The evening world. Newspaper, August 17, 1915, Page 13

(Coprvight, 1912, by Oharjes Sertbner's dons ) SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS, Calvie (cot! it “ ‘women Watt “at ato tp allroad. The “relirond’ han bere. gurvsgels Deen strangely chy of Tate, tt string of mlatorcac potting \maeit Yo tol the msotery Seiersl times Hi CHAPTER It. sisted. “If he sent that message to Timanyont Jast night, that makes Wim responsible for all the others— the devil-messages, as the men are )® calling them. Some of these have sys come in thé night, while he was on How could he have worked it in (Con thawed.) ms A Myetery. “ TILL I can't believe it of S Connolly,” Maxwell per- the chemistry expert laughed, “A suspicious person might Graw a bunch of inferences,” he sald, “throwing out a dark hint or 80 about a concealed cut-in on the wires after they enter the attic of the railroad building and a hidden set of iastruments, Also, the same person would probably point to t! et that Connolly wasn't at his desk when the fake wreck notice came last night. It was your chief clerk, Calmaine, who took it from the wire, and tells moe he was subbing for Connolly Went upstairs for his smoking to- Bacco,” “My Lord!” said Maxwell; “you've + Put it upon Connolly, fair and square, mere’ it's all over but the bang- “There you go again,” joked the Government man, with his good na- tured grin. “I haven't said it is Connolly, But I will say this: with another half-day of it, i'll probably o be able to turn the case over to Tar- bell—and the newspapers.” > “The newspapers?” “ ° “Yes. That will be a part cure for the crazy sickness simone ir mén. Sit tight and say noth- 1S, and by this evening I'll be ready @ afternoon, an: man from Washington hi pe Tmauch of the intervening 6 loating M the different offices sheltered by the headquarters roof, when young rbell got a telephone summons from hotel. In the writing room, which § was otherwise deserted, he found the superintendent's guest waiting for him. Sprague waved him to @ chair {rand began at pnee. ‘What did You find out, Mr. Tar- : ‘Nothing to hurt. The fellow you > Was askin’ about went out on the in and came back on it.” re sure of that?” “Bure of the first part, and not so sure of the last. I've found half a dozen o' the men who saw him get on the train here, and saw him after he re a little hazy about but he must've come because he didn’t “@ come in on the Limited.” ° “And his wife?” ~‘Tarbell’s Ap curled in honest ciean- liness. * “He ain't got any wife. It was his ‘Was expectin’, and she didn’t “And afterward?” suggested the Hs ‘ a *© question Ds “After he got back he showed up * in the office ‘and took his job again, ** Jettin’ Catherton go home.’ *\* fhe Government man’s eyes nar- ?, rowed, and after a moment he began again: “How near can you come to keep- ing your own counsel, Mr. Tarbell?" ,, he demanded abruptly. * ““T reckon’ I can talk a few with- out sayin’ much,” said the ex-cow- boy. And then, after a pause: “You mean that you don’t want to be mixed up in this, thing by name, Mr. Sprague?” “You've hit it exactly. You've got your start and I want you to work it out yourself. Somebody—somebody who is not thousand miles from your headquarters building over yon- der—is working this scare, working it for a purpose which he wishes to 2, @ccomplish without making himself Fy setually and legally responsible. Had t that far in your own reason- ing, fir. Tarbell?” ‘0, indeedy,” wad the prompt re- « ply. reckon I'm only a plug when «it comes down tp the sure enough, ne haired part of it.” at “You'll learn after a bit," sald the schemistry expert shortly, “But let that go. You have the facts now, and " corner. Can you go and get your man?” “Don't «oon supposition, Tarbell. Aak ‘yourself, when you get outside, {€ you've got the evidence that the court will demand. Ask vourself, iso, if you know of your own knowl- edge, or if you've only allowed your- self to be hypnotized into your be- © Uef. If vou can get satisfactory an- “ awers to th questions, go to it and brink J the money, as they up in Seattle. For what remained of the afternoon er Tarbell went away Sprague sat 1g the writing room and wrote letters, © gealine and addressing the last one iuet as well came over to go to dinner with him, At table there were plenty of uncut back numbers in the way of college reminiscences to be threshed over, and Sprague carefully kept the talk in this innocuous fleld until after they had left the dining room to go for a smoke on the loggia rch. When the cigars were alight, Sfaxwen would no longer be choked off. “anything new in the wire-devil business, Calvin?” he 4. “I've turned the c bell, as I promised. over to Tar- m through with fe my part of it. “What's that!" ejaculated the su- perintendent, ‘ou've got your an ? “Tarbell will get him--most prob- bly bafore we go to bed to-night. ee a fine young fellow, that re- cowboy