Willmar tribune., 1900-11-07
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
+ Saved from Ruin !
f<<<<<<<<<<<%<<<<<<<<<<<<i
THINK you had betterSattempt

y
no explanation, Mr.. Halbon," the
senior partner was saying to me, very
quietly. NO." he went on, as I was
on the point of interrupting him
''either to excuse or to Tincriminate
yourself. For the sake of your ia
ther, who was one of the staunches1
and best servants the firm ever pos
sessed, and lor the sake of his widow
Mr.. Sampson and myself have deter
mined to make his son every allow
ance. AS the matter stands, there il
a balance of 297 unaccounte~- for, and
you are the only person who car
make it right. If the amount is
ahem!-replaced by this day fort
night, nothing more will be said
But if not '1Then," went on Mr.
Sampson, the junior partner, ''the firm
will require your services no longer
Mr.. Halbon. Possibly, for the sake
of those whom Mr.. Marsh has men.
toned, we shall not take any more
stringent measures; but, of course
such dismissal, without reason OF
references, would be ruin to you. We
trust, therefore, that you will be able
to rectify the mistake. Good after
noon"
Ruin! That was just the word TO,
it all, and it rang in my ears with
terrible significance as I left the
presence of the two partners and took
my seat at desk in the Office outside
For although they had not named the
ho tor oh e
staring me in the face was embezzle.
ment. They had discovered it all
Fool that had been; alas! the dupli.
cate of many. Not half a dozen years
out of my teens, with berth that
many an older man might have en-
We'd, the under cashier in the wealthy
firm of Marsh & Sampson, of Silk
the Midlands.
Could l do it? I asked myself the
question that night in the solitude of
my lodgings. I had been invited out
to spend the evening at the house
of my fiancee. Alas! I dared not face
her now. So I sat alone in an agony
of anxious thought. Time after time
I counted out my resources. The ut
most I could scrape together was
"a shillings, and, look where I would,
l could not see my way to laying my
hand on more.
The game was up; that was evident.
And out of the situation there grew
the desire, stronger anu stronger, to
get away, anywhere from Silkminster
to London, perhaps-London. whith-
er every fortune-hunter or fortune
loser turns his steps. At length q
definite plan took possession of me.
had one article of value left, my
bicycle, and determined to ride it
up to London, distance of a hundred
odd miles or so, and sell it when
:got there. More than that, I made up
my mind to start that very night. I
was just in the mood, for it. wanted
to do something, and here was the
chance.
Hastily packed few things in
my bicycle ''hold-all," filled my lamp,
knocked at my landlady's door, and
said: II am going for long ride,
Mrs. Smith-to see friend. He'll be
almost sure to ask me to stay the
night, so don't expect me till to-mor.
row evening"
And in another minute I was bowl
ing through the suburbs of Silkmin-
ster, until the houses became more
and more scattered, the lamp-posts be-
gan to disappear, and at length I was
out in the open country speeding
away on the road that led to London.
Dullminster was now good five
miles behind me, and 1 had entered
upon stretch of road that was more
than usually dreary and secluded. On
my right was an open expanse of COM
mon, and on my left, on the top of an
embankment, the main line of the
Great West-Northern railway ran for
some two or three miles parallel with
the road, a hedge between me and the
bottom of the embankmcnt. The mo-
mentary flash of warning red light
on signalpost as I began riding by
the side of this embankment set my
mind flowing in a new channel. The
whole country had recently been
aroused to the sense of a terrible dan
ger. The most cold-blooded and das-
tardly attempts were being made on
certain of our great trunk railways to
wreck express trains. Some of these
attempts were successful, and more
than one accident was the result:
some were discovered only just in time
to prevent an appalling disaster; while
Others fortunately proved powerless
to upset the magnificent engines and
trains for which they were intended.
Engine drivers, one of the pluckiest
class of men in the kingdom, grew ner-
vous and distrus jful. The foot-plate
became a post that meant a terrible
and sudden danger. Strong men
>clutched tremblingly at the regulator
handle as they dashed away through
the open country in the darkness of the
night, and heaved sigh of. relief as
they signed loft duty" at the journeys
end. Many man actually refused pro-
motion point-blank because he feared
to drive night express. The matter was,
in short, becoming serious, and more
than one railway company offered a
very large reward for the discovery and
arrest of the train-wrecling fiend. All
this flashed across me as I plodded
along slowly now, for was riding on
rising ground, and my legs were begin
ming to give out a bit. had ridden over
80 miles with only few minutes stop,
and the nervous and physical strain
was telling on me a little.
Suddenly as I was riding thus slow
1y, 1 happened to glance upward at the
railway embankment, and started vio-
lently at what I saw. There. outlined