Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-28

| built on this same weakness of Ldger-
woods. and | agreed to it. AS l under
stood it, you were to toll him up here
with some lie about meeting Grofield,
and then one of us was to put a pistol
| in his face and bluff him into throwing
| up his job. AS I say. l agreed to it. He'll
have to go when the fight with the men
gets hot enough; but he might hold on
too long for our comfort.
! "Well?" said F1en1ister again. this time
more impatiently, JudsOn thought.
I He queered your layout by carefully
emitting to come on the passenger. and
now YOU propose to fall back upon Ruff
ford's method. I don't approve"
Again the mine-owner said '.Why don't
you?" and the other voice took up the
question argumentatively.
| First. because it is unnecessary, as |
| have explained. Ldgerwood is officially
dead, right now. When the grievance
committees tell him what has been de-
cided upon. he will put his hat and
go back to wherever it was that he came
FROM
And secondly" suggested Fiemister.
| still with the nasging sneer in his tone.
There was little pause, and Judson
listened until the effort grew positively
painful.
The secondly is a weakness of mine
you'll say, Flemister. want his job
partly because it belongs to me- but
chiefly because il l don't get it bunch
Of US will wind up breaking stone for the
state. But ! haven't anything against
the man himself. He trusts me; lie has
defended me when others have tried to
put him wise; he has been damned white
to me. Flemister."
is that all?' queried the mine-owner,
IN the tone of the prosecuting attorney
who gives the criminal his full length Of
the rope with which to hang himself
All OF that part Of it-and you are say
ing to yourself that it is a good deal
m t,lt, sc .ttt
there is still another reason for thinking
twice before burning all the bridges be-
hind MS. LidgerwoOd is Eords man: il
ne throws up his job of his own accord,
name me As his successor ON the other
hand. il LdgerwOod is snuffed out and
there is the faintest suspicion of foul
play = " Flemister. I'm telling YOU right
here and row that that man Ford will
neither cat nor sleep until he has set the
dogs on u.s.
There was another pause. and Judson
shifted his weight cautiously from one
elbow to the other. Then FiemiSter be-
gan, without heat and equally without
, as II the measured words had been -
| many drops OF ice water dribbling through
the cracks in the floor to fall upon his
spine
/ gerWood will be pushed out by the labor
| fight Ny answer to that is that you
! don't know him quite we'll YOU
think you do. II he's allowed to Hive.
he'll stay--uness somebody takes him
| unawares and scares him off, as | meant
, to do tonight when ] wired you. If he
continues TO live and stay. you know
! what will happen. sooner OF later. He'll
| find You out for the double faced cur you
! are-and after that, the fireworks.
At this the other voice took its turn
| at the savage sneering.
You can't put 1t ali over me that way
| Flemster: YOU can't. and. by God, you
| shan't, You're in the hole just as deep
| as am. foot for foot
| "Oh, no, my friend. said the cooler
voice. II haven't been stealing in car
| load lots from the company that hires
| me: have merely been buying little
disused scrap from YOU. You may say
that have planned few of the adverse
| happenings which have been running the
i loss and damage account of the road up
into the pictures during the past few
/ weeks-pOssibly I have: but You are the
| man who has been carrying out the plans
| and YOU are the man the courts viii
| recognize But we're wasting time sit
! ting here jawing at each other like a pair
| of old women. It's up to us to ohliterate
| LidgerwOod; after which 1t will be up to
you to get his job and cover up your
tracks as you can. IL he lives, he'll dig;