The evening world. Newspaper, August 16, 1915, Page 11

reve eee #\. (Coppright, 1912, by Charles Seribmer’s Bone.) CHAPTER I. The Wire Devil. ONNOLLY, off-trick division despatcher, doubling on the garly night whose baby was sick, snapped his key-switch at the Close of @ rapid fire of orders sent to straighten out a freight train tangle on the Magdalene district, sat back in his chair and Cc trick for Jenner, reached for his corncob pipe ver in the corner of the bare, dingy offee Bolton, night man on the car- | record wire, was rattling away at his the despatcher’s table the electrically “the minutes between 8.65 and 9. he. New York.” The fat despatcher knew precisely where the Limited wrs, but he glanced at his train-sheet from sheer force of habit. “On time at Angels, double-heading with the Nine-thirteen, and the Six- five,” he said. Then he shifted over to the car-record man’s cause for 4 o jubilation, “I didn't know you were 4 married man, Bolton. If I ever get out of the woods and good on the job, I'm going to do it myself.” _ Bolton's mouth widened like a split in a parchment mask, and his laugh was a dry cack “Married—that's a bully good joko. I'l have to tell it to the little doll- girl, when she comes.” Connolly was Irish chiefly by vir- ‘tue of his name. He entirely missed the pointing of the car-record man's vemark, but the apparent gibe touched his vanity and his round and “maturally ruddy face grew a shade er. UY “Meaning that no girl with half a ince at other fellows would look twice at a fat slouch like me? That's where you're off your trolley, There is one, Barry, and she’ pretty enough to make a wooden Indian cigar-sign jl down from his block and chase her up the street for an- other look-in. But I've got to make ‘good and pull down a wad, * ‘The car-record man’ time was a sneer. Then Connolly changed the subject bruptly, “Mr. Maxwell's got him anew chum; seen him?" Bolton nodded. “Sure, I have; couldn't help seein’ him if you happened to look his way. ‘What is he?—champion All-America heavyweight. The despatcher shook his head. “College professor, somebody said; one of Mr. Specializes in I didn’t hear what.’ “He might specialize in any old thing,” jeered Holton, with a #mall man's bickering hostility for a big one in Bis to ‘All he's got to do is to reach gut and take nobody but a fellow in the Joe Gans class’d have the nerve to tell him not to. I saw him sit- tin’ on the Topas porch with the super as I came over. He's so big it made ce sick at my stomach to look at a." « Connolly's pipe had gone out, burned out, and he was feeling in his kets for the tobacco sack. While doing it the corridor door open nd Calmaine, the superin- tendent’s chief clerk, came in, let him- self briskly through the gate in the railing, and leaned over Con- shoulder to glace at the train- stint to- eco sack, “Twenty-one and Twen- ty-eight got balled up on their or- ders over on the other side of the range, but I guess I've got ‘em gtraightened out, after so long @ time. 4 * Now what the dickens did 1 do with that tobacco of mine, I wi Lg ling absently for the missin; a cigar,” said the chief clerk, ‘one on the glass-topped wire- @. Calmaine, eastern trunk-line , had been Inclined to cockiness when he came West, but a year with Maxwell, whose standing was that of Bhort Line's best-beloved tyrant, taken a good deal of it out of “Thanks,” returned Connolly, with in, “not for me when fan deep: ne trains, Tho corn- tm deeeritn the Job. Bit in here on with t boy fire for a minute while I go up to the bunk-room and look in my other ” Calmaine took the vacated chair an his eye along the it addl- tions to the many columni figures on the train sheet. Bolton in his fi corner was still loafing, though nt night's work of taking and typing ti wire car reports from the various stations on the double division was carcely begun, “You think you're little tin god on wheel&, don’t you he muttered under his breath, blink- ing and scowling across at the well- groomed young man sitting in Con- nolly's chair, “You can let down with Dan Connolly all right, but when It comes to thr: win’ a bone to the other new dog, you ain’t It, One 0’ these times I'm goin’ to Jump Up and bite Phe object of this splenetic outburst was still bending over the train sheet, abstractedly unconscious of Bolton's sence. From the conductors’ room Beyona the wire office three or four trainmen drifted in to look over the bulletin board notices; amd still Con- nolly did not return. Suddenly the sounder in front of the qsubstitute set up a furious chatter clicking out @ monotonous repetition oft "G. 8." call, breaking at inter- vals with the signature “Ag,” the code letters for Angels, the desert