editor, “and dud- don’t come back here till you can un- cork yourself like a man and a Cuc- Christian! Go off, I say!” It wanted but a few minutes of 11 when Kent mounted the stair to the dispatcher’'s room- in the Union station. He found M'Tosh sitting at Donohue’s elbow, and the sound- ers on the glass-topped table were crackiing like over-laden wireg in an electric storm. 3 “Strike talk,” said the trainmaster. “Every man on both divisions wants to know what's doing. Got your news- paper string tied up all right?” Kent made a sign of assent. “We are waiting for Mr. Patrick Cal- lahan. Any news from him?” “Plenty of it. Patsy would have a story to tell, all right, if he could stop to put it on the wires. Durgan ought to have caught that blamed right-of- way man and chloroformed him.”” “I found him messing, as I 'phoned you. Anything come of 1t?” “Nothing fatal, I guess, since Patsy is still humping along. But Hawk's next biff was more to the purpose. He came down here with Halkett's chief clerk, whom he had hauled out of bed, ard two policemen. The plan was to fire Donohue and me, and put Bicknell in charge. It might have worked if Bicknell'd had the sand. But he weak- ened at the last minute; admitted that he wasn’t big enough to handle the dis- patcher’s trick. The way Hawk cursed him out was a caution to sinners.” “When was this?” Kent asked. “‘Just a few minutes ago. Hawk went off ripping; swore he would find some- body who wasn't afraid to take the wires. And, between us three, I'm scared stiff for fear he will.” “Can it be done?” 5 “Dead easy, if he knows how to go about it—and Bicknell will tell him. The Overland people don't love us any too well, and if they did the lease deal mld make them side with Guilford the Governor. If Hawk asks them to lend him a train dispatcher for a few minutes they’ll do it.” : “But the union?” Kent objected. “They have three or four non-union men.” “Still, Hawk has no right to dis- charge you.” - “Bicknell has. He is Halkett's rep- resentative, and—" A suddenly and Hawk THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. “Now. then, we'll trouble you and your man to get out of here, Mr. M'Tosh,” said the captain of the junta forces vindictively. But the train-master was of those who die hard. He protested vigorously, addressing himself to Bicknell and ig- noring the ex-district attorney as if he were not. He, M'Tosh, was willing to surrender the office on an official or- der in writing over the chief clerk's signature. But did Bicknell fully un- derstand what it ‘might mean in loss of life and property to put a new man on the wires at a moment’s notice? Bicknell would have weakened again, but Hawk was not to be frustrated "a second time, “Don’t you see he is only sparring 1o gain time?” he snapped at Bicknell. Then to M'Tosh: “Get out of here and da it quick! And you can go, too,” wheeling suddenly upon Kent. Donohue had taken no part in the cunflict of authority. But now he threw down his pen and clicked 'his key to cut in with the “G. 8.,” which claims the wire instantly. Then distinctly, and a wogd at a time, so that the slow- est operator on the line cduld get it, he spelled out the message: “All agents —Stop and hold all trains except first and second fast mall, westbound. M’'Tosh fired and office imn*hands of po- lice—" “‘Stop him!” cried the shirt sleeved man. “He's giving it away on the wire!” But Donohue had signed his name and was putting on his coat. “You're welcome to what you can find,” he sald, scowling at the inter- loper. “If you kill anybody now, {t'll be your own fault.” “Arrest that man!” said Hawk to his policemen; but Kent interposed. “If you do the force will be two men shy to-morrow. The Clvic League isn't dead yet.” And he took down the num- bers of the two officers. There were no arrests , made and when the ousted three were clear of the room and the building Xent asked an anxious question. “How near can they come to smash- ing us, M'Tosh?” “That depends on Callahan's nerve. The night operators at Donerall, Scho- fleld and Agua Callente are all Guil- ford appointees and when the new man explains the situation to them they’ll do what they are told to do. But I'm thinking Patsy won't pull up for any- thing milder than a spiked switch.” “Well, they might throw a switch on him. I wonder somebody hasn’t done it before this.” The train-master shook his head. “If Tischer is keeping close up be- hind, that would jeopardize more lives than Callahan’s. But there is another thing that doesn’t depend on nerve— Patsy’s or anybody’s.” “What is that?" “Water. The run is one hundred and eighty miles. The 1010's tank is good for one hundred with a train, or a pos- sible hundred and sixty, light. There is about one chance in a thousand that Callahan's crown-sheet won't get red- hot and crumple up on him in the last twenty miles. Tet's.take a car and go down to yard 1imits, We can eit in the office and hear what goes over the wires, even if we can't get a finger in to help Patsy out of his troubles.” ° They boarded a Twentieth -avenue car accordingly, but when they reached the end of -the line, which was just across the tracks from the junction the lower yards, they found the ¥ limits office @nd the shops -n,ouqbd by a .cordon’ of militia. Py “By, George!” sald M'Tosh. ' “They got quick