Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-03-06
ARNSTRONG'S REVENGE
Tchambsr's Journal

uncouth plough horse, stood before
the shut door OF battered wooden
building, the surroundings Of which
ct once proclaimed it to be . smithy,
although through the chinks ID its
weather beaten walls no forge fire
cleaned or cherry hammer rang.
The ploughman, astonished to see the
place shut at an hour long after that
at which the blacksmith usually
started work, retired pace or two and
gazed up at the chimney; and not see-
ing not even the faintest trace OF
smoke Issuing thence, he turned and
looked about him with q puzzled ex-
preston on his face. A man breaking
stones on the other side OF the road,
noticed che farm servants bewilder-
ment, approached and proceeded to
explain what had become of the black
smith.
Hamilton Armstrong was the name
of the blacksmith in question. HIS
workshop was situated close to way
side station on the main line Of one Of
the great Scotch railways, bus at q
considerable distance from any town
or village. Being, however, kept
pretty busy at work for the Deighbor.
ing farmers, and being consequently
well-to-do, and having, moreover, as
his nearest female neighbor q pretty
girl, tho daughter of the porter at the
station, it was the most natural thing
in the world that he should wish to
make her his wife. Unfortunately,
this was more easily determined on
than done, for he had a rival. This
rival was the driver of a goods train
which was almost daily shunted into
the siding near Sarah's house, to al
low of passenger express passing,
and he took advantage of this mo-
mentary respite to chat with the por-
ter's daughter. Whether it was be-
cause he was far-away bird that his
feathers seemed fairer than Arm.
strong's in Sarah's sight, or whether he
was intrinsicaliy man of more worth,
the gossips-for there were gossips even
in those solitudes-were not agreed.
Rightly or wrongly, however, Sarah
gave him the preference.
Having made up his mind to ask
Sarah to be his wife, Armstrong was
not long in finding an opportunity for
doing go. Though he knew he had a
rival, he was hardly prepared to hear
from Sarah that she had already
promised to marry Duffy, the engine
driver. But Armstrong was not 60
ing to yield without making special
effort to win her. He pleaded long
and fervently with her to retract her
promise to his rival, whom he was
persuaded she had only accepted be-
cause he had been the first to ask her.
But Sarah was quite sincere, Duffy
being really the man of her choice,
and Armstrong pleaded in vain.
For the next week or two the black
smith moped about and did scarcely
any work. On the day on which
Sarah's marriage was to take place he
left the smithy in the evening and
went wandering into the country, re-
turning late at night. Next morning
he went away again, now walking
with uneasy step along the quiet coun-
try lanes, and now sitting dejectedly
by the roadside, mutterlng to himself.
The neighbors soon came to hear Of
his strange behaviour, and it was
whispered that he must have gone out
of his senses, as an uncle of his had
done under q similar affection.
THAT was yesterday the stone
breaker wound up, "and he's away
along the road by the railway this
morning. They should look after him,
or he'll be lying down in front of some
train, or jumping down into the deep
rock-cutting and breaking his neck
If Hamilton Armstrong had not
gone mad, as the people supposed, he
certainly acted like mad man. Stung
to the quick by his rejection, he had
no heart for his work. He shut up
his smithy and went out to try to
walk off the fever that burned within
him. Proceeding along the path by
the side Of the railway, his heart
filed with bitter hatred, the idea Of
taking terrible revenge upon Duffey
gradually shaped itself in his mind.
At first he tried to shut his ears to
the suggestion of the tempter; but lit.
tie by little he grew familiarized with
the idea until he got so demoralized
that he began to think in specula-
tive way how he could bestavenge him
self upon the engine driver. Dufey's
train always passed the station, going
east, about half-past I in the evening.
Shortly before it came the twenty,
seven minutes past 7 passenger train.
The device Of placing an obstruction on
the line suggested itself, only to be
Immediately set aside. At this point
in his meditations. the sounds signal
going down suggested to him the
idea Of tampering with the signals.
He returned home and retired to
rest. Tossing restlessly on his bed,
he was revolving in his mind his var
ious schemes of revenge, when dia-
bolical idea struck HIM of q plan