edge town from which the Apache Limited bad been last reported. Calmaine flicked his key switch and cut in uickly with the answering signal. reaching for messagt boiling over the wire. “Gd. ‘a Apache Limited in ditch at Lobo Cut, four miles west. Both en- gines crumpled up. Two éenginemen, ote route agent, under wreck. Bvery- thing off but rear Pullman. Train on fire and lot of passengers ie down, Hurry help quick. G. maine was an alert young man, breast of his job and altogeth le. But before he could yelp Connolly had come in, and it the Sat espatcher who wave the any “Lord, Bolton—seo bere!” be The Exploits of a New Kind of Detective By Francis Lynde While Connolly was striking a match to Sight his pipe Bolton tore the typgwritten sheet out of his machine and twisted himself in his chair to ask a question. \ “What's the good word from the Apache Limited?” he inquired, his evil little eyes blinking indecently. And then, before Connolly could reply: “It's up to me to ‘buy’ for the boys to-night. My little girl-doll is comin’ on the! ‘Whadda you know about that: chas 3 hastiv, foneht his way to the gate better It 1 ba The Evening World Daily M ET with a fat man’s sigh of relief. | typewriter; and on the wall opposite timed standard clock was ticking oft [4 me all the way from little | ' shouted, pushing Calmaine aside an incumbrance, And then, when the car-record man came over to sta’ cantly at the fateful me: “Get a move! Send somebody after Mr. Maxwell, quick! Then get busy on that yard wire and turn out the wrecking crew. Get Dawson on the ‘phone and tell him I'll have a clear track for him by the time his wreck- wagons are ready! Jump at it, man! | Your wife isn’t the only one that's! needing help! Wake up!" Over on the sidewalk loggia porch of the Hotel Topaz fronting the elec- tric-lighted railroad plaza, Maxwel the division superintendent, was sit- ting out the evening with a broad- shouldered, solidly built young man whose big frame, clear gray eyes and fighting jaw were the outward pre- sentments of a football “back” rather than those of the traditional college professor. H “I don’t mind piping myself off to! you, Dick, though the full size of my Job isn't generally known,” the ath- letic-looking stop-over guest was say- | in, ‘ou got the first part of it) right: I'm down on the Department! of Agriculture payrolls as a chemis- | try sharp. But outside of that I've} half a dozen little hobbies which they let me ride now and then. You'll guess what one of them is when I tell you thac T was the man who fried evidence in the post-office winter.” \ What!" exclaimed Maxwell, “But | your name didn't appear.” H The big man with the smooth- shaven,boyish face led contentedly. | “My name never appears. That is the high card in the game. So far as that goes, | never m or meddie in) the police details. part of the job is always and only the theoretical stunt, They come to me and | tell ‘em what to do, And just about half the time they haven't the least idea why | they are doing it.” “Say, Calvin, that interes lot more than you know young superintendent's eager com- ment. “I wish you didn’t have to go on to the coast to-morrow morning. | a Chinese puzzle of our own here in count me in,” he returned; and/to- Corona was the next night telegraph station, and here the wrecking spe- cial met the two following sections he blurted out. “By hen! I was get- ting ready to cuss somebody out red hot! What's the trouble?” “Not a bit in the world | “No trouble with the labor unjons?” More than 1 that, the men have spent good money ovine tke daat nat if Bretty early gether ‘they followed the rotigh- of the freight drawn out upon the “There « of their own trying to help us find If you could stop over”: “eeveds tongued little conductor in @ hurrie] sidings to right and left. Cargill's snapped Maxweil shortly. out—as a measure of self-protection, Fhe interruption came in the shape 1422, (08 the platéorm. grip closed upon the throttie when the the Limited?" mee what they're afraid of— of a onecarmned man ith gg ghahe ‘The wrecking train had been backed switch and station lichts swept into "Sure it is," replied the conductor, are all afraid of. Bverybody sprinting like ® basecrur @ Jantern, down to the station spur to take on view; but the station semaphore was “Hadn't it ought to be?” is losing nerve, and if the scare keeps om the paliceaa Baliaiee across the hospital c: d it was standing wigwagging the “clear” signal, and “And you haven't been in the UP, we'll have real trouble—plenty of Hot Te wae the Riuntny to the ready for the eastward flight; two once more the bie man on the fire- ditch?” tu N anké: BY dhe te watchman flatcars loaded with blocking and man's