Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-11-02

and locomotive attached, lay In the
southeastern yards at Raleigh late in
the evening of the same day. In the OBJ
-servatory, sat Mr.. Thomas Ardmore,
chatting with the conductor, while
they waited. for the right Of way, Mr..
Ardmore's pockets were filled with
papers, and he held half dozen tele-
grams in his hand. The freight cars
behind him were locked and sealed,
and a number of men lounging near
appeared to be watching them.
The reply Of the sheriff Of Dilwell
county had precipitated the crisis.
That official succinctly replied to Ard
more's message:
Be good and acquire grace.
While this dictum had aroused Miss
Dangerfleld's wrath and indignation, it
Gained her fellow conspirator, and for
hours Ardmore had poured forth or
ders by telegraph and telephone. No
such messages as his had ever before
radiated from Raleigh. The tolls would
have bankrupted the commonwealth
if Ardmore had not cared for them out
Of his private purse. His forester,
with an armed posse from Ardsley,
was already following the streams and
beating the brush in search Of Apple
weight. One car Of Ardmore's special
train contained machine gun and a
supply of rifles; another aboundant
ammunition and commissary supplies,
and the third cots and bags. The men
who loafed about the train were de-
tail Of strike-brealters from detective
agency, borrowed for the occasion.
Tnnlyn tho oft h0 f,.ai Ioi
formerly been in the government Sc
cret service, and knew the Carolina
hill country as he knew the palm Of
his hand. Ardmore had warned his
manager and the housekeeper on his
estate to prepare for the arrival Of
LIrs. Atchison, whose private car had
come and gone, carrying Miss Geral-
dine Dangerf1eld on to Ardsley. Ard
more had Just received a message
from his sister at some way station,
reporting all well and containing
these sentences: "She is rather differ
ent, and do not quite make her out.
She has our noble brother-in-law a
good deal bewildered."
Cooke ran forward for a collo1uy
with the engineer over their orders;
the guards climbed into one of the
box cars. and the train moved slowly
out Of the Raleigh yards to the main
line and ratified away toward Kildare,
with Mr.. Ardmore, pipe in mouth,
perched In the caboose cupalo
A caboose, you may not know, is
the pleasantest place in the world to
ride. Essentially a thing of utility. it
is not less the vehicle of joy. Neither
the captain of a trading schooner nor
thS admiral of a canal fleet is more
sublimely autocratic than the freight
conductor in his watch-tower. The
landscape is disclosed to him in leis-
urely panoramas; the springs be-
meath are not SO lulling as to dull his
senses. If he isn't whipped into the
ditch by the hunlor OF the engineer,
or run down and telescoped by an
enemy from behind, he may ultimate
ly deliver his somber feet to it's sew
eral destinations; but he is the slave
of an memorable timetable, and his
excuses are as various as his car
goes.
Nor Captain Kidd nor another Of
the dark brotherhood sailed forth with
keener zest for battle than Mr.. Ard
more. Indeed, the trailing smoke OF
the locomotive suggested a black flag,
and the thought of 1t tickled his fancy.
Above him bent the bluest sky in the
world; fields of corn and cotton, the
brilliant crimson of German clover,
and long stretches of mixed forest
held him with enchantment. In corn
field girl blowing with a single steer
"a little girl in a sunbonnet, who
reached YEARLY up to the pillow han
dles-paused and waved to him, and
he knew the delight of the lonely mar
liner when a passing ship speaks to
him with flags. And when night came,
after the long mystical twilight, the
train passed now and then great cot
ton factories that blazed out from
their thousand windows like huge
steamships.
When they sought lonely siding
to allow a belated passenger train to
pass, the conductor brewed coffee
and cooked supper, and Ardmore call,
ed in the detectives and trainmen.
The sense of knowing real people
whose daily occupations were so novel
and interesting, touched him afresh
with delight. These men said much in
few words. The taciturnity of Cooke,
the conductor, in particular, struck
Ardmore as very fine, and it occurred
to him that very likely men who have
had the fun of doing things never talk
Of their performances afterward. One
of the detectives chaffed Cooke GOV
ertly about some adventure in which
they had been jointly associated.
81 never thought they'd get the lead
out of you after that business in Mis-
souri,. You were regular nine" said
the detective to Cooke. and Cooke
glanced deprecatingly at Ardmore
He's the little joker, all right"
"You can't kill him." remarked the
detective. Eve seen it tried"
Before the train started the detec
tives crawled back into their car and
Cooke drew out some blankets, tossed
then on bench for Ardmore, and
threw himself down without ado. Ard
more held to his post in the tower as
| lone as the lookout in crow's-nest
The night air swept more coolly in as
they neared the hills, and the trains
single brakeman came down as
though descending from the sky, rub