Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-07-25

OCT Dy wire on another division,
meeting points to make. slow trains
TO side-track, fool operators to hold
down; all on the dizzy edge of strike
that Is making every man ON the line
lose his balance But You go ahead
with your newspaper business, I'll
do what a man can here, And If you
come across that rieht-of-way agent.
wish you'd make II case of assault
and battery and get him locked up,
I'm leery about him."
Kent went his way obviously re-
Elective. In the moment of triumph,
when Durgan had announced the sue
cess of the bold change In tho pro-
gramme. he had made light of Hawks
escape. But now he saw possibilities.
True, the junto was leaderless for the
moment. and Bucks had no very able
lieutenants But Hawk would give the
alarm; and there was tho rank and file
of the machine to reckon with. And
for weapons, the ring controlled the
police power Of the state and of the
city. Let the word be passed that the
employees OF the Trans-Western were
kidnapping their receiver and the gov
ernor, and many things might happen
before RED" Callahan should finish
his long race to the westward.
Thinking of these things, David Kent
walked uptown when he might have
taken a car. When the toxin of panic
is in the air there is no antidote like
vigorous action.
INT
Office, he stopped to send Ormsby a
second telegram, reporting progress
ard asking him to be present in per-
son at the denouement to put the facts
on the wire at the earliest possible
instant of time. Everything depends
upon this" he added, when he had
made the message otherwise emphatic
IF we miss the morning papers, we are
done"
While he was pocketing his change
at the receiving clerks pigeon-hole, a
cab ratified up with horse at a gall
lop, and Stephen Hawk sprang out
Kent saw him through the plate-glass
front and turned quickly to the public
writing-desk, hoping to be overlooked
He was. For once in way the ex-
district attorney was too nearly ratified
to be fully alert to his surroundings.
There were others at the standing
desk; and Hawk wrote his message,
after two or three false starts, almost
at Kent'S elbow.
Kent heard the chink of coin and the
low-spoken urgings for haste at the
receiving clerks window; but he for
bore 70 move until the cab had ratified
away. Then he gathered up the spoiled
blanks left behind by Hawk and
smoothed them out. Two of them bore
nothing but the date line, made ilIegi-
BILE, it would seem, by the writer's
haste and nervousness. But at the
third attempt Hawk had got as far as
the address: ITO All Trans-Western
Agents on Western Division"
Kent stepped quickly to the receivers
window. The only expedient he could
think of was open to reproach, but it
was no time to be prescriptions
Pardon me-" he began, "but didn't
the gentleman who was. just here for
get to sign his message?"
The little hook caught its minnow.
The receiving clerk was folding Hawk S
message to place it in the leather car
rier of the pneumatic tube, but he
opened and examined IT.
NO" he said; tits all right: j. B.
Halkett, G. s."
"Ah!" said Kent. That's little
odd. Mr.. Halkett is out of town, and
this gentleman, Mr. Hawk. is not in his
department. believe should fnvesti-
gate little before sending that, if l
were you
Having thus sown the small seed of
suspicion, which, by the by. fell ON bar
rem soil. Kent lost no time in calling
! UP MTosh over the nearest telephone.
do our agents ON the Western Di-
vision handle Western Union BUSH
| ness?" he asked.
| The reply came promptly.
Eyes; locally. The WI has an in
| dependent line to Breezeland Inn and
points beyond"
| well, our right-of-way man has
just sent telegram to all agents
signing Halkett's name 1 don't know
what he said in it, but you can figure
that out for yourself"
you bet I cant" was the emphatic
rejoinder. And then: Where are
! You now?"
I'm at the Clarendon public phone
but I am going over to the Argus OF.
fee. III let you know when l leave
there. Good-by"
When Kent reached the night
editors den on the third floor of ths
Argus building he found Hildreth i'm
mersed chin-deep in sea of work
But he quickly extricated himself ant
cleared chair for his visitor.
Praise be-" he calculated. 81 wa.
beginning to get anxious Larg,
things are happening, and you didn'
turn up. I've had Manville wiring al
over town for YOU
What are some of the la-g
things?" asked Kent. lighting his frs
cigar since dinner.
| We'll for 0re. do Won Epo1v IN :,