Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-04-18

arm descended. Armstrong; wiz
laugh of JOY at the accomplishment
of his nefarious purpose was almost
Immediately stihed by cry ofterror
and pain. In his excitement he had
forgotten that his head was immed-
lately below the signal-arm, and his
savage tug at the CONFERENCE.-THE had
brought the signal-arm down upon
his head with a terrible and fatal
force. His nerveless limbs loosened
from the signal, and falling with n
thud upon the sloping enbankment,
he was shot over the edge OF the sheer
precipice that formed one side of the
rock cutting and landed nponthe op'
posite line.
Meantime the goods train had en-
tered the rock. cutting. The signal
arm having been lowered until it was
in line with the sgnal-post, and hay-
ing been checked by the ENHANCEMENT
of the chord in the lattice work when
it had only returned half way, stood
at clear. But for this accident, Arm
strong's fiendish scheme would have
been frustrated; for the sup
port being taken away from the
counter-weight, it should have de-
scended, and so elevated the signal
again. And now, to CRAFTY one
mans jealousy and hatred and pun
ish one man, n hundred innocent
men and women in the passenger
train were to be sacrificed.
AS the goods train came on, rat
Ting and roaring through the cut
ting, the driver and stoker, all un-
conscious OF the imminent peril in
which they were, stood on the foot
plate watching the signals and the
line in front of them. A glance at
the signal, rs he caught sight of ip
showed Duffy that it stood at clear.
His eye than wandered downward
toward the rails, when suddenly it
was arrested by n dark object lying
on the other line.
THAT'S surely man lying on the
up-line, Tom,' he remarked to his
fireman, laying his hand upon the
regulator.
"Good God" so it is'' cried Tom,
in great excitement.
Without another word the steam
was shut off, the link grear reversed,
and the brake applied, for the two
men knew that the upeXpress was
due in three minutes. and that if the
man who was lying on the line-who
might be unconscious through drink
or through having fallen over-was
lett there, he must inevitably meet
with horrible death.
As the train stopped with q shock
and humping OF buffers and clank-
ing OF coupling chains along it's whole
length, Duffy jumped down into the
six-foot way with the engine-lamp in
his hand. Bending over the huddled-
up form, he held the light above the
blOod-covered face and peered into
it. A few seconds elapsed before
I Duffy moved; and Tom, wonder ing
why he had knelt 80 long looking in
to the unconscious mans face, jumped
down beside him and asked: lis he
dead, Duffy"
YES" answered Duffy, raising his
head. as if he had just Weakened out of
IL dream.
"Who is her" continued Tom.
Armstrong, the smith"
At this moment the brakeman of
the train came along to see what was
wrong; and after Tom had explained
the matter to him, they lifted the
dead man and carried him to the
van. Duffy and Tom then returned
to the engine and were Just about to
start the train to advance to the
station and see what could bs done
with Armstrong, when Tom caught
sight of some one running along the
line with a lamp in his hand.
whats up?" cried Duffy.
"Wso can this be, and what can be
wanting?" asked Tom.
| At this point the man with the
lamp approached the engine; and
when he had come within the light of
the furnace, the two men recognized
him as the signal man. Its bless
ING you noticed itl' hecried, painting
with the exertion of running SO fast.
Noticed what?" both men on the
engine exclaimed simultaneously.
Something's wrong with the sig
nal. It's standing at clear just now,
and yet the levers right for danger.
! heard you passing it without slow
ing up, and then | noticed the signal
was wrong. I'm glad you saw the
train in front in time to pull up"
'Is there train in iront?" Duffy
asked.
"There is. The 1927 passengers
blocked there by trunk that went
off the rails"
All at once the whole matter be-
came clear to Duffy. Armstrong had
been trying to wreck the train, and
had apparently fallen down into the
cutting when putting the finishing
touches TO this trap for his enemy.
Although Duffy thought this perfect
l.y plain, he did not breathe a word
of his thoughts to those around him.
Was not his enemy lying dead in
the van? He would let bygones be
bygones.
mo; we didn't notice that" he
said to the signal-man. eve stop
nod hecauaa we sn w a man lvino on tho