box sat tight while the flying ‘The big red-faced train captain ‘And you say the source of the summo y the despatcher, and tackle, a desert tank car filled with special roared through the narrow thing can't be localized 7 ten seconds later he had delivered his water, two work train boxes crowded main line alley left by the two side- rd of. Is “No. We have a double division, message. i to the doors with men, and, next to tracked freights. "a the matter? Was you With Brewster as the common head- ‘The Lord have erey! sasped the engine, which was one of the big Maxwell was holding his watch coming to pick us up?" quarters, Sometimes the yelp i the superintendent, bounding out of “Pacific types” used on the fast mail in his hand when the special cleared — Maxwell's anawer was a barked- {f0™ the east, and sometimes from the west." his chair, “the Limited?—in the ditch runs, a heavy steam crane powerful | the switches at Corona and the great and on fire, you say? For Heaven's enough to lift a locomotive and swing beam of the headlight began to flick out string of orders, “Let these wreck wagons in on the sake, where?” it clear at @ single hitch Telit ana ineein the aed Bde rt sank back tn Sut: * . . sia ging race siding. Find Blacklock and tell him Ig at Lobo Cut; ‘tis Angels re- Who's pulling us, Blacklock?” among the foothills. to get orders to follow you to Brew. ino the thoughiful the porting it, sorr, so Misther Connolly Maxwell asked, overtaking the little did be saying. He's clearing fr the man with the hot eye: wreck-train now, and he axed would “Young Cargill.” you be coming over.” Maxwell turned to Sprague. “Tell him I'll be over in a minute “I'm going on the engine, Calvio. or two: as soon as I've called up the There's room for you if you care to ster as second section. Pull out as quick as you can. You're ten minutes off time, tight now!” In the drawing room of the rear sleeper of the limited, Maxwell closed “We'll make Timanyoni, at mouth of the canyon, in ten minu better time than our fast mail makes it." he said to Sprague; and the Gov- ernment man nodded grimly. yourself that {t train robbery—the wreck.” cal it it was to You've probably which would be made settled It kind jer by ° “1 5 ” ues mself, ' Ing that eaine ow. They de be bey, njpawson, our niaster mechanic. and know how a man ever acquires the cicar in his own behalf, and sald simpler.” Ing hie wife's on ihe train, and hes fe ,make you at home In the doctor's nerve to send a train around the hill nothing until after the short shifting 5 5 car corners this way when he hasn't the stunt had been worked out and the come to the next that near crazy.” Maxwell turned to his guest. ‘I guess I'm in for all of it,” was n-toned reply, and they rau Apache Limited was once more racing slightest notion of what may be wait- on its way westward. Then he opencd the e ing for him five hundred yards in the graph operator?” “You see ay it is with us, poor for i hia $0 climb to the cab of the DIE Fhe Up. “We've threshed lls, Calvin. It's a bal'case mail flyer. v Your ; ¢ il excuse “My friend, Mr. Sprague, Cargill,” _ Apparently the stalwart young fellow ‘You got it now, Calvin; the gue Tt doesn’t pi nay me. Just the same, thing that has been smashing more nerves for us than we can afford to lose, Of course, you understand what has happened. That blood-curdling report of an accident was a fake wire; God only knows where it came from, or who sent it.” an the opposite side of the cab owned the necessary nerve, Easing the huge flyer skilfully around the sharpest of/the turnings, he drove it to the limit on the tangents in spurts that seemed to promise certain destruc- tion at the next croaking of the track. But the wheels of the train were atill shrilling safely on the ateel wh the headlight beam, playing steadily for the moment, brought the lonely station at the canyon’s mouth into ite field, Cargill was whistlin, an infernal snapped Maxwell, introducing the outrage—when we haven't been abie stranger to the handsome young fel- bad +7] together for a dog's age.” low in overalls and jumper perched e emiatry sharp, as he had upon the high right-hand it, and himself, was standing up and Cargill pulled off his glove to shake stretching his ar ‘er his head like hands. @ pole-vauitey hardening his muscles = “you'll find for the jump. ty hard ride “Tl got over to your shen, vith well cut him short. you, ek, you don't object, © “You have a clear track, an = said good-naturedly. “I want to 9 took'g got your orders, oo eyes what happens when you get @ hurry and see what you do, It's a plain Oe Tae atoher’s office Connolly °a#e We ‘get there’ to-night, Billy. The trip himaelf, it sald the guest, that some