The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1867-03-21

receiving it from me, and again walked
down the platform. ! strung the
checks as usual, and laid them down in
corner with the others as / graspad
the lantern and gave the signal of Cali
right % and the train quietlymoyed off
without bell or whistle being ,rung or
sounded, I had Just time to' see the
station as we moved off, andbI read
'Edgaston." On looking, at my1list
of stations, 1 made out Edgastoh to be
a small tank station where freight and
slow trains pulled up to wood and wa
ter. Having written against the mem
orandum had made on the oway[bil
and in my pocketzbook,. and marked
the time, I again sat down TO occupy
myself with gloomy thoughts. They
were interrupted by our arrival at T
and in the hurry and excitement Of
transhipping my baggage / thought no
more of the, circumstance.rsi,1u.,1
What's this on your wayTbil:l about
a coffin delivered at Edgaston, ,Kirt1e p
was the first question asked me by the
T. --obagga ge-master. =, 49GO-i7I
SIT was shipped at New York; re
piled, s''but Evans was not smart enough
to give me an extra Waybill before we
started" i-.8 ss5.ss&.i4 ~ 9e'q
'Well, 1 cant know anything about
it withnut a ~way-bill from Evans;
bring one up with you next trip, and
keep the 92,327 cheeks till then. l
can't take them. without way-bill for
them, was his answer. r. ii'2' i'o
We went on to the turminus of the
line, where I was only glad to go off
to bed and have a good sleep. .c Next
morning at breakfast I met Harley the
conductor, and said to him,
''You started too quick for me- last
night, came nearly having a smash
up" ug2iIfHasI 5nd ~ Tdfrow
''Why, Evans swung his lantern, and
you seemed extra smart, / thought"
YES I replied; ''the men hurried
up, but that coffin coming so late was
what7nearly brought me to griefPl
, ."Coffin ! what coffin p. ,r.,7-s,rr
why the one we put off at Edgaston.'
''Put off at Edgaston; why, Kirtle,
you're mad" <# -: ~
"Not bit mad put it off, and
have the checks for it on my string"
"And you say We stopped at Edgas-
ton?" asked Harley.
eyes! most certainly You were
asleep, of course" s'uo-al.oL 7H
:"No! l was not but you must have
been dreaming" ne.
! ''I'll tell you what I'll do, Harley,''
I said, cpl leave it to WatkinsAhe'I
know for certain .''.a.~a @i.ioo9 rs}
"All right Kirtle; don't you want
to bet your little pile on this 60 ?"
''If were asbetting man / would
risk every red cent I have in the world
on this 'go,' as you call it; but I don't
bet. Come let's GO and see Watkins
?. t"Of we went to see Watkins. the
engineer. IA aat ..q;s..a., ~. e..ef
| s'Morning, Watkins he said
''Happy New Year % D9'.'''1''f 50
"Thanks, Mr.. Harley, and YOU too,
1 Mr. Kirtle; what'll you have towet the
| New Year with % +, sat f,.;l
Nothing now, Watkins much
obliged all the same What we We want
to know is, whether you stopped the
train any where last night ?'a]I
''Lord bless you no! Mr. Harley.
The night was so bad it took all the
old Reindeer could do to bring US here
on time without stopping any WHERE
"And you didn't stop at Edgaston
! last night, " atkins ?''lI asked.
f. sStop at Edgaston2 No, Sir! I
didn't stop nowheres. y .-...,,
A cold chill ran through me, and I
thought I should have tainted RIGHT
away. Was this conspiracy got up
to ruin me, and Harley and Watkins
: swearing, against me or had something
; out of the common line been with me
i With an care you satisfied now 2"
= Harley took my arm and we walked
away. IL 81 m9dtfo L.r @ul5l%o 10
s. Satisfied? No! a thousand times
no! Why, look here, Harley, there
are the checks I took off the coffin reg.
: ularly strung, and here's an entry made
in pocket book of the number Of check
and where delivered. p
''W ell, Kirtle, it is very strange; but
we didn't stop at Edgaston, be assured
of that
Though I could not rest assured I
was obliged to wait till we arrived in
New York, when 1 quickly sought out
Evans apd asked him about the coffin.
Hiss reply was to the same reflect as
, the statements of Harley and Watkins.
!, He had shipped no coffin, nor had he
given any check on 31st December af-
J ter the way-bill was handed into nv
charge. a, f...l.. ...f.t. ,...,....,r.
turned to show him the checks, but
ON running over the bundle I found
there were no checks of that number.
J In an instant suspected Harley or
4 Watkins had tampered with them.
Ts'Have you got checks 92,327, Evans 90
/ asked, hurriedly. He took me into
his inner room where he showed me a
large iron bound chest. Unlocking
this chest and opening it saw that It
was nearly full of checks done up in
parcels of certain numbers. -
sThere's 10000 new checks in this
box that have never been iused,'' said
Evans t''the order we gave the maker
was for 100000, but we amt ,distribu-
= ted any above so, 900 yet and the whole
lot, from 10000 up to 100000, are in
, this 'ere chest'o.,osff ..a-fF .s.:t
t - Taking up the bundle containing the
s1 80, 2,O00's {they were, put up in packages
= of 1000 each J, Evans began hunting
, through the numbers for 92,327. He
found 92,325, then-,26 and then '2S.
but 1927 was missing! All! 1 was
sure of it! .t .~s. s.-.-r.....,.o
: He then put the bundles back into
the chest without uttering word, and
: mused silently for A few n,n,,,an+e A.