Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1888-08-24
a DETECTIVES STORY,

Two men sat together in the rear
seat of a smoking car on the Reading
Railroad and chatted about the ups
and downs of miners life, the top
ic being suggested by the landscape
dotted with coal-breakers and furrow-
ed with coal roads.
The freedom and interest of their
conversation did not seem dampened
by the fact that the younger of the
two carried a revolver, while his com
panion wore a pair of those uncoveted
articles of jewelry, which are known
in criminal circles as bracelets"
The few passengers who had OBJ
served them learned from the conf
Dental brakeman that they were a
noted detective and his prisoner on
their way TO trial. As far as the 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 the captor
What crime had been committed,
the brakeman did not know, but haz-
arded conjecture that it must have
been pretty bad one, or Geo. Mum
sen wouldn't have taken the trouble
to put irons on the prisoners wrists.
The train was sweeping around a
curve and past ruined trestle on the
hillside, at which both of the passen-
gers looked with some interest
Il remember that place" said the
older man.
$50 do L. responded the younger,
Il was born there Came near being
buried there, too, he resumed, after
moments pause.
How was that"
It's "A pretty long story" said the
detective, but guess we'll have time
for it between this and the next sta
ton. Way up there on the slops is
the little settlement where | made my
debut, so to speak; from it to the bot
tom of the hill there used to be gray
ity road-a long, winding track reach
ing from the settlement down to the
top of the blank wall of earth where n
slide occurred the year before | was
born. On both sides of the track grew
saplings that had sprung up since the
disaster, (what | am telling you hap
pened five years later and they crowd
ed the road and hung over the old
rusty rails on which the cars used to
run. You must remember that the
houses were built near the mouth of
the pit-that was one of the first mines
worked i'll this country, and one of the
first to be abandoned. Time am tell
ing about, some men were walking up
the track, and a lot of children play
ing near the top, little folks climbing
in and out of an old car, which had
lain there since it made its last trip,
with the broken spraggs still in its
wheels.
THE men were miners, all but one
of them, who questioned his compan-
ions about their work and the country
they lived in. He was evidently a
stranger, probably newspaper man.
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.
I'VE must dust out of this lively un-
less we want to get our necks broken:
she'll either jump the rail or go to
pieces at the bottom; lucky there ain t
no one aboard of her
The stranger was looking anxious
ly up at the approaching runaway.
His quick eye had caught sight Of
something round and golden above
the black rim.
There's child in that car, he said
quietly.
1T was a second or two before his
companions realized the awful mean
ing of that statement. \ child! That
was, as if he had said that in few
moments some one-perhaps one of
hemselves-would be childless.
With one impulse they turned to
look at the broken rails by the edge
of the fault Shuddering they fixed
their eyes again on the approaching
mas, then hopelessly at each other.
They could not dream of stopping the
progress of the car But quick a.
thought, almost, the stranger took
hold of sapling and bent it down till
it nearly touched the track. Hold it,
he said TO one of the men; it will help
to check her. A rod further down
another and then third and a fourth
were held in the same way. So four
of the party waited for few breath
less seconds, while the two remaining
ones hurried further down; but one