El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-07-30
LOST--A CHILD
by Charles TiBbItz.

~ HE baby had disappeared in the
most mysterious fashion. As the
= s:27 train had rolled into Mud
dleham Junction ten minutes before.
the guard and a little crowd of por-
ters had hurried to the door of the
third class carriage from which they
had heard proceed Mrs Jones's excla-
nations of dismay and grief. She had.
she informed them. lost the baby with
which she had entered the train! The
guard and the porters each, one after
another, examined every nook and cor
ner of the carriage inch by inch AZ
ter eight or nine had done this it
seemed impossible but that one OF
them must have seen a healthy, Is
months baby il il had been anywhere
about Arriving at the conclusion
that the baby certainly was not there,
they had conducted the lamenting
mother to the station master.
After a hard days charing in town,
Mrs. Jones explained, she had set off
to return to her home in the sub
urbs. and had entered the train at it's
starting place, with the sleeping in
FAINT in her arms. There was no one
IN the carriage and she shut her eyes
for just forty winks", and must
have dozed off When she woke, just
outside Muddleham Junction, the child
had vanished No one, as far as she
knew, had come to the carriage at
either of the two stations at which
the train had stopped before it reached
Muddleham
You hadn't been drinking?" asked
the station master, with sniff at the
air of the office. He caught only an
oppressive smell of lamp oil
Mrs. Jones resented the imputation
with emphasis.
You don't do things in your sleep,
do you?" he demanded next You
couldn't by any chance, by any chance,
have thrown the child out of the win
dow without knowing it2"
Mrs. Jones seemed to regard this as
a worse insinuatiOn than the other.
Then it is clear what has happened, -
the station master declared The
your arms, opened the carriage door
or window, and got out, closing the
door or window, whichever it was, be-
cheerfully. We viii send a search
gang to look for it. We shall find it,
no doubt"
From signal box to signal box the
alarming message was flashed-"ba baby
on line somewhere between terminus
and Muddleham Junction Warn driv-
ers keep sharp lookout" and the
trains crawled slowly on with drivers
and firemen straining their eyes
through the darkness while their
hearts beat swiftly at any unaccus-
toned sound.
The search gang returned empty
handed and a booking clerk and the
guard of the train were ready to swear
they had seen the child in the woman's
arms
People wondered what would happen
when Jones came home from looking
for work as soon as the saloons were
shut specializing whether he would
half kilr Mrs. Jones for allowing
such a thing to happen. He took It
more amiably than was expected,
though he declared he would not have
lost little Emmeline for a thousand
was not placing an extHavag giant value
on the baby. As the last condoler
departed and left the two together,
Mr.. Jones locked the door and turned
to his wife, his ugly dirt grimed face
twisted with suppressed laughter.
IF they'd stopped another minute
I'd ave burst, he chuckled. We've
done it beautiful, old gal, beautiful
Emmeline will be in the papers, and