Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-06
CHAPTER XXI.
The Terror.

sent him back to bully Schleisinger Into
appointing him constable. from the ken
of those who were most anxious to hear
from him, was late in reporting. But
when he finally climbed the stair of the
Crows Nest to tap at Lidgerwoods door
he brought the first authentic news from
the camp of the enemy.
When McCloskey had come at a push
of the call button Lidgerwood snapped
the night latch on the corridor door.
Let us have it, Judson," he said.
when the tTainmaster had dragged his
chair into the circle of light described
by the green leone shade of the desk lamp
I'VE have been wondering what had be-
come of you
Summarized, JudsOns story was the re-
port of an intelligent scout Since he
was classed with the discharged men he
had been able to find out some OF the
enemy's moves in the game of COERCION
The strikers had transferred their head
quarters from the Celestial to Cat Biggs
place, where the comm tees. jealousy
safeguarded, were now sitting in per-
manence' in the back room. Judson hao
not been admitted to the committee room !;
but the thronged barrOOm was public.
and the liquor, which was flowing freely,
had loosened many tongues.
From the barrOom talk Judson had
gathered that the strikers knew nothing
as yet of McCloskey's plan to keep the
trains moving and the wires alive. Hence
unless the free-fiowing whisky should
precipitate matters-there would probably
be no open outbreak before midnight. AS
an offset to this. however, the engineer
had overheard enough to convince him
that the Copah wire had been tapped
either bribed or intimidated. and was
! now under guard at the strfkers head
quarters. and that some important mes
sage had been intercepted, which was. In
JudsonS phrase raising sand" In the
camp of the disaffected. This recurrence
of the mysterious message. OF which no
trace could be found In the headquarters
record, opened fresh field OF discussion,
and it was McCloskey who put his finger
upon the only plausible conclusion.
ut is Hallock again." he rasped- He
is the only man who could have used
the private code. Dix probably picked
out the cipher: he's got weakness for
such things. Hallock's carrying double.
He has fixed up some trouble-makins
message, or faxed one, and signed your
name to it. and then schemed to let 1t
leak out through Dix"
Its making the trouble. all right,
was Judson's comment. When 1 LETT
Biggs' few minutes ago Tyron was
calling for volunteers to come down here
and steal an engine. From what he said,
took it they were amin to go over
into the desert to tear up the track and
stop somebody or something coming this
| way from Copah-a!l on account of that
| make-believe message that you didn't
send"
Thus far Judson's report had dealt with
facts. But there were other things de-
ducible. He insisted that the strength >Of
the fnsurrection did not lie in the dissat-
isfied employees Of the Red Butte West
| ern, or even in the ex-employes: 1t was
rather in the lawless element Of the town,
which lived and fattened upon the earn
| ings of the railroad men-the saloon
keepers. the gamblers. the tin horns OF
every stripe. Moreover, 1t was certain
that some one high in authority in the
railroad service was furnishing the brains
There was a chief to whom all the NAL
| contents deferred, and who figured in the
barroom talk as the boss, or the big
| boss"
| "And that same big boss is sitting ur
yonder in Cat Biggs' back room right
| now. givin' his orders and tellin' en-
what to do" was Judson's browning
guess. and since Hallock had not been
visible since the early afternoon. for the
three men sitting under the superintend-
ent's desk lamp, Judson's inference stood
as fact assured. It was Hallock who
| had fomented the trouble: il was HallOck
| who was now directing 1t.
Il suppose you didn't see anything oi
Grady. my stenographer?" inquired Lid
| gerwood, when Judson had made An end
The engineer shook his, head. Reckon
they've got him cooped up along with
| Dix"
IT hope not But he has disappeared
sent him up to Mrs. Dawson's with q
message late this afternoon and he hasn't
/ shown up since
..Of course they've got him. said Nc
! Closkey. sOurlH. Does he know any
thing that he can tell?'
| Nothing that. can make any difference
now. They are probably holding him to
hamper me. The boys loyal
| Yes" growled McCloskey. land he's
| Irish"
| well. my old mother is Irish, too. fol-
the matter of that" snapped Judspn. I'll
| you don't like the Irish you'll be finding
a chip Oh my shoulder any day In the
week except today, Jim McCloskey:'
! Lidgerwood smiled 1t brought small
| relaxing of strains To hear these we
resurrecting the ancient race feud in the
midst of the trouble storm. And when
the trainmaster returned to his post in
| the wire Office, and Judson had been sent
back to Biggs' to renew his search for
| the hidden ringleader. 1t was the rnemOr!
| of the little race tiff that cleared the
superintendent's brain for the grapple
| with the newly defined situation.
! Judson's report was grave enough. but
it brought a good hope that the crucial
moment might be postponed until many
of the men would be too far gone In
liquor to take any active part. LAdger-
wood took the precautions made advis-
able by Tyron's threat to steal an engine
4
! guards on the locomotives in the yard
and to Dawson to block the turntable &c
that none might be taken from the round.
| house.
! Afterward he went out to look over the
field in person. Everything was quiet
almost suspiciously SO. Gridiey was
| found alone in his office at the shops
| smoking a cigar, with his chair tilted tc
comfortable angle and his feet on the
desk. His guards, he said, were pOste
! n and around the shops. and he hoped
/ they were not asleep Thus far there
| had been little enough to keep then
| awake.
I.idgerwood, passing out through tn,
door opening upon the electric-hshteo
| yard. surprised man in the act Of turn
| incident and he would not have remarked
ii if the door. closing behind Grfdley':
| visitor had not bisected violent out
bun ST of profanity, vocalizing itself in thu
harsh tones of the master-mechanic. =!
| thus: "You chuckle-head fool
Haven't you any better sense than Il
come At this point the closing doc
/ cut the sentence of Objurgation. ard Lid
gerwood continued his round OF tnspec
ton, trying vainly to recall the identit!
of the chance-met man. whose face. bal
hidden under the dropping brim of a worI
campaign hat, was vaguely familiar Th'
recollection came at length with the i'm
,act of blow. The 'chuckle-headet
foor' of Gridley's malediction was Rich
ard Rufford, the Killers" youngel
brother.
II Lidgerwood said nothing OF this Incl
II dent to Dawson, whom he found patrol
ing the roundhousc. Here. as at TIL,
shops and in the yard. everything wa: