Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1888-10-19
A DETECTIVES STORY.
WHY HE is NOT on THE FORCE ANY
MORE.

WHY HE is NOT ON THE FORCE ANY
MORE.
: Two men sat together in the rear
seat of a smoking car on one OF our
railroads and chatted familarly OF
the ups and downs of miners life,
the topic beng suggested by a land
scape dotted with coal-breakers and
furrowed with coal roads.
The freedom and interest Of their
conversation did not seem to be
dampeued by the tact that the
Younger of the Two carried a re-
volyer, while his companion wore
pair of those uucOveted articles
of jewelry which are known in
criminal circles as "bracelets."
The few persons who had OBJ
served them learned from the con-
fidential brakeman that they were
noted detective and his prisoner
on the way TO trial. AS far as ages
went the pair might have been
taken for father and son, the fine
gray head of the one contrasting
strongly with the crisp brown curls
Of his captor.
What crime had been committed
the brakemen did not know, but
hazarded conjecture that 1t Unjust
have been pretty bad one, or
George Munsen wouldn't have took
the trouble to put them things on
his wrists
Presently the brakeman and the
conductor satisfied the joint de-
mands of etiquette and curiosity
by stopping to exchange few
words with the detectiYe; the
former then perched- himself upon
the coal.box directly behind the
prisoner, and the latter dropped
msgnl6cently into the seat in front.
The train was sweeping around a
curve and past a ruined trestle on
the hillside at which both of the
passengers looked with some inter
est.
81 remember that place." SAID
the older man."
$50 do l." responded the young
er; 81 was born there. Came near
being buried there" be resumed
after moments pause.
GLOW was that ?"
"Its a pretty long story said
the detective, "but | guess we'll
have time for it between this and
the next station. Way up there
on the slope is the little settlement
where | made my debut, so to
speak from it to the bottom of
the hull there used to be gravity
road-a long, winding track reach
ing from the settlement down to
the top OF a bank wall of earth
where a slide occurred the year |
was born. On both sides of the
track grew saplings that had
sprung up since the disaster what
/ am telling you occurred five years
later, and they crowded the road
aud hung over the old rusty rails
on which the coal cars used to run.
You mustremember that the houses
we're built near the mouth OF the
pit-that was one of the first mines
worked in this country, and one
Of the first to be abandoned. Time
am telling about, some men were
walking up track, and a lot Of
children playing near the Top,
climbing in and out of an old car
which had lain there since 1t made
its last trip with the broken
spraggs still in its wheels.
"The men we're miners, all but
one of them, who questioned his
companions about their work and
the country they lived in. He was
evidently stranger.
"Presently, as they talked, a
shout from the top of the slope
attracted their attention, and they
looked up just in time to see the
car begin to move slowly down the
grade.
"There was an impatient excla-
nation from the oldest man in the
party. Them brats IS always up
to some mischief he said. They
have started that old thing OF at
last I've been expectin' to see it
20 at any time this five year
They'll be breaking their necks yet
with their tom-fOOling.' And
another of the group added I'VE
must dust out of this lively, unless
we want to get our necks broke
she'll either jump the rail or 60 to
pieces at the bottom (; lucky there
amt no one aboard of her.
1.-THE stranger was looking anx-
iousIy up at the approaching run
away. His quick eye had caught
sight of something round and
golden above the car rim.