sane pei e Ten-sjxteen a pret- have been others?” he began, but Max- 8. “A dozen of them, first and last. It began about a month ago, Some- times it’s merely foolish; at other times It's like this—a thing to bring your heart into your mouth.” from the wrong ai peremptorily another you've let the profe ve you thelr angle, a bit of first-class amateur work. perintendent laughed mirth- “It [ could only find the ama- hypothesis. out the rove up. rson ix doing ingle. Or. cancellation, “You are convinced Again the big-bodied chemistry ex- for ‘t a plant for a robbery a “A pile of cross tles would be much “Doubtless. We'll cancel that and Could it be the work of some crazy tele- craasy % A mad- man would slip up now and then— T have a file of the fake They were not sent by a it. Very good. What Is the object? You y you can't find out; which merely ans that you've been attacking it rather, onal detective What you need minutes may mean just so many lives ¢, “And you mean to say you haven't = wi hammering at his key like a Hy for the signal before the short train ? Madman, with the. sweat running @*ved oF lost. had fully straightened itself on the been able to run it dow! lessly. down his full-moon face and thehand , Hight!" yelled the fireman, iean- tangent below the station, But for “Run it down? If there is anything ‘eur I'd hire him, Calvin,—if it took ‘¢ ‘ng from the gangway to get Black- lock's signal, and at the word the en- gineer's hand shot to the lever, the great engine shook itself free, and some reason the red light on the 8, enlary, station semaphore remained inert, Instantly the sweating fireman jerked his fire door open, and the four pairs which was not in use shaking as i ye the left half of him been ague- amitten, Trainmen were coming and ‘oing, and the alarm whistle at the Shope’ was bellowing the wreck call tie rescue race was begun. 1s, Everybody , For the first few miles of the race when he the track was measurably straight. we haven't done ome little Ks 4 that has been merety overlooked. We've had about all of the company detectives here, first and last, and the best of them have had to give it up. There is nothing to work on, abso- lutely nothin; This wire ight a tire Bhort Lin rag r Half’the of upon the motionless red dot over the track when Cargill sounded the counter gate with Maxwell stood on the raised step at his second call. purported to come from Angel: running on their bi is big guest at his heels. Sprague's elbow steadying himself While the whistle echoes were still matter of fact, it may ha the operators who “Any more news, Dan?" with @ grip on the sill of the opened yelling in the surrounding hills the from anywhere train orders are not much bette The dewpatcher Micked his closing side window, When he saw that the climax came. Out of the station this side of Copah. When “Yes,” said the guest quietly, * ck to examine the Angels operator, we'll probably find that he doesn’t know & thing about it—not a thing in the wide world.” Yet it was a real wire?” ‘almaine, my own chief clerk, took it from the sounder and wrote it down, It seems that Connolly, the night despateher, had gone out for a moment, and Calmaine was holding down the wires for him. | saw the message before we left, ‘The call and signature were all right, and the exact time, nine-thirteen, was give! “Wire-tappers?” suggested the | tener, who had grown shrewdly sym- pathetic, “That is what we've all thought. But to tap a wire you have to cut in Any one of a thousand isolated plac but hardly without leaving some trace. Wickert, our wire chief, has been over the lines east and west with @ mag- nitying glass, you might say. ‘or the measuring of a few other mlies of the westward flight of t f train the big man in the oppos| seat said nothing. Then he began again, “Have you tried to figure out @ mo- tive, Dick” “That is precisely what is driving every one of us stark, staring mad, re switch, and immediately the ague @x-fullbi was making hard work spread to the hand which was no of it he shouted In the big man’s ear. longer steadied on the key. “Loosen up a bit and take the roll “Nothing. I've been clearing, and with her,” he advised, and Sprague everything is getting out of the way, nodded and tried it, I've tried twice to get Angels, but I | “That's much better,” he called can't raise anybody, I guess Garner, back. “What are we making now?" the operator, has his signals at | “Forty, or a little more. Shi block and cone to gather up what for sixty, and so ts Cargill help he can find.” fpagente are too short to let us hit the Just then more men came crowding limit.” in from the corridor, and one of them, mall man with hot eyes and a it? sh voice, barked at Connolly “An hour and forty-ft ‘Orders forthe wreck wagons, Dan; from Brewster, on a passenger we're rendy to go." ule, We'll better that by ten Out of the thron~ behind the count- (cen minutes, though.” er barrier Bolton, yellow-faced and Evidently young Cargill meant to door darted a man with a red lantern. Cargill pounced upon the throttle, and in the same second the brakes went Into the emergency notch with a jerk that flung the superintendent and the fireman against tho boller head and slammed the guest ‘uncere- moniously into the cab corner. At the shriek of the brakes the man with the red lantern turned and ran in the opposite direction, waving his ight frantical been noticing. taken there. blooded ones,’ ent confidently, nd the wreck--how far away is were signs, pl ight men in eve ing and skidding to its stop when a long passenger train drawn by two engines slid smoothly out of the can- yon portal and came grinding down the grade with fire spurting from hé could. At Tabor Mine, every suddenly clipped wheel rim. ten miles out, the big engine's ex- Thanks to the man with the red he haust had become a continous roar- lantern, there were half @ dozen car panted. '¥y God! I've got to eo!" | lag blast, and the tiny station at the lengths to spare between the two ‘Of course, you shall go, Barry,” mine siding flashed through thé beam trains when the double stop was sald the superintendent with quick of the electric dlight like some liv- But Maxwell ewoaring kindliness, remembering what the ing thing in full flight to the reas. when, with Sprague for a close watchman had sid about Bolton's At Kensett, where the line skirts seco Gropped froin ¢ wife being on the ditched train. “Dan, the reservoir lake of the Timanyoni the jw 1016 and ran to send the caller after Catherton and High Line Irrigation Company, they conductor of the passenger train in him take Bolton's wire.” Then he passed a long freight on the sidings the middle of the scant safety dl turned to bi who had been the caboose was only a few yards in- tance. Like the superintendent, the standing aside and looking on with side of the clear post, and Sprague conductor was also boiling over with & level-eyed gaze that lost no detail. winced involuntarily when the engine presents , Dut he swallowed the our: “It's hello and good-by for am, cab shot past the freight'’s rear end 88 portion of hie wrath hastily when Calvin,” wi the sober confession, he d “There i - ague, old man; that is, unless with what seemed only an inch or two the “big boss. you care to go along?” to spare, “Oh fe you, @ it, Mr, Maxwell?” bel’ minu' #oh or ff. was, you would started to do both. and besouht the sunerintendent. “Let me go, too, Mr. Maxwell! classmate curiously ‘alvin. mistry ex! only a litth he averred. of Justice in quired to give I was very stron the crudities of th b me, Dick; “Is that how you do it? the way you caught the post-office t chaotic blow pert laughed. inter on meth. 48 it was by this time well on toward I don't know what the wire-devil's object is, but I can Frew, catalogue the results. These period- ical scares are demoralizing the en- The service is on the up. nin the train crews are o#aln. I saw only one man in your office who wasn't scared stiff; and the conductor of this train we'rs |, riding on had @ pretty bad attack of the tremolos when you told him what the wrecking train was out for.” “Who, Garrigan? No, you're mis- ‘8 one of the cold- id the superintend- ty of them. Ninety. 9" ry hundred will duck TOP# nd put up one or both arms if you strike at them suddenly. Garrighan did neither, you'll say; but if you had been watching him as closely as [ he Maxwell was regarding his former ‘¢#ki but a liberal tip made it look Is that 00d for tt, 1 guess, and Il get it “When my atten- i xpert t y impr ordinary det was first called to such things on a case in the Department false-alarm run of t which re- imony=- or at least the railroad part of it, od with knew tive methods. I aaid to myself that mate at tm Hotel Topas, town portion of the gossip there was Sian uee iat tnd vata it that the big, handsom: for a vestment in Timanyoni mines. These were Mr. Sprague’s placin: for the man in the street. But to t! rank and file in the railroad head- quarters building Bprague figured his proper character as a ment dr ixer on a holiday; Foyal good fellow who fraternized stantly with everybody, whose ignorance about railroading was @ joke, and whose vast unknowledge was nicely balanced by a keen rad com~ radely curtosity to learn all that any~ body could tell him about the som- plex working» of @ railroad head- quarters in action. ings react under certain given conditions jugt as read- fly, and just as inevitably, as