Waterbury Democrat., 1901-06-21
CHAPTER XIII.

toned bell of the city hall, Brentwood's pride, and sharp at the sound every hand in the railway shops, sheds and yards followed suit and went out. So did the fires in the furnaces in the course ot/the night, for no man sue eeededtn getting in to replenish them So did not the trains, freight or passen- gef, on either Big Horn or Seattle, for xle rails were a father of soap, the boil CTS reek of foam. The casualty list in the motive power showed g en- zines killed and the only wheels to revolve east or west were those trun- ding the United States mail. the oper- atives, with calm sagacity, offering no objection to the running of postal cars, yet firmly opposing everything else. Following the traditions of the Big Horn, the new general manager ap- peared promptly on the scene, while he of the Seattle sniffed the battle from afar and staid there. Mir. Burleigh came to threaten and command, was promptly hoisted aboard baggage car and bidden to address the meeting from the rear platform, which he es- sayed to do, the car speedily gliding
 
 of much derision and many decided cat calls. not to mention a few defunct quadrupeds and doubtful eggs. Mir. Burleigh was given a sample of the running qualities of the fast mail down the winding gorge of the Red Water and spent the night in bIasphemy and bitterness of spirit at Gunnison. Not even a farmers blackboard could he find to take him back. He wired for the trainloads of substitutes across the Big Muddy, and they were ditched ten miles from any town and had to build bonfires out of the wreck until that was used up and then kept warm with a few miles of snow fence that unac- countably went up in flames. The Se- attle sent 60 Pinkertons on a special and thereby precipitated sympathetic strike across the Missouri and the spe- ciaI into the shallows near the eastern shore we'll up to the Pinkertons' mid dIe. When finally rescued, these anna teurs were roasting on car roofs, cold, wet and bedraggled, an object of char ity to the countryside. Then came the order for troops, long withheld, and before it was issued the Brentwood ri- fes knew there would be no first ser geznt to call the roll. Somewhere about midnight of the 27th, dazed and bleeding, Colonel Cresswell had stag gered into the street In front of his of flee, feebly calling for help. The po- lice found pool of blood at the foot of the cellar stairs and splashes all along from near the top, but not a sign of struggle elsewhere and not trace of Erie Langdon- Along toward morning Cresswell managed to tell his story, and then the police went and routed out the division superintendent, who told a queer tale. When the doctors heard 1t, they looked oddly at each oth- CT and agreed that it were best that CressHeu shouldn't hear it until he was stronger. It might unduly excite him now. Cresswell said he left the superintendent. MT. Betts, on guard at the cellar stairway in the back yard, revolver in hand, and that he should have seen his (CresswelPs) assailants when they made their escape at the rear, the only way they could have gone. The superintendent said he had met Mir. CressweIl casually on the street, inquired for MT. Langdon and went with Cresswell to the office to find him. They knocked until they be- lIeved that Langdon couldn't be there, and be (the superintendent desired to search elsewhere, but Cresswell was somewhat persistent that Betts should wait while he went round and tried the back way. Betts went just to DbIige the colonel; didn't like to of- fend him." The fact was he noticed that the colonel had been drinking a little. and at such times, as was well known. the Kentuckian was apt to be a bit dictatorial and to take ofsense rather easily. Betts said he knew the colonel had been at the bar of < the Brentwood that evening, and after waiting a few minutes just to assure himself the colonel was safely within he hurried. away about his own busi- ness. Had be heard no sound of fall or struggle7 was asked. Not a sound of that Kind. He had heard some one moving about in the hall and thought, of course, 1t was the colonel. In fact, sotto voce, he added he thought so still and that under the circumstances the colonel might later have missed his footing and fallen headlong. It could not be conceived possible that MT. Langdon would brutally assault his friend and benefactor.
 Now. Cresswell had taken three or four nips of his favorite beverage that evening, but Boniface swore he was perfectly himself when he left the Brentwood That might be, said the shrewd and somewhat enyious lawyer employed by the Big Horn as counsel, and yet might he be under alien infiu- ences." One of two theories, said the railroad lawyer, could be derived from the facts, and only two. Mir. Cresswell had fallen down stairs under the influ- ence of one of two forces, Bourbon or a blow. If a blow, who gave it but Eric Langdon? No one else was known to have entered those doors that night. In all the tense, pent up excitement att tending the inevitable strike this incl dent was discussed with bated breath. Men who knew Cresswell and saw him that night knew he was not so far gone fin liquor as to fall down stairs and therefore believed the story of assault. Men who knew Langdon swore he was incapable of assaulting Cresswell.