action. didn’t they? I sup- pose It’s on the ground of the strike and possibié violence.” Kent spun on his hegl, heading for the electric car they had just left. “Back to town,” he said; “unless you two want to jump the midnight Over- land as it goes out and get away while you can. If Callahan fails—" CHAPTER XXIX. The Relentless Wheels. B But Engineer Callahan had no notion of failing. When he had drawn the hammer on his superior officer, advis- ing discretion and a seat on Jimmy Shovel's box, the 1010 was racking out over the switches in the western divi- sion yards. Three minutes later the elegtric beam of Tischer's [ollowing headlight sought and found the first section on the long tangent leading up to the high plains and the race was in full swing. At Morning Dew, the first night tele- graph station out of the capital, the two sections were no more than a scant quarter of a mile apart; and the oper- ator tried to flag the second section down, as reported. This did not hap- pen again until several stations had been passed and Callahan set his jaw and gave the 1010 more throttle. But at Lossing, a town of some size, the board was down and a man ran out at the crossing, swinging a red light. Callahan looked well to the switches, with the steam shut off and his hand dropping instinctively to the air; and the superintendent shrank into his corner and gripped the window ledge when the special roared past the warn- ing signals and on through the town beyond. He had maintained a dazed silence since the episode of the flour- ished hammer, but now he was moved to yell across the cab: “1 suppose you know what you're in for, if you live to get out of this! It's twenty years, in this State, to-pass a danger signal!” This is not all that the forewords and interjections, emphaltic but unprintable. Callahan's reply was ancther flourish of the hammer, and a sudden outpull- ing of the throttle-bar; and the super- intendent subsided again. But enforced silence and the grind- stone of conscious helplessness will sharpen the dullest wit. The swerving lurch of the 1010 around the next curve set Halkett clutching for hand-holds, and the injector lever fell within his grasp. What he did not know about the working parts of a modern loco- motive was very congiderable;: but he did know that an injector, half opened, will waste water as fast as an inch pipe will discharge it. And without water the Irishman would have to stop. Callahan heard the chuckling of the wasting boller feed before he had zone a mile ‘beyond the curve. It was a dis- covery to excuse bad language, but his pro ‘was l-mtt;-uke. “No more av that, if we plaze, Mis- ther Halkett, or me an’ Jimmy Shovel'll have to—Ah! would yes, now?” Before his otion to the superin- tendency Halkett had been a ward boss in the metropolis of the State. Think- ing he saw his chance, he:took it, and the blow knocked Callahan sill: The door opened danced in, followed by a man bare- the headed and in his shirt sleevi superintendent’s chief clerk -.n.a;' ?h: two officers, % superintendent said; there were. out a broken tooth and give his orders concisely. “Up wid him over the coal, and we'll put him back in the car where he he- longs. Now, thin!” - Halkett had to go, and he went, not altogether unwillingly. And when it came to jumping across from the rear of the tender to the forward vestibule of the naught-seven, or being chucked across, he jumped. Now it so chanced that the Gover- nor and his first lieutenant in the great railway steal had weighty matters to discuss, and they had not missed the superintendent or the lawyer, suppos- ing them to be still out on the rear platform enjoying the scenery.. Where- fore Halkett's sudden = appearance, mauled, begrimed and breathless from his late tussle with the two enginemen, was the first intimation 8f wrong-zo- ing that had penetrated to the inner sanctum of the private car. “What's that you say. Mr. Halkett? —on the western division? Where- abouts?” demanded the Governor. “‘Between Lossing and Skipjack sid- ing—if we haven't passed the siding in the last two or three minutes. I've been too busy to notice,” was the re- ply. “And you say you were on the en- gine? Why the vil didn’t you call your man down?” “I knocked him down,” gritted the superintendent, savagely, “and I'd have beat his face in for him if there hadn't been two of them. It's a plot of some kind and Callahan knows what he is about. He had me heild up with a hammer till just « few minutes ago, and he’s running past stop signals and over red lights like a madman!” Bucks and Guilford exchanged con- victions by the road of the eye and the Governor safd: “‘This Is pretty serious, Major. Have you anything to suggest?” and without waiting for a reply he turned upon Halkett: “Where is Mr. Hawk?” “I don’t know. I supposed he was in here with you. Or maybe he's out on the rear platform,” The three of them went to the rear, passing the private secretary comfor- tably asleep in his wicker chair. When they stepped out upon the recessed ob- servation platfrom they found it emp- ty. “He must have suspected something and dropped off in the yard or at the shops,” said Halkett. And at the say- ing of it he shrank back involuntarily and added: ‘“Ash! Look at that, will You?" < The car had just thundered past an- other