Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-04-18


Not until the papers were served
upon him as the company's attorney,
and the judge was naming three
o'clock of the following afternoon as
the time which he would appoint for
the preliminary hearing, did the local
attorney come alive.
But, your honor!-a. delay Of only
"a hours in which to prepare re-
joinder to this petition-to allegations
of such astounding gravity?" he began,
shocked into action by the very I'M
graspable magnitude of the thing.
What more could you ask, Mr.. Hun
nicott?" said the judge, mildly. "You
have already had full measure of
delay on the original petition. Yet
l am willing to extend the time if
you can come to an agreement with
Mr.. Hawk here"
Hunnicott knew the hopelessness of
that and did not make the attempt.
Instead, he essayed a new line of OBJ
lection.
''The time would be long enough If
CASTOR were the headquarters of the
company, your honor. But in such a
grave and important charge as this
amended petition brings, our general
counsel should appear in person and"
You are the company's attorney,
Mr. Hunnicott,' said the judge, dry
ly; land you have hitherto been
deemed competent to conduct the case
in behalf of the defendant. I am I'M
willing to work hardship to any one,
lint 7 i'm,
The preliminary hearing will be at
three o'clock tomorrow"
Hunnicott knew when he was def
nitely at the strings end; and when he
was out of the judges room and the
courthouse, he made dash for his
Office, dry-lipped and painting. Ten
minutes sufficed for the writing of
telegram to Kent, and he was half
way down to the station with it when
it occurred to him that it would never
do to trust the incendiary thing to the
wires in plain English. There was
little-used cipher code in his desk pro-
vided for just such emergencies, and
back he went to labor, sweating over
the task of securing secrecy at the ex-
pense Of, the precious minutes of time.
Wherefore, it was about four o'clock
when he handed the telegram to the
station operator, and adjured him by
lay it's sending.
1t was just here he made his first
and only slip, since he did not stay
to see the thing done. 1t CHANGED that
the regular day operator was off on
leave of absence, and his substitute, a
young man from the train dispatcher's
office, was a person who considered
panage of the train service depart
ment. At the moment of Hunnicott's
assault he was taking an order for
No. II, and observing that the lawyers
cipher rush" covered four closely
written pages, he hung it upon the
sending hook with malediction on
the legal department for burdening
the wires with it's mail correspondence,
and so forgot it. 81
1t was nine O'Clock when the night
operator came on duty; and being a
careful man, he not only looked first
to his sending hook, but was thought
full enough to run over the accumula-
ton of messages waiting to be trans
mitted, to the end that he might give
precedence to the most important
And when he came to Hunnicott's
cipher with the thrice-underlined
RUSH" written across it's face, and
had marked the hour Of it's handing
in, he had the good sense to hang up
the entire wire business of the railroad
until the thing was safely out of his
Office.
1t was half-past nine when the all
important cipher got itself written out
in the headquarters Office at the cap
ital; and for two anxious hours the
receiving operator tried by all means
in his power to find the general coun-
sel-tried and failed. For, to make the
chain of mishaps complete in all it's
links, Kent and Loring were spending
| the evening at Miss Portia Van
Brooks, having been hidden to meet a
| man they were both willing to culti-
vate-Oliver Msrston, the lieutenant
governor. And for this cause it want
| ed but five minutes of midnight when
Kent burst into Loring's bedroom on
the third floor of the Clarendon, ca
| tastrophic news in hand.
For heavens sake. read that" he
| gasped; and Loring sat on the edge OF
the bed to do it.
so! they've sprung their mine at
last" he said, quietly, when he had
mastered the purport of Hunnicott's
war news.
Kent had caught his second wind in
the moment CT respite, and was set
| Ting into the collar in a way to strain
the working harness to the breaking
point.
Its put-up job from away back,
he gritted. eff I'd had the sense of q
pack-mule 1 should have been on tbs
lookout for just such trap as this
Leok at the date of that message!"
The general manager did look, and
shook his head " Received, 3:45 D
| m: forwarded GIT n M That viii