of yours, Dick. I like ‘Maxwell was still gasping. “You're wond@. Calvin-e etersday wis- “ for a few minutes while Connolly, they. are driven pretty well Into a } ard! Good Heavens! Do you realise that we've been workin, for a month? And you" up in a day!” The chemistry expert was smiling good-naturealy. Perhaps I came moment, and had exceptional “he demurred. you sure?” demanded ‘So sure that if your ‘devil’ had caused any loss of life in his moneky- ies I could go into court and hang mous weight shoulders, “Thank God!" Sprague looked up quickly. “You've been taking it pretty b haven't you, Dick? Any special re: You know Ford, our Prest- dent; be has made the Pacific South- System—inade It out of whole nd, incidentally, @ good few of us fellows who ba’ fought with him shoulder to shoulder from the first. W! T was last in New York, a couple of months ago, he rode from the club to the Ration in the taxi with me. He wi trouble of some sort—he didn’t tel me what it was; but the jast thing said as I was boarding the train ‘© me some notion of it. ‘Run that -water Short Line of yours, Dick, as if you were carrying all your eggs to market and had them al baskét,’ he said, and then ‘No wre Dick, if you have to sit up nights to head them off. Sprague was smoking peacefully, It was perhaps too much to expect that ® man whose problems were chiefly in the field of laboratory science should be very deeply interested one in which the elements were mere. ly human. When he spoke again it was to recur to his h sion of Tarbell. fellow,” he said in conclusion, pull you all out of the hole—with little timely help from the news- papers, When he gets the ball Into his hands and starts down the field with it you'd best be prepared for some pretty sensational developments, They're due.” For a while Maxwell said notbing, too, Ct My wife ing home on the Apache to-night, and don't you know, I had half a mind to wire her to stop over In C Pah until I could go after her? That a pretty pass for things to come to, ton't when a man's afraid to have the members of his family ride over his own particular piece of railroad?” Sprague flipped the ash from his cigar. “That's one of the bridges you di have to cross until you come to {' Maxwell got out of his chair and refused Sprague's offer of a fresh cigar. * “No,” he said, “this has been one of the days when I've smoked too much, I'm going over to the office to keep my finger on the pulse of things. When it gets too dull for you over here come ac and break in. If I'm not in my own office you'll find me in room eleven—the despatch- er's—keeping tab on the movements of the Apache Limited.” Fully two hours beyond the time when the superintendent had crossed the railroad plaza to climb the stair of the headquarters building Tarbell, stroll! along the plaza-fronting street, swung himself over the ra’ling of the loggia porch and took the chair next to the man from Washington, who was still sitting as Maxwell hi left him and still smoking. “I've been waiting for you,” said the patient smoker, without taking hig eyes from the row of lighted windows in the railroad building opposite. “I allowed you would be,” rejoined Tarbell in his gentle Tennessee- mountain drawl. And then, quite as calmly: “I reckon I've found the an- swers to all them questions yor it. ted to me, I reckon I've got him, “I've been betting on you, Tarbell,” was the word of aproval. T comes pretty near home, doesn't it?” “Lt sure does. It’s goin’ to hurt Mr, Maxwell good and plenty. He counts all the men in the home office as his fam'ly, and there's never been one o° them to go back on him till now,” “What is your evidence?” queried Sprague. “LT reckon you'd call it circumstan- tial—and so will the judge. it it hobbies him all right. There's a cut- in on the der Lene regi 4 wir Bd onder, 'way up under the root ere hoboay'a find it, with four little fine lead wires goin’ down in the wall, I couldn't find where they come out at, but I reckon that don’t make any erence: they're there.” ‘Anything else?” “Yom, ¢ got a letter that I hooked out of his coat pocket not ten minutes ago; a letter from some gang Doss 0 ‘nin New York, givin him gos for not showin’ up results, and al lowin’ to pull some sort of a gun on him if the papers don’t begin to print re heads about a certain railroad management, pronto.” The chemistry expert smiled ing your brain’ like a wet towel to make it tell. why anybody In New York should wish to Nevada Short Line wreck bulletins in the news- papers.” “That ain't no foke, neith bell admitted gravely, addin) 1 hopin’ maybe it would come out in the round-up, = said Sprague, half absently; "Tt will come out in t round-up.’ And then, after a thoughtful paugo, Perhaps we'd better go over and re- lieve Mr. Maxwell's mind, But first it wouldn't be a bad idea to telephone the editor of the Tribune and hin to send his railroad Feportar down to Mr, Maxwell's office, If you say that Mr, Maxwell will probably ha ‘bit of first page stuff for him, it won't be to go into detail went Into the hi telephone, and afterward tho) the plaza to the working of the double division, Fim superintendent's oifice open and light- ed, but unoccupied, they went on to the despateher'’s room. In the public space outside of the counter reriag three or four trainmen were Sookfna Tar- in front of the bulletin board for their gaanmente on the nigh trains and thum!| the Ale of posted “General Ordera.” hen: “it free han ‘OME ON BILL KN APiace Sere You CAN GET A Good TURKISH BATH For A NICKEL Mag cE TASSAGE Ss E FORE .| ‘THE BATH HERE Bebind the railing Connolly was sit- ting at his glass- wire table with the train sheet under his hand and the superintendent at bis elbow. Over in the corner under his green- shaded electric bulb Bolton, the sal- low car-record man, was finger- ing the keys of his typewriter. Tarbell opened the gate in the rail ing to admit Sprague and himself. Maxwell looked up and nodded a wel- come to his guest. “Got tired of sitting it out alone, did you?” he said; and then, “I'll be wit you in @ minute and we'll my office. I'm waiting to yont's report of the Limit “Mrs. 8 is on the train?” Maxwell nodded, and a moment later Connolly's sounder clicked out Timan- yont's report of the passing train. The fat cher was nervous. It showed in hie rattling of the key as he O. K.'d the canyon station's report, and again in @ small disaster when, in reaching fo~ his pen to make the train sheet entry, he overset his ink- well. “Well, I'm damned!” he nted, snatobing at the train chest. and pushing the ink flood back with his Maxwell came to the res- to) flood. But at the close of the, Connolly's handg were well blackened. It was at this conjuncture that Da- vis, the chief despatcher, came in on the way up to his room in the attic half story above. to him at once, “If you sit in here, just for a min- ute, Davis, while | go wash my hands?” he said, adding: “I'd ought to be kicked all the way downstairs!" When Davis had taken the chair and Connolly had gone out, Tarbell whispered to the superintendent. Maxwell nodded, and made a sign to Sprague. When he had closed the Connolly appealed may as well have it over with. you want to be present?” “As a spectator, yes,” said the ex- “All right; ws wait for Archer. The waiting interval proved to be short. Maxwell had just thrown his roll-top desk open, end the Govern- ment man had ted his big bulk solidly in the half-shadowed window @eat, when the door opened and Con- nolly came in hie full-moon face a frightened blank and his hands still ink-Dlackened. Tarbell was only a so to my office and step behind the despatoher, and the break reporter from the Tribune office was at Tarbell's heels. When the three were inside, Tarbell shut the door and put hie back against it, “Here's your man, Mr, Maxwell,” he sald briefly; and Spra; who had started to his feet at the door open- ing, sat down again in the shadow and said nothing, Maxwell pointed brusque: chair at the desk end, Dan," he saenne. And ni fabs pose you w what you're here for Connolly fell into the chair as if pe eharp ‘command had been a wy, “Know what I'm here fer?" he stammered, “Yes, Nothing will be ed by dodging. You may as clean breast of it, You nt to know wi Wha bribed you to do“this thi “My, Maxwell!” the calprit with the sweat rolling down his face; ‘Sia withe " oan, esate quick ia.ce be com You BET THANE! 1M DRIPPING “I've told you it was no use to try to out of it. I have here desk a letter which was taken from your coat pocket to-night, since you came to duty; @ letten from which you were careful enough to destroy the date line. In that letter the writer threatens to give you away to the New York police if you don’t get busy and give the newspapers & string of Nevada Short Line wrecks to write about. That is enough to send you over the road, but ree more. The working wires east and west bave been cut under the roof of this building, and leads taken off. The leads disappear in the wall back of your bunk-room. I don't ask hh what you have to say for yourself; I want you to tell us, right here and who planned the thing, and what it s intended to accomplish,” Connolly had been slowly collaps- ing in his chair under the merciless fire of accusation, and a pasty pallor was driving thegink out of his round e. “Lord!” he ped thickly; and then he repeated, “Lord!” A silence cram- full of threatenings settled down upon the small office room. Suddenly it was broken by the sound of hur- ried footfalls in the corrfdor, and Tarbell was hurled half-way across the room when the door was flung open from without, It was young Cargill, the engineer, who burst into the private office, and his lips were white. “The Limited!” he broke out. “She's overrun her orders at Corona and sh: due to meet Second Eighteen on the single track!” Tt was the