The herald., 1894-08-05
IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.
A CLOSE CALL FOR AN ADVENTURE
7,ass=res ON A RAILROAD.
Mysterious Dumping and Jolting That Both
cred tho Passengers-A Man Hunt In the
Woods-The Long Conductor and His
Murderous Weapon.


Murderous Weapon.
There are adventures and adventures.
This one is the mildest Of edventures-a
parlor adventure schoolgirl adventure,
an adventure to be taken at breakfast
along with oatmeal and other ingenious
limitations of food. But adventures can't
be ordered like roast beef and pie at a res-
taurant, but must be taken as they come,
like the weather.
The train was hurrying along close to
the river, smoothly and quietly enough,
with only an occasional flourish Of the
whistle or irruption of the trainboy selling
John Smith, Backslider;" %" Peter Brown,
Gresnlander;" "Polly Perkins, Woman;''
Hollow Minde, Novelist" or some other
stirring work Of oontemporaneous fiction.
No one was thinking Of danger, IS is al
ways the case just before an adventure
indeed the time was ripe for an adventure
Of magnitude, such as they used to have
many years ago or still have many miles
away, but it didn't come, for we live in
fallen days and in an evil quarter Of the
earth
Nevertheless as we glided along the
train began to bump and jolt in an alarm
enough again for nttle way; then again
it had spasm of jolting and pitching
about as If it were Fifth avenue stage
OF some such athletic apparatus rather
than vehicle
Broken rail-" said one foolish man.
"Off on the ties" said another weak
fellow.
Then all was quiet again, followed by
more humps.
"This seems to be the corduroy 1ine,"
said the foolish man.
There are pieces broken out of the
Wheels" said the weak fellow. II saw
them when got on. They look like bro
ken nosed pitchers"
''Then why Doesn't il jolt all the time3"
asked the foolish man, which broke up
the friendship and made them enemies.
But the train went on, and for half an
hour continued to have occasional parox-
ysms Of jolting. Then it came to a little
station, which consisted of platform and
dog, and stopped. Three nen-evident
seoundrels SELF heralding enemies of So
ciety-were seen running from the train
along little stream toward the woods,
with half dozen of the trainmen close
behind. Then there was struggle among
the bushes, and shocking bad language,
and the noble trainmen came back with
one of the desperadoes and put him in the
baggage car with the trunks, while the
other two men ran away and disappeared
in the underbrush.
But our blood was UP, and we held the
train and had a man hunt. The bellcord
was taken out and all hands mustered,
except the baggage master and the porter
Of the sleeping car, which latter individ-
ual staid at his post Of duty, 'sah, quad
ing the property of me passengahs, sab"
The FORCES were marshalcd under tho train
conductor, O man whom nature had found
so ductile that she had drawn him out to
such an extent that the thought occurred
that If the belloord was lost he could be
put up in It's place. So leaving those two
\ desperate men in the baggage car-that
is, the train robber and the baggage mas
ter-our forces set out, tho conductor,
with the bell rope over his shoulder, pre-
senting the exact appearance of bamboo
I fishpole and line, atthe head Of the COM
pany
For tho next half hour there was
lodging in and out Of men among the
bushes and small trees Of 100 acre field
beside the train. At last the men we're
surrounded on a little patch of turf near
the stream. The train hands closed in,
the conductor waving like @ reed at the
front. Then there was another struggle,
and the chief bent like a weeping willow,
wound his arms half dozen times around
one Of the men and held him, while the
other knocked down a brakeman, kicked
the engineer in the stomach and again ran
Off Tho more substantial bellcoFa was
substituted for the arms of the'oonductor,
and the prisoner was brought in and put
into the baggage car with the other out
law.
Once. more the ar1py moved. This time
the conductor had reached down and bor
rowed a revolver from passenger, little
nickel plated pocket pepgun affair, in
tended perhaps for defSnse against Jersey
mosquitoes, but in no way designed for
hunting that noble asfnlal-man. But he
took it up With him.. and they were off.
Moro dodging, running, deploying, shout
ing, and again the hardened individual
was surrounded. He seemed to have be-
come tired OF the game, and now produced
long knife. The hsen paused and took
astronomical observations of tho upper end
of tho conductor. He. was clearly seen to
produce the pistol, and then, floating
down through tho still evening air, there
came, one after the other, six times, a
peevish pop, which indicated that the
thing was going off. He might as we'll
havc hold up nickel plated clock and al
lowed it to strike g. With derisiye] laugh,
which was quite tho proper thing, the out
law turned, fionrished his knife and ran
away across the open, field toward the riv-
er, The men came back, the passenger
who owned the revolver fastened it to his
watch chain. half dozen young lady bi-
cyclists who had been watching the pro-
ceedings Topped themselves onto their ma
chimes and rolled away, the train started,
and we, too, rolled away, taking our pris-
oners with us.
In little whil0 the conductor came
back intothe sleeper to wash off the smoke
of battle. It seems that the three men had
boarded the train some time during the
afternoon, getting on the rear of the tend
or. As the observing traveller knows, there
Is situated here a long box in which is kept
various overgrown tools for repairs, such
as a 10 pound monkey wrench, an absurd
hammer, extra coupling links and pins,
sonle chain with links like sausages and
similar things. Tt appears that this box
was not locked, and these aInfable tourists
had amused themselves by dropping out
those articles on tho rails, their iutention
evidently being to throw tho following
cars off the track. Asked as to his opinion
of the object which the men had in view
in wrccking the train, the conductor leaned
down near his quesbicner, while hewiped
n L..