station and Callahan had under- run one more stop signal at full speed. At the same instant Tischer's head- light swung into view, half blinding them with its glare, “What is that following us?” asked Bucks. “It's the fast mall,” sald Halkett. Guilford turned livid and caught at the hand-rail. ' “'S-s-say—are you sure of that?” he gasped. “Of course, it wds an hour and thir- ty-five minutes late and we are on its time."” “Then we can’t stop unless some- body throws us on a siding!" quavered the receiver, who had a small spirit in a large body. “I told McTosh to give the mail orders to make up her lost time or I'd fire the engineer—told him to cut out all the stopa this side of Agua Caliente!” “Thatls what you get for your in- fi dling!” snapped Halkett. In catast ic moments many barriers g0 down; deference to superior officers @ earliest. u}e master spirit of the junta was 'stfll cool and collected.: “This is no time to quarrel,” he said. “The thing to be done is to stop this train without getting ourselves ripped open by that fellow behind the head- light yonder. The stop-signals pfove that Hawk and the others are doing" their best, but we must do ours. What do you say, Halkett?” “There is only one thing,” replied the superintendent; “we’ve got to make the Irishman run ahead fast enough and far enough to give us room to stop or take a siding.” The Governor planned it in a few curt sentences. Was there a weapon to be had? Danforth, the private sec- retary, roused from his nap- in the wicker chair,was able to produce a ser- viceable revolver. Two minutes later, the sleep still tingling in his nerves to augment another tingling less pleasur- able, the secretary had spanned the terrible gap separating the car from the engine and was making his way over the coal, fluttering his handker- chief in token of his peaceful inten- tions. He was charged with a message to Callahan, mandatory in its first form, and bribe-promising in its second; and he was covered from the forward vesti- bule of the private car by the revolver in the hands of a resolute and deter- mined State executive. ' “One of them’s comin’ ahead over the coal,” warned James Shovel, and Calla- han found his hammer. “Run ahead an’ take a siding, is ut?"” he shouted, glaring down on the mes- senger. “I have me ordhers fr'mr bet- ther men than thim that sint you. Go back an’ tell thim so.” “You'll be paid if you do, and you'll be shot if vou don't,” yelled the secre- tary, persuasively: ‘“Tell the boss he can’t shoot two av us to wanst: an’ the wan that’s left 'll slap on the air,”” was Callahan’s an- swer; and he slacked off a little to bring the following train within easy striking distance. Danforth went painfully and care- fully back with this deflance, and while he was bridging the nerve-trying gap. another station with the stop-board down and red lights frantically swing- ing was passed with a roar and a whis- tle shriek. “Fwhat are they doing now?” called Callahan to his fireman. S ““They've gone inside again,” was the reply. “Go back an’' thry the tank,” was the command; and Jimmy Shovel climbed over the coal and let himself down feet foremost into the manhole. When he slid back to the footplate his legs were wet to the mid shin. “It's only up to there,” he reported, measuring with his hand. .Callahan looked at his watch. There was yet a full hour’s run ahead of him, and there was no more than a scant foot of water in the tdnk with which to make it. * menace it held for him and was con- cerned chiefly with the thing mechan- ical. Would the water last him through? miles on & as the speed is increased. He could outpace the safeguarding mail, save water—and take the chance of being shot in the back from the forward vestihule of the naught-seven when he had gained lead enough to make a -main line stop safe for the men be- hind him. Callahan thought once of the child mothered by the Sisters of Loretto in the convent at the capital, shut his eyes to that and to all things extra- reous and sent the 1010 about her business. At the first reversed curve he hung out of his window.for a back- ward look. Tischer’s headlight had disappeared and his protection was gone. On the rear platform of the private car four men watched the threatening second section fade into the night. “Our man has thought better of it,” sald the Governor, marking the in- creased speed and the disappearance of the menacing headilght. Guilford’s sigh of relief was almost a groan. “My God!” he said; “it makes me cold to think what might happen if he ll:ould pull us over into the other tatel™ But Halkett was still smarting from the indignities put upon him and his comment was a vindictive threat. “I'll send that gdamned Irishman over the road for this, if it the last thing I ever do!” he declared, and he confirmed it with an oath. But Callahan was getting his pun- ishment as he went along.