Government man who led the rush to the despatcher’s roam, & rush ia which even the fat culprit joined. In the wire office Davis had the key; his jaw was set and the pers- was standing; thickly on his ead, but he had uot lost his nerve. Calmaine, the cbici clerk, was hanging over his shoulder, and outside of the railing the [i443 of trainmen hed grown to a breathless crowd, pressing to hear the latest word. When Maxwell's party pushed through the gate Sprague was still in the lead, and his b ged glance took in every detail of the scene. Iéke a fla he turned Tarbell, who fumbling « ir of handcuffs in and pinioned him in a grip was Ike tho nip of a vise, fot yet!” he whispered in Tarbell's And then Davis snapped his and spok eaid, and hie harah thin mask for the “It's the real thing thia time, First Eighteen was ready to + out of Corona when the Lim- oe wont by, Corringer left hie wire chased the freight, hoping to ite engine to cut loose and run’ the passenger, Hoe coniin't reach it.” A low murmur ran through the crowd packed against the counter reriag and somebody whispered, “It's got the 1 hie wife and bables are on that train. Look at him!” Maxwell had gripped the back of a chair and he was staring hot-eyed at the despatcher, “Do gomething, Davis,” he pleaded, “Den't ait there and there trains come together! For heaven's sake, think of something|" Tho ohief despatcher duoked his head as if he were dodging a blow and swallowed hard, “There isn't anything to do, Mr. Maxwell—you know there isn't a.y- thing,” he began in low tones, ‘If there was!'—— * It was Connelly who made ‘the break, Twisting away from Taroel''s flung himeecif upon wa Angin He Tu | MUST HAVE LOST TWENTY, Pounds “Get out o' that chair and let me ty have the key,” he wheesed; and when Davis did not move quickly enough he pounced upon the 7. standin; Davis got up and quietly slid t chair under the night man, who sank heavily into it without missing a let- ter in the call he was insistently clicking out, over and over again in endless repetition. “What is it?” whispered the news- Paper man, who was standing aside with Tarbell and Sprague; and Tar- bell answered: “It's the Corcoran coal mine—about half way between Corona and the first station this side, and a half mile up the gulch. They’ve got a private wire, but they ain’t got any night operator.” Davis overheard the whisper and shook his head. “Dan's got his wits with bim,” he said, in open admiration, “There's a young timekeeper that sleeps in the company's office shack and he's learn- ing to plug in on the wire a little. If Dan can only wake him"——— And then in sudden sharp self-accusation: “God he forgive me! why didn't I think of it and save all the time that's been wasted?” Then, as Connolly closed the circuit and a halting reply clicked through the receiving instru- ment: “He's got him! Thank the Lord, he's got him! If he can only make him uderstand what's wanted there's a chance—fust one chance in man @ thousand!” With the very seconds now freight. $2 ed with disaster, and with only the crudest of amateur telegraphers at the other end of the wire, nine men out of ten would have blown up and fost the thousandth part of a chance remaining. But Connolly was the tenth man. With his left hana si ing until it wae beating tattoo on the glass table top he hitched his chalr closer and began to spell out, letter by letter, the brief call for help upon which so much depended. Tar- dell translated for Sprague, word by word: “Hurry—down—to—main—tine —and—throw—vonr—switch—to—red. ‘Then—run—west—an wer. The key-ewitch olicked on the final word, and for five long, dragging se0- onds the gilence was a keen agony, ‘Then the sounder beggn hesitantly; dot—pause—dot; dash—dot-—dash, it spelled; and Tarbell translated under hie breath, “He eaye ‘O. K.' Now, if he can only chase his feet fast enough’—— How Maxwell managed to live and not die through this interminable twenty minutes that followed; how Davis and Tarbell and Connolly hung Dreathiess over the wire table, while the thfone outside of the railing, aug- mented now to a jammed crowd of aympathetio watchers, rusted moved and whispered in awed under tones—ere themes upon whioh the rank and file of the Nevada Short Line atill enlarge in the roundhouse tool rooms and in the ewitoh shanti | the crews are waiti; ry Javed train, The dreadful jnterval seemed as if it would never utworn, but the end came at last when the hesitant cllol of the nounder was resumed, “Call it out, Dan,” shouted some- body eueng the waiting jrainme: and Connolly pronounced the words slowly as the amateur at the end of the private wire ticked them off, “Both—trains—eafe—freiaht—back- ng——te—blind —siding—aet — Quentin witch—Dagsenger ~~ follow|ng—un- der—flag," 4 shout went up that drowned the feeble patter of the telearanh inetra- esday. August 17; NE Tho anes Ris § BEST Aan, ATH IN eye's 5 vant By VicTOR jail after what he did in the other Toom a little while ago">—— empert was grinning was a curious little slip,” he “I thought Tarbell was for a moment that til he butted Connolly tn here and Shot him at you.’ “But FA) knew Connolly w: man? How on top of earth run it down, q surround it laughed the expe: ame hy you'll haven harder gue on; never be wasn't ‘next time I happen 1 WA Prac ments and made the windows rattle, “Bully for the fae the coal mine!" ‘Bully for Danny Connolly!" ‘ out here, Danny, till we get a at you!” Maxwell fought his way stubbornly through the crowd, with the news- paper man, Sprague, Tarbell and Connolly following in js wake. ‘When the five were once more behind the closed door of the private office across the hall, the superintendent turned morosely upon the night de- Foy 3 and he was #o full of the ing he was about to do that he did not notice that his guest had taken pointer last sight —betore tro You ae@, Bolton was the man in the outfit who wasn't aii ly Jarred and horrified by tha: message. I saw it the minute @ look into his eyes. From that on break down your ayes Sant ret eats a wil hs Ie ton didn't cai oe it he et , newt "hae or fa bad been listening in Dreciative admiration, but titue eame Quickly to the tore wees Sprague paused. “Calvin, there's no telling how many lives you've saved by this little here in 0 with « laugh. “You want to show me? = me downstairs with you Maxweil and et F Hit of . “He looks like money—nice, Ly 4 ready gp hr te me,” commented the it of the y Py of his F eeat-mate, 5 with the association Tarbell aside for a whispered con- ‘eur ference. Es ag8es ile: eefftlt Hee i i i i ® f a Hi il 3 sf Hy i put a eet of ie your ¢ar-recerd table jn te foom, Tell him how, after you'd Coase peacsien sated « sympathy, worked, your tictered front and up|" Bolton was shuffling forward and wan beginning a tremendous confes. sion when stopped’ him harahly, “You can keep all that to tell in cont ona . And then to Tar- bell; ou ge back to ter Davia go te bed, to may te yeu will peer Thea to ine! man from the Tribune, whe hia notebook out and wee sonlb- bling down his story at breakneck ‘Write out what you please, , but tell Mr, Kendall thas I'll be up ta the office presently, and that I'd like to wee the story before it gues to the linotypes.” When the room was cleared the snappy little superinteudent spun his chair kround to face his guest, “Calvin,” he said solemnly, “you'll never know how near you came to me break heast to-night. it ta4haa to send Don Connolly to commented musingly, And then, ad- dressing eard-owner through hie bit of pasteboard: "re chemist, are you, Mr, prague? You don't look it, not the Joust little bit, and I'm sure you'll for~ ve me if L aay that I doubt it; doubt indeed,” it mueh Whtle tne young’ people were de- bau wmong ives as to whether or no might not be an “] due, the man who had dined alone passed quite through the tring of vestibul Pullmans and went to light his cigar on the rear of the combination buffet and obgervation car, Bhortly after he had seated himself in one of the platform camp ch: the train, which had been rocketin; down a wide vailey with dn isolat ridw@ on one hand and a huge mou tain range on the other, stand at one of the few and far b tween stations, The pause, one would eay, should have been only mo mentary; but after it had lasted for a full minute or more the solitary smoker on the rear platform left his chair and went to lean over the plat- form railing for a forward glance. Looking down the length of the long train he saw the lights of the emall atation, with other lights be- yond it, which seemed to mark @ rail- read crossing or junctien, On the $, z Jacqueline of Golden River}. ROUSSEAU yr une college “4,8, tion platform there ber of inmierne, hela of Fa"? Saar anteowr oa Alt ie tater fhe waco began to trundie again, car end the station the on the observation fleeting glimpae of the and of the heavy four-mule hich had apparently ie fu 2 33 | ie s 5 me 3 5 H 3 EEE : ht. F Hi tell iy ‘a bit,” be suggested; rented Sa Se Ercerhens Ford an it 1'¢ besa ashing’ thea’ eben oo ~ oe good red blood bes bi course,” was the quiet com. ment, ‘The fellows on the other side would stack the ? “I don't know, certainly; 5 "t had a chance to talk with Ford ’ early jn the summer, But I Rave my | own guess, If thé Transconti; could control this 500-mile stretch of ours from Copah to would have the short line Pret iy orn California.” ‘ 2h “Therefore and wherefore, if Mr | Ford doesn't happen to haw ts votes in the coming | stock! meeting, you'll be out of “Probably,” admitted Max that it makes any special to me, personally, As you have a mine up on the Gloria railroading out of alj I'd fight like a dow for Fo. my own rank and fle Short Line, Of course, nental control would aweep of everybody: ¢ be baskets enopgh thia site main range to hold ti heads would be cut off,” (To Be Continued.)