Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1915-03-18


He passed his hand across his face;
he still seemed dazed. Haynes
moved aside and let him see his re-
tiection In the mirror wretched
tramp, mud splashed and ragged.
stared back at Charteris. The Judge
shook his head like bull, went near,
made motions with his hands and
arms, and suddenly, with fearful cry
collapsed insensible at Haynes feet.
The train was moving at no more
than eight miles an hour, for the en-.
gine was putting near the summit OF
the hill. From his post in the cab
the engine-driver was watching the
track for obstacles, while the two
armed guards shivered and clapped
their arms across their breasts.
Noiselessly Haynes crept to the
front platform, leaped to the ground
and reached for the couplings. His
task was one which few men could
have accomplished. But in the loneli.
ness of the penitentiary Haynes had
developed the muscles of his right
arm into those of giant, before he
had invented his machine, and while
he yet dreamed of physical vengeance
upon his enemies. AS the train poised
itself upon the top Of the hill, almost
immovable, waiting to make the down.
ward plunge, Haynes uncoupled the
engine and leaped back into the car.
The engine leaped forward, freed OF
the car, ard raced wildly down the
long slope which dipped toward the al.
kali country For half a dozen miles
nothing could stay her flight. II
would be half an hour before she could
snortingly puff backward to the sum
nit again, and then the car, rushing
backward along that swift descent
would lie buried beneath the waters
of the Blue River that would receive
her when she left the track at the
turn below.
But that was not yet to be. For.
barring the way, buzzing like bee
the little gyroscope runabout nobly
bore up against the weight of the de-
scendng car. Had the latter obtained
more impetus before encumbering her
the runabout would have been crushed
like an eggshell, broken though never
moved from her place until her frame
sprang into fragments. But now, with
this slow, dead weight leaning agains,
her breast the gyroscope only hum
med and crooned its song of victory,
and there they clung, the car and the
motor car, locked in that struggle II
which neither could gain yard. The
car stood still.
Haynes took the unconscious judge
by the arms and dragged him off the
car into the snow. The fall had
ceased; the cold was terrible upon the
mountains. 1t might have been TWEEN
ty-five below zero, it might have been
more. The rags which the judge wore
might as well have been wrappings OF
straw.
The fearful cold, penetrating to the
bone, reused him from his faint
Haynes pulled him to his feet and
propping him against the platform oi
the car, stood over him.
"Once there was a corrupt Judge
he said with slow and terrible prect
sion Sworn to do justice and uphold
the law, he plundered the poor, pill
laged the strong, and wrought injus
tice. Once, in the loneliness of
cell to which he had consigned him
one of the victims swore to kill thai
man, whose name was Charters. And
having so sworn he would not break
his OATH
But Charteris has outwitted him.
Haynes continued to the covering
Judge. He died before his victims
vengeance fell. He died in that car
ten minutes ago. In drunken slum
Der. And so his victims vengeance
has been rendered useless and all his
schemes OF no avail.
But in his place stands one who
Is soon to learn what Charters taught
so many other poor souls who stood
before him. confident In the honor and
majesty of the law which he betrayed
It is Dan Clancy who now waits here
in the place of Charters to receive his
punishment. That punishment will be
~
killed Judge Charteris, and in this
state, by lucky chance, there is No
capital punishment. Clancy" he con-
tinued, with an abrupt change Of man.
ner, you can live half an hour, and
not much more, in this temperature
In half an hour the guards who are
now on that engine will be back. Make
yourself known to them and they will
spare you, warm you, feed you, and
convey you to place where you will
never be cold again
He left the man in the snow and
stepped into the runabout. With
turn of the wheel and pressure of the
spring. he backed her, steered her
from the path of the released car, and
guided her to the roadbed just as the
latter, freed from its support rolled
forward 1t sped on down the grade,
gathering momentum, till the roadbed
vbrated, ratified onward and down
ward, the noise of it's progress grow.
ing fainter and fainter till only the
least sound remained. Above the
watchers waited in breathless silence.
There came crash, roar from far
below; then the splash of cascade Of
water.
The train car lay fathoms deep In
the swift-moving, icy waters Of the
Blue River.
Come, Theobald," said John
Haynes.
But even as the car leaped forward
screams echoed from behind and
figure came running over the snow.
1t shrieked with idiotic laughter. and
gcsticulated and danced. n
I'm Clancy!" it cried in mirth, and