The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-29

muZZle of the revolver when he had pressed it into Rufford's back at the gaming table.
 It was nothing more formidable than short, thick S wrench of the kind used by locomotive engineers in tight ening the nuts of the piston rod pack ing glands.
 The jocosely spectacular arrest of Barton Rufford, with its appeal to the grim humor of the desert, was re- sponsible for a brief Hull in the storm of antagonism evoked by Lidgerwoods attempt to bring order out of the chaos reigning in his small kingdom. For time Angels was agrin again, and while the plaudits were chiefly for Judson the figure of the correctly clothed superin- tendent who was courageous enough to appeal to the law loomed large in the reflected light of the red headed en- gfneer's cool daring.
 For the space of week there were no serious disasters, and Lidgerwood, with good help from McCloskey and Benson, continued to dig consistently into the mystery of the wholesale rob- berries. With Benson's discoveries for a starting point the man Flemister was kept under surveillance, and it soon became evident to the three investi- gators that the owner of the Wire Sil- yer mine had been profting iberally at the expense of the railroad com pany in many ways. That there had been connivance on the part of some one in authority in the railroad serv- ice was also a fact safely assumable, and each added thread of evidence seemed more and more to entangle the chief clerk.
 But behind the mystery of the rob- berries Lidgerwood began to get glimpses of deeper mystery involv- ing Flemister and Hallock. Angels tradition spoke freely of a former friendship between the two men. One thing was certain-of all the minor of ficials in the railway service Hallock was the one who was best able to for ward and to conceal Flemister's thiev- cries
 It was in the midst of the sdbterra mean investigations that Lidgerwood had call from the owner of the Wire Silver. On the Saturday in the week of surcease Flemister came in on the noon train from the west, and it was McCloskey who ushered him into the superintendent's office. Lidgerwood looked up and saw small man wear ing the khaki of the engineers, with a soft felt hat to match. The snapping black eyes, with the straight brows almost meeting over the nose, sug- gested Goethe's Mephistopheles, and Flemister shaved to fit the part, with curling mustaches and a dagger point ed imperial.
 i've been trying to find time for a month or more to come up and get ac- quainted with you, MT. Lidgerwood," !" the visitor began when Lidgerwood had waved him to a chair. "I hope you are not going to hold it against me that haven't done it sooner"
 Lidgerwood's smile was meant to be no more than decently hospitable.
 eve are not standing much upon ceremony in these days of reorganiza tion," he said. Then. to hold the in- terview down firmly to a business basis, What can I do for you, MT. Flemister"
 'Nothing-nothing sn top of earth. It's the other way round. I came to do something for you-or, rather, for one of your subordinates. Hallock tells me that the ghost of the old Mesa Building and Loan association still re- fuses to be laid, and he intimates that some of the survivors are trying to make it unpleasant for him by accus- ing him to you. As 1 understand 1t, the complaint of the survivors is based upon the fact that they think they ought to have had cash dividend forthcoming on the closing up of the associations affairs.
 "As Hallock has probably told you, I had the misfortune to be the presi- dent of the company. Perhaps it's only fair to say that it was a losing venture from the first for those of us who put the loaning capital into it. As you probably know, the money in these mutual benefit companies is made on lapses. but when the lapses come all in bunch"-
 "I am not particularly interested in the general subject, MT. Flemister," Lidgerwood cut in. "As the matter has been presented to me, I under stand there was cash balance shown on the books and that there was no cash in the treasury to make 1t good. Since Hallock was the treasurer I can scarcely do less than I have done. I am merely asking him and you to make some sort of explanation which will satisfy the losers.'
 There is only one explanation to be made" said the ex-building and loan president brazenly. "A few of us who were the officers of the company were the heaviest losers, and we felt that we were entitled to the scraps and leavings." l
 ''In other words, you footed the treas ury among you," said Lidgerwood cold ly. "Is that it, MT. Flemister?'
 The mine owner laughed easily. "I'm not going to quarrel with you over the word," he returned. Possibly the pro- ceeding was a little informal if you measure it by some of the more highly civilized standards"
 ''I don't care to go into that was