Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1911-09-28
visit to the newspaper ONCE was post
poned perforce.
CHAPTER XVI.

I'll EVE OF BATTLE.
NN the following morning Blount
found a telegram on his desk.
W 1t bore the vice presidents
name, and the date line was
Twin Canyon City. 1t directed him to
go to a remote portion of the state be-
You'd the Lost River mountains to ex-
anime the papers in a right of way
case which was coming up for trial
at the next term Of court.
This was in Kittredge's department,
and Blount called up the superin-
tendent on the phone. Kittredge was
In his Office. and he evidently knew
about the vice presidents telegram:
also he seemed very anxious to have
the division counsel go to Lewiston at
once. so anxious that he offered his
w service a to be run as a special
train.
Blount saw no way to evade a posi-
tive order from his chief. but he was
more than suspicious that Gantry or
hittredge or possibly both Of them
were conspiring to get him away from
the capital at the critical moment.
What did not occur to him at the time
was the fact that Mr.. McVickar's tel
egram might have originated in Kit
tredge's office.
Asking the superintendent to have
the service car made ready immedi-
ately, he packed his hand bag, left a
note for Patricia and began the useless
journey.
In all his travelling up and down the
state he had never found anything
to equal the slowness Of the special
train. Four mortal hours were lost
on the lonely siding. There was no
station. and Blount could not tele-
graph. SO far as he knew. the serv-
ice car might stay there for a day or
a week. 1t was all to no purpose that
he quarreled with his conductor. The
train crew had orders to wait for
westbound IT, and there was nothing
to do but to keep on waiting.
Late in the afternoon train II or
some other train came along, and the
special was once more set in motion
eastward, but at dinner time it was
again ~sidetracked, eighty odd miles
from its destination. and once more
at a blind siding. where there was no
telegraph Office. The car was still
standing on the siding when Blount
went to bed. But in the morning it
was in motion again, jogging now On
its %leisurely way up the branch line.
At Lewiston. the town at the end of
the branch where the right of wa
trouble had originated, Blount found
more delay. carefully planned for. as
he had now come firmly to believe.
The plaintiffs in the right of way case
were out of town, and their lawyers
had gone to the capital. Blount saw
that he might wait a week without ac-
complishing anything; hence he imme-
diately instructed his conductor to get
orders for the return.
After having been gone a leisurely
half hour the conductor came back
to the service a to say that the single
telegraph wire connecting Lewiston
with the outer world was down and
that the orders for the return Jour-
ney could not be obtained until the
telegraph connection was restored. At
that point Blount took matters into
his own hands.
There was a mining company having
its headquarters in the isolated town.
and Blount had met the manager once
in the capital-met him in a social way
| and had hnln ohio m chow, h;~ oo-.
little attention. Hiring a blackboard at
the one livery stable in the place, he
drove out to the Little Mary mine
and luckily found Blatchford, the
friendly manager. 1t did not take over
a minute to renew the pleasant ac-
q~uaintance and to state his dilemma.
I'm hung up here with my special
train. the wires are down. and l can't
get out" was his statement of the
crude fact. Didn't you tell me that
you owned a motorcar"
Il did," was the prompt reply. want
to borrow itT'
you beat me to it," said Blount,
laughing. That WAS precisely what I
was going to beg for-the loan of your
car. l believe you told me that you
had driven it from here to the capital"
"Oh, yes, several times. You ought
to make it in six hours and a half or
seven at the most. Drive me down to
the burg and I'll put you in posses
sion"
A little later Blount found himself
handling the levers Of a very service
able knockabout a equipped for hard
work on country roads. When he was
ready to go he drove down to the rail
road yard and hunted up his conductor.
After you have had your vacation
you may get orders from Mr.. Kit
tredge and take his car back to the
capital" he told the man. when you
do you may give him my compli-
ments and tell him that I preferred to
run my W special train"
The conductor grinned and made no
reply. and he was still grinning when
he sauntered into the railroad tele-
graph Office and spoke to the operator.
Il dunno what's up" he said, but,
whatever it was, the strings broke.