The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-07-06
The Ianling By FRANCIS LYNDE
Continusd.) CHAPTER Xv.
BLIND SIGNALS.

Grady, was a rapid, capable
 young fellow with the gift of A knowing how to make himself indispensable to a superior, coupled with the ability to take care of much of the routine correspondence without specific instructions and with & dispo- sition to be loyal to his salt.
 Climbing the stairs to his office on the second floor of the Crows Nest after the brief exchange of question and answer with Judson, Lidgerwood found his helper hard at work grind ing through the days train mail.
 "Colgan wired that you were on MT. Brewster's special, and was waiting on the chance that you might want to rush something through when you got in," said Grady. reaching mechanically for his notebook.
 'T shall want to rush a lot of it through after awhile, but you'd better go and get your supper now and come back fresh for it." said the superin- tendent, who was always humane to every one but himself. "was there anything special in today's mailY"
 "Only this," turning up a letter marked "Immediate' and bearing the cancellation stamp of the postal car which had passed eastward oD train POP.
 Lidgerwood read the marked letter twice before he placed it face down in the "unanswered' basket. It was from F1emister, and it called for de cision which the superintendent was willing to postpone for tEe moment. He had not seen Flemister since the day of the rather spiteful conversa- ton, with the building and loan theft for a topic. and on that occasion the mine owner had gone away with threats in his mouth. Yet his letter was distinctly friendly, conveying an offer of neighborly help.
 The occasion for the neighborliness arose upon a right of way involve ment Acting under instructions from Vice President Ford, Lidgerwood had already begun to move in the matter of extending the Red Butte Western toward the Nevada gold fields, and Benson had been running preliminary surveys and making estimates of cost. Of the two more feasible routes that which left the main line at Little Butte, turning southward up the Wire Silver guich. had been favorably re- ported by the engineer. The right of way over this route, save for a few miles through an upland valley of cat tie ranches. could be acquired from the government, and among the ranch owners only one was disposed to fight the coming of the raflroad-for a pure ly mercennry purpose, Benson de clared. ..
 It was about this man, James Gro field. that F1emister wrote. The ranch man. so the letter stated. had passed through Little Butte early in the day on his way to Red Butte. He would be returning by the accommodation late in the afternoon and would stop at the Wire Silver mine. where he had stabbed his horses. For some reason he had taken a dislike to Bencon, but if Lidgerwood could make 1t conven- tent to come over. to Little Butte on the evening passenger train from An gels the writer of the letter would ar range to keep Grof1eld over night, and the right of way matter could doubt less be settled satisfactorily.
 This was the substance of the mine owners letter. and if Lidgerwood he's itated it was partly because he was suspicious of FIemister's sudden friendliness. Then the motive-Flem- ister's motive-suggested itself, and the suspicion was put to sleep. The Wire Silver mine was five miles dis fant from the main line at Little Butte, at the end of a spur; if the extension should be built it would be a main line station. with all the advantages accruing therefrom.
 Lidgerwood looked at his watch. If Grady should not be gone too long he might be able to work through the pile of correspondence and get away on the evening passenger, and when the ste nographer came back the work was at lacked with that end in view. But after an hours rapid dictating a long drawn whistle signal announced the incoming of the train he was trying to make and warned him that the race egair:.t time had failed.
 1tS UO use, we !. nave tO make two bites of it.'' he said to Grady, and then he left his desk to go downstairs fer Breathing moment and a cup of coffee.
 Train POS. the train FIemister had suggesfed that he might take. was just pulling in from the long run across the desert when he reached the foot of the stairs. That it was too late to take this means of reaching Little Butte and the Wire Silver mine was a small matter; 1t merely meant that he would be s2iged to order out the service car and special. if he should finally de- cidd act upon Flemister's sugges- tion.
 Lidgerwood marked group of dis charged railroaders withdrawing to a corner of the lunch room as he entered, and while the waiter was serving his coffee he saw Hallock join the group. Once again Lidgerwood remembered BfcCloskey's proposal and his own re- reluctant assent to it, and now he was not too greatly conscience stricken when he saw Judson quietly working his way through the crowded room to a point of espial upon the group in the corner.
 The keen inner sense which neither tho v,h.~;o1oo;.<s nor fha pSvcholooiSfc