The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-07-07

upon the alcohol which had made him 8 wind broken, gasping weakling in the prime of his manhood.
 For, after all the agonizing striv- ings, he was too late. It was rough quarter mile down to the shadowy group of buildings whence the hum- ming of the dynamo and the quick ex- hausts of the high speeded steam en- zine rose on the still night air. Jud- son knew that the last lap was not in his trembling muscles or in the thump- ing heart and the wind broken lungs
 The ex-engineer crawled cautiously to the edge of the barrier cliff, rubbed the sweat out of his smarting eyes and peered down into the half lighted shad- ows of the stockaded inclosure. It was not very long before he made them out-two indistinct figures nov ing about among the disused and di- lapidated ore sheds clustering at the track end of the old spur.
 What they were doing did not long remain a mystery. Judson heard a distance diminished sound, like the grinding of rusty wheels upon iron rails, and presently q shadowy thinr glided out of one of the ore sheds and took it's place upon the track of the ole spur. Followed a series of clanki1lre still more familiar to the watcher-th: sound of metal upon metal, as of crow bars and other tools cast carelessly. one upon the other. in the loading of the shadowy vehicle. Making a tele- scope of his hands to shut out the glare from the lighted windows of the power house, Judson could dimly dis cern the two figures mounting to their places on the deck of the thing which he now knew to be a handcar A mo- ment later, to the musical click-cIick of wheels passing over rail Joints, the little car shot through the gateway in the stockade and sped. away down the spur .l
 While the clicking of the handcar wheels was still faintly audible man the door hammering madman, Jud- son thought it must be-materialized suddenly from somewhere in the under shadows to run down the track after the disappearing conspirators. The en- gineer saw the racing foot pursuer left behind so quickly that his own hope of overtaking the car died almost before it had taken shape.
 "That puts it up to me again. he groaned, rising stif1y. "If I can get down wonder to Goodloe's wire in time to catch the super's special before it passes Tfmanyoni''-he went on, only to drop nis jaw and gasp when he held the face of his watch up to the moonlight Then brokenly: "I couldn't begin to do it unless had wings. He said Il o'clock, and it's 1O:1O right now!'
 There was the beginning of a fren- zied outburst of despairing curses up ? bubbling to Judson's lips when he real ized his utter helplessness and the con sequences menacing the superintend ent's special. True, he did not know what the consequences were to be, but he had overheard enough to be sure that Lfdgerwood's life was threatened. Then at the climax of despairing help lessness he remembered that there was a telephone in the mine owners office, a telephone that connected with Good loe's station at Little Butte. Here was a last slender chance of getting a warning to Goodloe, and through him, by means of the railroad wire, to the superintendent's special Instantly Judson forgot his weariness and raced away down the western slope of the mountain, prepared to fight his way ko ho ni0 shift of the Wire Silver should try to stop him.
 It cost ten of the precious fifty min utes to retrace his steps down the mountain side, and five more were lost in lodging the mine watchman. After the watchman was out of the way five other minutes went to the cautious pry- ing open of the window least likely to attract attention-the window upon whose drawn shade the convincing profile had been projected. Judson's lips were dry and his hands were shak- ing again when he crept through the ? opening and dropped into the unfa- miliar interior, where the darkness was but thinly diluted by the moon light Altering through the small dingy squares of the opposite window.
 The precious minutes were flying, and he knew that by this time the two men on the handcar must have reach ed the main line at Silver Switch. Whatever helpful chain of events might be set in motion by communi- eating with GoOdloe must be linked up quickly.
 He found the telephone without diff culty. It was an old fashioned set, with crank and bell for ringing up the call at the other end of the line. A single turn of the crank told him that it was cut off somewhere, doubt less by a switch in the office wiring In a fresh fever of excitement he be- gan a search for the switch, tracing with his fingers the wires which led from the instrument and following where they ran around the end of the room on the wainscoting. In the cor ner farthest from his window of in- gress he found the switch and felt it out. It was simple cut-out designed to connect either the office instrument or the mine telephones with the main wire, as might be desired. Under the