Yellowstone monitor. [volume] (Glendive, Mont.) 1905-1928, 1911-09-21


you, laughed Benson. but didn't
come up here TO urangle with you
ABOUT your theoretical notions Or law
anu q order. | came to tell you thaI !
naFa been hunting for those Dllase
umbers# Of nine.
Well" queried Lidgervood, have
you found thema'
Ne, and ] don't believe anybody
VII ever ind them
But you have discovered some
thing?'.
Partly yes and partly no. think
told You at the time that they van
1shed between two days like q pun
Of smoke, leaving no trace behlnd
them. How II was done I couldn't
imagine. There is a wagon road par
aileling the river over there at the
siding. as You know. and the nrst
thing / did the next morning was ~
look FOR wagon tracks. No ser q
wheels carrying anything as heavy as
those II BY II twenty -fours had gone
over the road,
How We're they taken then? Iney
couldn't have been aoated down the
river could they?''
1T vas possible but not at all PROB
able said the engineer. MY theory
was that they were taken away 90
somebody's railroad car. There were
only two sources Of information &C
drst-the night operator at Little
Butte. twelve miles west. and the
track walker at Point Of Rocks, whose
beat goes down to within two or three
miles of the Gloria bridge. Goodloe.
at Little Butte. reports that there was
nothing moving on the main line afrer
the passing OF the midnight freight
east. and Shaughnessy. the trackWalk-
err. is just plain. unYarnished liar
He knows a LOT more than he will tell
Still, you are looking good DIT
more cheerful than you were last
week" was Lidgerwood's suggestion
Eyes. After got the work started
again with a new set Of timbers ]
spent three or four days on the ground
digging for information like a dog aft
er a woodchuck There are some pros
pectors panning on the bar three miles
up the Gloria. but they knew nothing.
or IL they knew they wouldn't tell.
That was the case with every man !
talked to on our side Of the river. But
over across the Timanyoni, nearly OPP
posite the mouth Of the Gloria, there Is
little creek coming III from the
north. and on this creek / found q
lone prospector, a queer old chap who
halls from my neck OF woods up in
Michigan"
Go on said LidgerWood when the
engineer stopped to light his pipe.
THE old man told me fairy tale.
all right Benson went on. He was
as full OF fancies as a fig is Of seeds.
/ have been trying to believe that what
be told me isn't altogether pipe
dream, but 1t sounds nightly like one.
He says that about O'Clock in the
morning Of Saturday, two weeks ago.
an engine and single car backed
bridge and a crowd OF men sWarmed
of the train. loaded those bridge tim
bers and ran away with them, going
back up the line TO the west. He tells
It all very circumstantially, though be
neglected to explain how he happened
to be awake and on guard at any such
unearthly hour
Where was he when he saw all
this?.
On his own side of the river. Of
course. 1t was a dark night, and the
engine had no headlight. But the
loading gang had plenty Of lanterns,
and he says they made plenty Of
noise"
You didn't let it rest at that7' said
the uperintendent.
"Oh, no, indeed! / put In the entire
afternoon that day on a handcar with
four Of my men to pump It for me, and
II there is foot Of the main line, side
tracks or spurs west Of the Gloria
bridge that I haven't gone over don't
know where 1t Is. The next night !
crossed the Timanyoni and tackled the
GI1 IIOsBGlLOA HSSlI1a -
check him up-see il he had forgotten
any OF the little fril1s and details. He
hadn't. On the contrary. be was able
TO add what seems to me very I'M
portant detail About an hour after
the disappearance OF The one car train
with my bridge tinbers he heard some
thing that he had heard many times
before. He says it was the high pitch
ed song of circular saw. asked him
If he was sure. He grinned and said
he hadn't been brought up in the Mich
igan woods without being able to rec
ognize that song wherever he might
hear 1t.
.Whereupon you went hunting for
EsaWmills?s asked LidgerWood.
THAT Is just what did, and Il there
Il one within hearing distance Of that
Iold mans cabin on Quartz creek !
couldn't find It But / am confident
| that there is one and that the thieves.
whoever they were. lost no time IN
saving nv hriF7pa ffrnhalss I1n into