Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-13

III IOllON tI11S anu HuSReQ the f1Oor III
readiness for it. When 1t did not come
Ford crept to the hole in the car floor
and listened long and intently. Half an
hour he had given Frisbie to get his track
layers together and to cover the eight
miles of rough-laid rails with the con-
struction train. What was delaying him ?
"You said Gallagher ditched your car:
did it block the track" he asked of
Adair.
ut did. didn't it. Brissac?" was the
Then that is why Frisbie can't get to
| u.s. Was Gallagher's engine still on the
| raiIs:''
1T was
| will make a way if he can't find one
| ready made. But 1t may take hours.
Meanwhile. If these devils have scouts
| out
"Yes?" said Adair
They'll bring the warning. and there
won't be much more time wasted in ex-
perments. They can do us I'D if they
get right down to business"
What are they doing now" Adair
the commissary side.
! ''Tll be hanged If i know. II looks like
a young cannon and it's pointed this
way. BY George! it's coming-coming by
| its all alone. too!'
BY this time they were all watching
the new menace. Brissac's description
fitted it accurately; n cylindical object
mounted upon a pair of small wheels
taken from the commissary storeroom
| truck. 1t came toward the Nadia by
curious surges-a rush forward and a
pause-trailing what appeared to be a
long iron rod behind 1t.
! Ford hit upon the explanation. The
| cylindrical thing was another gas-pipe
bomb: the iron tail was a smaller pipe
containing and armoring the fuse, and
serving also as the means OF propulsion.
They were coupling on additional lengths
| or the fuse-carryfng pipe they were
needed: hence the jerking advances and
| pauses.
Adair's low laugh was as care free as
ever.
"A practical illustration Of the tail
wagging the dog" he remarked. But
when they get him where they want him.
You can't fish that thing up through the
hole with your wire-or crop the tail"
mo. it's a run for it this time said
Ford. rising and stripping his coat
t But Brissac was pointing to three or
four men dc dying from shadow to
shadow under the masthead lights and
circling wide to tighten the line of cir
| cumvallatiOn.
I'VE shan't run very far he COM
mented.
| 1t seemed a hair-graying age to the
watchers at the Nadia's windows before
| the men behind the commissary barri-
cade got their Internal machine placed to
| their liking. They stared at it, all three
of them. fascinated. deaf and blind to all
! else. minimized shudder as of drum
ming wheels or escaping steam was In
the air when the saw the flare of the
| match that betokened the firing of the
| fuse. but no one of the three heard It,
1t was when the suffering line of fire
| had buried itself in it's tube that they be-
came suddenly alive to the unbelievable
fact that a locomotive was laundering
down the yard on the Nadias track. 4
rifle cracked; then another and third
but the engine came on as If its driver
bore charmed life.
Surely Michael Gallagher must have
prayed to the saints that night. He did
not know that the very seconds had be-
| come priceless: he knew only that Frisbie
had sent him on ahead to snake the
presidents car out of the Horse creek
yard AS quickly as possible. Yet If lie
| could have seen the bomb and the sput-
tering fuse. he could not have slowed
more deftly to let the automatic couplers
clutch each other. nor. at the touch and
clamp. could he have reversed and gath
cred Roadway with greater skill.
The three occupants Of the Nadia stag
gered to their feet as the private car
lunged ahead in the grasp of the big en-
CINE. increasing speed with every wheel
they rushed to the rear platform The
mock cannon stood where il had been
thrust: but in the camp street handful
Of men were wrestling madly with the
it in pieces and stamping futilely upon
the snakelike thing kissing and splitting
under their feet
bfioinhr4 htrtr fad:r fawwtw kaytw kww
VIZ raftw fartd ardt walt dawdwywdy
Look" sobbed Adair. They know
they've discovered that box car! Oh,
why in the name of the pitiful Christ
don't they drop 1t and run?''
This from the man who had laughed
| and aimed and fired and laughed again.
in the heat of battle. But Ford's re-
jOinder was the bitter malediction of the
defeated industry captain. "D-n their
worthless lives." he stormed. I'm the
next half minute the Pacific Southwestern
| stands to lose quarter of a million dol
lars
1t was but vanishing glimpse that
they had of the handful of madmen
stamping and dancing under the mast
head light i'm front of the comm.ssary: a
glimpse withdrawing swiftly into a dim
perspective as the Nadia was whisked
| around the curve and up the Horse creek
grade.
J (To be continued tomorrow