* He had scarcely settled the 1010 into her gait for final run against the failing water supply when another station came in sight. It was a small cattle town and in addition to the swinging red lights and a huge bonfire to il- luminate the yards the obstructionists had torn down the loading corral and Were piling the lumber on the track. Once again Callahan's nerve flick- ered and he/shut off the steam. But before it was too late he reflected that the barrier was meant only to scare him into stopping. One minute later the air was full of flying splinters and the danger was passed. But one of the broken planks came through the cab window, missing the engineer by no more than & hnnd’s breadth. And the shower of splinters, sucked in by the whirl of the train, broke glass in the private car and sprinkled the quartet on ‘the platform with split kindling and wreckage. ‘“What was that?” gasped the ceiver. Halkett pointed to the bonfire, re- ceding like a fading star in the rear- ward distance. “Our friends are beginning to throw stones, since clods *won't stop him,” he said. Bucks shook his head. . “If that is the case we’'ll have to be doing scmething on our own account. The next obstruction may derail us.” Halkett stepped intd® the car and pulled the cord of the automatic air. ‘“No good,” he muttered. “The Irishman bled our tank before he started. Help me at the hand brakes, a couple of you.” Danforth and the Governor took hold of the brake wheel with him, and for 1 minute or two the terrible speed slackened a little. Then some part of the disused handgear gave way un- der the three-man strain and that hope was gone. “There’s one thing left,” said the superintendent, indomitable to the last. "“We'll uncouple and let him drop us behind.” ' The space in the forward vestibule was narrow and cramped, and w?th re- ~a scant ten miles; the strain of the dragging car to make the pin stick tight it took two of them lying flat, waiting for the back-surging moment and wiggling it for slack, to pull it. The coupling dropped out of the hook and the en- gine shot ahead to the length of the safety chains; thus far, but no far- ther. . Halkett stood up. “It's up to you, Danforth,” he said, raising his voice to be heard above the pounding roar of the wheels. “You're the youngest and lightest; get down on the 1010’s brake beam and unhook those chains.” The secretary looked once into the trap with the dodging jaws and the backward-flylng bottom and declined the honor. 2 “I can't get down there,” he cried. “And I shouldn’t know what to do if I could.” Once more the superintendent exhib- ited his nerve. He had nothing at stake save a desire to defeat Callahan; but he had the persistent courage of the bull terrier. With Bucks and the secretary to steady him he lowered himself in the gap till he could stand upon the brake beam of the 1010’s ten- der and grope with one free hand for the hook of the nearest safety chaln. Death nipped at him every time the en- gine gave or took up the slack of the loose coupling, but he dodged and hung on until he had satisfled himself. “It's no good,” he amnounced, whea they had dragged him by main strength back to a footing in the nar- row vestibule. “The hooks are bent into the links. We're due to go wherever that damned Irishman Is taking us.” Shovel was firing, and the tralling smoke and cinders quickly made the ferward vestibule untenable. When they were driven in, Bucks and the re- celver went through to the rear plat- ferm, where they were presently Jjoined by Halkett and Danforth. “T've been trying the air again,” sald the superintendent, “but it's no go. ‘What's next?” The Governor gave the word. “Wait,” he said; and the four of them clung to the hand-ralls, swaying and bending to the bounding lurches ¢r the flying car. Mile after mile reels from beneath the relentless wheels, and_still the speed increases. Station Donerall is passed, and now the pace is so furious that the watchers on the ralled plat- fcrm cannot make out the signals in the volleying wake of dust. Statlon Schofield {s passed, and again the sig- nals, if any there be, are swiftly drowned in the gray dust-smother. From Schofield to Agua Caliente is but and as the flying train rushes on toward the State boundary, two fdces in the quartet of watchers show tense and drawn un- der the yellow light of the Pintsch platform lamp. The Governor swings himself un- steadily to the right-hand ralling and the long look ahead brings the twink- ling arc-star of the tower light on Breezeland Inn into view. He turns to Guilford, who has fallen limp into one of the platform chairs. -“In five minutes more we shall pass Agua Caliente,” he says, “Will you kill the Irishman, or shall I?” Guil- ford’s lips move, but there is no audi- ble reply; and Bucks takes Danforth’s weapon and passes quickly and alone te the forward vestibule. . The station of Agua Caliente swings into the fleld of 1010’s electric -head- light. - Callahan’s tank has been bone dry for twenty minutes, and he Is JOE ROSENBERG'S. Qur Corsets Lead the As the Drum-=- Major Leads the Soldiers. Procession oCd 37‘6’0?216‘ The Newest, Up-to-Date _ Military Straight - Front Corset, We are now showing the ad- vanced ideas in the styles that have been accepted by the highest au- . thorities, boned throughout with aluminoid boning, which is rust-proof breakable. THE DAINTY LATTICE RIBBON THE SHAPELY BELT-REDU CORSET, for medium ucnf?afi CORSET, for figures. Price.. .andun‘ $1.50 $2.75 G o e T We have EXPERT CORSET FITTERS in attend- ance to tell you what Corset is most form. suited to your FREE—CORSETS FITTED OR ALTERED. P.S.—To the most cxacting or to those that have had their Conet-m;demordcr.'ewuulihmto . 8168 HISEERG Maprket Street, PHELAN BUILDING.