The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-29
PETE'S BAD HOUR.
unul naIn naIu uaB BIHn naIalMu ulnuID DuIn
BL FRANK H. SWEET.

Copyrighted, 1907. by P. C. Eeasfnent'
 Pete Duffy ran crouching across the freight yards. scrambling under the cars on ail-fours. Then ascehoins to the top of box-car with the agin- ty of a cat, he lay panting beside the footboard.
 The city rose from the yards as from an ampitheater. They were bathed in dust, though a red gash still showed in the West where the hostile sun with drew after a day that had filled the hospital. The heat was intensified by reflection from the labyrinth of rails and the metal of the rolling stock. A switch engine coughed unseen far down the yards where harsh. jarring sounds accompanied the shunting and couplinr of cars. Lanterns danced and flickered in jerky undulations. Pete was satuated with perspfra- tion. He pressed his chest against the slope of the car roof. where 1t fell away from the foot-board, to still the pounding of his heart. His temples throbbed his mouth was dry as ashes. and he breathed with wheezy sobs. Yet, in the midst of his torture, he listened with & sense so sharpened by predatory habit and present danger that the physical consciousness Of IL added to his pain.
 As yet he dared not move. Voices floated to him, muffled and indistinct. and he strained his ears to catch wna, was being said, or. failing that, to gather from their tones some clew to the identity of the speakers. A burst of laughter relieved him. The police would not laugh.
 The revolver. thrust into the tight hipped trousers that he wore in com mon with his type. pressed against his ri Q 10 nn o,,t and placed 1t under the footboard, within easy reach. There were still three cartridges nj 1t. The other two had done their work-done 1t well, he hoped. with a grim tightening of his thin lips.
 Mulligan had been looking for 1t sence the section mems down-the-river picnic, when Pete proved himself the better man. as everybody had declared. Mulligan deserved it, too. Couldn't he have taken a beating without mak- ing such a humpus about 1t. and then spinning Old Man Leary a. whole string of lies? And Leary was just on the point of adding his consent to Norah's and lett. 2 them his it off together on the next picnic down the river. Even the priest had been spoken to with Leary's knowledge.
 Oh, well. there was no use whining about 1t now. Mulligan was soft on Norah, too, as everybody knew, and that was the real bone of contention; and Mulligan was brother-in-law to the section boss, who was supposed to have a pull with the division superintendent himself. The end was as plain now as if pronounced in the crisp tones of a judge's sentence. Mulligan was in the doctors hands and good for at least a month in the hospital. When he came
 rL1 4,,I be mad through the lies told her, and -and-well he. Pete. would either have to skulk around in hiding or give himself up and take his medicine. And. of course, he had forever lost all chance of a job on the road with Null ligan.
 Pete dug his nails into his palms and writhed Remorse he had none. He would have done it all over again. viewpoint. inevitable. the one honor able thing He would resist to the last. of course Now that Norah was lost to him. what was the use of liv- ingT
 They would search the freight yards though they seemed to have lost the scent The growing darkness favored him. Perhaps he might venture now on A change of position.
 He raised his head. The switch en- zine still puffed. and the uneasy re- fectton of lanterns glimmered in spots, their bearers hidden by intervening cars. The tracks shook with the vi- bration of trains passing on the main line. To the north a massive bridge overhung the yard where 1t narrowed Under the arc light that snapped and fiickered above 1t two policemen were nosted. their faces blue-black under the shadow of thei- summer helmets.
 He was about to descend between the cars when the sound of approaching feet arrested him, even as his hand closed upon the top rung of the iron Iedder to swing off. He noiselessly cooked the revolver
 The car door rolled open. there was q scramble and the crack of a match within. Pete lowered his weapon and neered downward just as a dark form emerged from the interior. closely fol lowed by a second. There was that in each shambling figure which needed no poora than outline to declare the tramp.
 They stood leaning with their backs against the sill.
 He's goin' to croak," asserted one of ,Ao for paartnDnp