The Republican., 1900-11-15
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THINK you had better attempt

yourself. For the sake of your ia
ther, who was one of the staunchest
and best servants the firm ever pos
sessed, and 1or the sake of his widow,
Mr.. Sampson and myself have deter
mined to make his son every allow
ance. AS the matter stands, there is
a balance of 6 81 unaccounte,. for, and
you are the only person who can
make it right. If the amount is
ahem!-replaced by this day fort
night, nothing more will be said.
But if not" Then, 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 a dismissal, without reason or
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 for
1T all, and it rang in my ears with
IlIDAC SIX dS ltlJ Int
presence of the two partners and took
my seat at a desk in the office outside
For although they had not named the
word, the terrible charge that was
staring me in the face was embezzle-
ment. TSey had discovered it all
Fool that l had been; alasl the dupli-
cate of many. Not half dozen years
out of my teens, with a berth that
many an older man might have en-
WED, the under-cashier in the wealthy
firm of Marsh & Sampson, of Silk
minister, one of the largest houses in
the Midlands.
Could l do it? I asked myself the
question that night in the solitude of
my lodgings. | had been invited out
to spend the evening at the house
of my iancee. Alas! | dared not face
her now. So l sat alone in an agony
OF anxious thought. Time after time
L counted out my resources. The ut
most could scrape together was
"a shillings, and, look where l would,
1 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 ana stronger, to
get away, anywhere from Silkminster
to London, perhaps-London, with
er every fortunehunter or fortune
loser turns his steps. At length a
definite plan took possession of me.
Hastily l packed a few things in
my bicycle "hold-all," filled my lamp,
knocked at my landladys door, and
said: 81 am going for a 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 | was
out in the open country speeding
away on the road that led to London.
Dullminster was now good five
miles besind me, and | had entered
upon a 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 WestNorthern railway ran for
some two or three miles parallel with
the road, a hedge between me and the
bottom of the embankment. The mo-
mentary flash of a warning red light
on signal-post as | began riding by
the side of this embankment set my
mind flowing in new channel The
whole country had recently been
aroused to the sense of 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.
Suddenly as | was riding thus slow |
ly, | happened to glance upward at the |
railway embankment, and started vio- |
iently at what l saw. There, outlined
against the dim sky, was the figure of a |
man, now standing. now STOPPING
downward, seemingly doing something
to the metals. The situation flashed |
across me in a moment. 1t was the |
train-wrecking tiend at work! Careful
ly | alighted from my machine, max
ing up my mind the while how to act
The whole thing came as flood of re-
lief to me. If he were really placing
something on the line he was desper-
ate fellow, and to attack him would be
% 0esperate-just the very thing for a
man in my mood. And then there came
across me another thought. The Great
had offered c 100 re-
ward. What if l should win it? If so,
/ was savedI
This idea gave me courage as clam
bered over the low hedge and crawled
stealthily up the embankment. At
length my head came on level with
the top. Good! He had seen and
heard nothing. There he was stoop-
ing down with his back toward me,
1ashing something with a rope to the
down metals. Ten yards separated us.
Mating my taafh I g..