Waterbury Democrat., 1901-06-21

don's behalf by the big hearted Ken tuckian and his friend the mayor. No; nothing but threats against Langdon's life could be heard of as a cause of Langdon's disappearance, nothing whatever until the second day of the strike, when two people appeared who said that if guaranteed protection they would tell something. The something proved to be that an open two horse wagon drove into the alley just before 10 o'clock and drove out again about 10:40, when it had two more men in it who were bending over something in the bottom. These two jumped out when it reached the street. They went one way, the wagon the other. Then uprose the solid men of Brentwood save the few whose souls were mort gagged to the Seattle or whose notes were falling due at Perrigo's, and at meeting held just after dark the first check was given to the widespreading sympathy felt for the strikers through out the community. Up to this mo- ment they had practically carried all before them. Property had been care fully guarded by the details from their own number. People had been treated with civility even if denied means of transportation. They were determined, they said, to do nothing to forfeit the good will of friends and fellow citi- zens. Their grievance was Brent woods and their oppressors the rival railways. Violence of any kind, said the strike leaders, would be tolerated only as last resort. Yet here was ey- idence that even before beginning the strike assault, abduction, possibly mur der, could be laid at the strikers doors. Cresswell still lay in grievous plight, and Eric Langdon could not be found. Then evidence began to accumulate. A two horse farm wagon, such as de- scribed, was seen by other citizens driving westward toward the open prairie. A farmer came in and said that such a wagon stopped at the ford close to his place about midnight. His wife woke him, saying there was some thing wrong down at the barn-the horses were stamping and snorting. He hurried thfther and found every thing secure, but could have sworn he saw a light dancing away from the barn in the direction of the ford as he issued from the house. Curiosity there fore led him to investigate, and surely enough he heard voices. Two men were talking in low tones. One of their horses had picked up stone, and, so tightly was it wedged, they couldn't get it out He gathered that one of them had been to the barn in hopes of | finding pick. The farmer was on the point of hailing them when the whistle of the night freight sounded away down the valley toward Brentwood. and he heard one of them say, My God, there's No. 8 now, and we can't flag her this side of the bridge" then, apparently speaking to some one with in the wagon, continued: .Now, lie still if you value your life!' Jump in, Jim, quickp' And with that the horses were lashed to a run, and they clatter- ed away up the pike in the darkness. About ten minutes later he heard the freight rambling along up the valley, and after it had almost got beyond hearing distance to the west there came the short, quick single whistle, the signal for brakes. That must have been somewhere about the long bridge at the big bend. That was something unusual, and, coupled with what he heard the men say, it excited his suspi- cion. Then when his copy of The Ban ner told him about Langdon's disap- pearance he felt sure what it all meant aud therefore came in to Brentwood to tell his tale And it was this that brought confusion to Betts and the Brentwood strikers, for it was now evi- dent that Langdon had been spirited away.
 That foul means and force had been resorted to no one who knew Lang4on could doubt. That railway men were l the perpetrators the words overheard by Farmer Hawley gavo presumptive evidence and that the abducted man was sorely needed developed in the course of that very night.
 Observant of his counsel, the rifles at the first intimation of another strike had kept a guard at the armory, and this guard was increased to a lieuten- ant and 20 men at noon on the 18th. Moreover, it was made up of men who would fight, and the scouts of the strikers sent to reconnoiter and report on the feasibility of again seizing the arms and equipments returned and reported adversely" Two days later, determined to wipe out the stain of their military misadventure the previ- ous year, fully 60 members promptly assembled at the call and awaited or ders at the armory, and still, barring the banishment of Mr. Burleigh in one direction and the presumable taking off of Langdon in the other, no deed of damage or violence had been charged to the strike. The sheriff had eagerly accepted the theory that Langdon him. self was CresswelPs assailant and had fled to escape consequences. This made him solid" with the strikers and warranted certain inaction. But now the business men had taken matters in hand. The Banner ripped him up the back" as his friends expressed 1t, and the governor himself was on his way to Brentwood, coming up from the cap- ital by a cross country spur of the Union Pacific, and matters were near ing a climax. The Grays were at the station at Gunnison waiting for the troop train, with Major McConville | and fo11r. o0111nopioo faolinO ifS oo11-