the inorganic substances react in & lab- oratory experiment. Maxwell reachea for the box of safety matches and passed it to Sprague, whose cigar had gone out. “I wish you could stay and put this railroad of ours into your test-tube, Calvin. We're teetering along on the edge of an Grthquake—oh, yeo—t know you'll say it's only @ scare; but the Worst panic that has ever gone into history was only a scare it beginning. One of these ht some engineer or some operator with the bare nerves will lose his grip. You know about what thit will mean, We've eacaped alive so far but the CHAPTER I. first real wreck that hits us will be A Mystery. just about the same as dropping a IATURALLY, and possibly lighted match into # barrel of gun- powder; { thought it had come to- ; I'm glad it hasa’t, but 1 know it's only postponed.” » chemistry man nodded. ‘Somebody is reaching for you with a bij tick; that is very evident, Maxwell, And there are brains be- hind it, too, when you come to think of it. If you wanted to kill @ without getting hanged for murder, one way to do it would be to per- suade him to commit suicide, Has it ever occurred to you that some- body may be trying the same experi+ ment on your railroad?" jood lord, no! Stranger things have happened. But that is beside the mark, You sny you Were needing help. I've halt ‘fa mind to stop off and give you a bit of a lift | “By Jove, Calvin!—If you woul ‘all it a go,” interrupted the guest, “Vl take a chance and say that my business in San Francisco can walt @ ‘tew days. The fellow I'm after out there won't run away; it's the one thing he doesn't dare to do. “gay, old man! but that’s bully of you!” exclaimed the host, reaching cross to gtip the hand of helping. You shal! have everything in sight li put every man on the two divi+ sions under your orders, and you can have a special train and my private If you don’t see What you want, because Davis, the chief despatcher, was willing to be hospitable, he spent an hour of the forenoon in the ingenuoumy absorbing de- tall and evincing an interest in the day's work that made Davis, ordi- narily a rather reticent man, trans- form himself into @ lecturer on the theory and practice of railway teleg- raphy. it was in Davis's office that he met Tarbell, and the keen-eyed, sober- faced young fellow who was carried on the division pay-rolis as a reiiet operator became nis guide on & Waik- ing tour of the enops and tae yards. ‘Tarbell saw in Mr. Maxwell's guest nothing more than an eainaly affable gentieman with immense acity for interesting bimseift in ant workaday details of @ railroad utht; but 1 o'clock, when Max- Weil joined Sprague at @ quiet corner table for two in the hotel cafe, there were several surprises awaiting the superintendent, “Getting it shaken down a little so that owl know where to begin?” was kWell's openin, estion; the ox-fullback jeughed. ibis: “You must take me for a the common or garden variet; retorted. “Did you su hud just ask" —— thrown 6 chemistry sharp was holding an entire forenoon scor- Bask ee ec laughin ing for @ start? Not #0, Richard; not Rae ho: hold on, Dick. You'll have €Ven remotely so. i've been Anding No, thing in my own OUt a lot of things, I am even able to any grand SUagest improvement or two in your telegraph installation.” “Bold of Your yur olsen ae your ya: are cut . Let's see where we in on th have a division detective of bere my railroad Ta put ‘tiees oan pouy ‘gort, haven't yout~a fellow who circuit and cut them out of the main ine.” lay act when it becomes jj . “wel should yout e'll have to go back a if the gd anewer in the present ik to last night, and to the man who chased out with a red stand plays in it mean to appear person: oung fellow named who got his experience in Montana. his heart because Kear te eee Ge ane ippers on our wire-devil the passoager Rr m running inte All right. I may nt to use him. wrecked. Why do you eup: ry 144 Now another matter. You have @ live that?" — pose newspaper in Brewster; I bought “That's easy; he heard the p spy of it on the train this morning. tt remember right, it's called the Tribune. Is it, friendly to your rail- road?" “Ordinarily yes; though Treadwell, the owner, Is independent enough to print anything that he thinks is news. “Know him pretty well?" ‘Very well, indeed. “Good. When we get in make it your first care to see the newspaper pdople and to persuade them not to make any mention of this little miss- go of to-night. That's the first move wer coming down the can: 4 “That was the Inference, of course, But when you have taken the thirty: third degree in the exact acience of observation, Dick, you'll learn to dis- trust inferences and to accept only conclusions, He didn't hear the pas- wenger; he didn't know {t was com- ing. If you had been observing him as clonely a@ I was, you would have n him write this down in his ac- tions as plain as print He had o much better reason for stopping us— and the passenger, It was a wire oré C1 from somebody, Md A important one Cam YOU tise have Devio call’ cp aad ae him, when you go back to your office.” Notwithstanding the criticism just shan't do anything that eaubnt at os eee ought to do. bout this man Tar- bell. Is he known a# a company de- tective?” “No, not generally known; he's on the payroll as a spare operator—re- lief man, you know.’ ‘That's better. When I meet him Ti seo if 1 ‘t get him interested in chemistry, That's how you're ing to ount for me, you know, I'm an old friend of yours, a Government man out of the partment of Agri+ culture off on a vacation. Incidental- ly, | might be wanting to buy a mine or something of that sort—anythin to start the town gossip on a harmless chase and to keep It as far as possible the real reason for my stop- “NO; not quite to t! some few things I nan pte - of doubt. In thease Pinch, this tre ib] youre 5 ru is pretty serious; far mae than you suspect. In fact, it is signed to remove your raliroad from the map, not by murder et it by what you might call inci oul cide. The condition which you de- scribed last night is ly appar. ent, even to an outsider like myselt, of your men are potential pow. der-mines, cred to blow up the as ie . on,” said Maxwell “What else did you find out?” T learned that @ stop-all-traine or- der Was sent to your yor man at he canyon station last night, and that, in all probability, it was sent from Brewster, The ultimate question fines itself down to this: did your night despatcher, Connolly, send that order through his own Instrument in his own office? or did he, or some other, send it from the upper yard of- which, as I have remari ‘e jer injudiciously cut in on the reg- ular working wire. I'll venture to make the answer positive; the order was sent fro: 6 yard office.” Connolly!" said the superintendent “I'll start the gossip. What else?” jothing out of the ordinary. I shall ask you to give me the run of your rai/road office, and I'd ke to meet anybody and everybody, when it falls in naturally—but alway. the chemistry sharp; get that ground into your cosmos, But here— What's this? Are we already b ir are,” said the superintendent, with @ glance out of the window, Then he became the regretful host “I hate to have you go back to the hotel, Calvin, It's just my crooked luck to have you ceme along when the house is shut up and Mrs, b Maxwell and tho bables are out of Under his Dreath. “I can't believe It, town. They're due to come home in Calvin. Who ever heard of @ fat a day or two, and I'm selfiah enough Villain? to hope that'we can keep you over. ‘Go a little easy on the inferences, ‘8 drop off here at the crossing, \@ughed the chemistry expert, It's neamer to the hotel, and it'll give didn’t say it was Connolly, though it me a chance to reach the Tribune looks rather bad for him at the pi office before Treadwell’s young men Mt stage of the game. He Is in de! come in with their scare stuff.” be Wants tO Bet Mer It was a half hour after the arrival jut, good Lord! what of the unwrecked Limited, and the - story of the curious false wlarm was Just getting itself passed from lip to mong the loungers in the Hotel lobby, when the Government n came down from his room to file a rather lengthy New York me: sage with the hotel telegraph ope! t ck in ried, has that got interposed the expert haven't come to that As I say, this stop- calmly. part of it yet, order was sent from the yard office, How do I know? Because the sender left his trail behind him in the shape of a wire recently cut and re-coupled —the cut-out being made to keep the message from repeating itself In the he r, “Cipher?—holy emoke the young man at the exclaimed lobby wire dquarters office, where it might be rd by anybody who happened to be ding.” But Connolly couldn't to go to the yard office,” “Unfortunately for him, he did leave it, About half an hour after the wrecking train left he called Davis, who was sleeping In one of the bunk rooms in your wiekiup attic. His excuse was that he was so rattled that he couldn't held him- lf down at the train desk. Davis relieved him for an hour oF so, and then he ca ok,"" (Te Be Continued) easier, and he added: “All right, I'm leave his hrough as quick as I can, Answer 0 your room?" “If you please, t t sald the guest; and, midnight, he went to bed. By noon of the day following the wreoking-train Canyon all Brewster, to Timanyont that Superintendent Maxwell Was entertaining an old college class- For the