Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1916-05-19

springing to his feet the free guard
dashed down the road, Bill opening
tire on him as he fed
Bill and Lug, dragging the fat guard
down hill, hid him in a ravine near
/ the side track. The two then hiding
| in turn, watched the train as it
stopped at the station below. The
agent came out of the office after few
minutes. When the conductor asked
about the car the agent and he walked
together over to it. They saw it would
not be ready to start for some time.
The predicament in which the
thieves now found themselves was an
| awkward one. They knew full we'll
that Storm, the minute the escaped
! guard reached the mine, would be af-
ter them with men as fast as horses
could travel.
But Bill, the craftier of the pair,
thought that by working quick they
still might make it, Between the sid
ing and the main line were two cables
used by the transfers to switch cars
with and they gave him an idea. Point.
ing to the cables on the ground, he out
lined his suggestion to Lug: There's
one way to work it, Lug, and just
one"
Lug, like another Watson, stared at
his companion until he should hear
more. 1--WE must drop this car into
the train explained Bill Throw the
ore out on the right of way as we
run along and pick it up afterwards
with the machine. See?"
Together they crossed over to where
the train stood, pulled a pin in the
middle of the swing and attached the
longer Of the cables securely between
the two sections of the train thus cut
in two. The second cable was at
tached to the hind end car of the first
cut, and fastened to the partly loaded
box car on the side track The plot
tiers then rested.
The conductor, deciding there was
no use waiting longer for the box car,
was making ready 70 go without it.
The head-end brakeman signaled the
cab and the train pulled out. AS the
slack was taken up the box car an
swered first to the strain on the short
,er cable and with jerk started down
the siding. Approaching the switch,
las it's momentum increased, it sprung
the connecting rods and swung in on
the main line contact, as Bill had in
tended, between the two sections of
the train.
When the engineer shut off to coast
down the grade the three sections
came together and the train, except
for the absence of air in the hind end
of the train line pipe, was complete.
The escaped guard, running every
step Of the way to sound the alarm,
had by this time arrived exhausted at
the mine. At the foot of the aerial
railway he found Storm with Helen
watching the ore come down. Grasp
ing the situation from the disconnect-
ed words the man was able to utter,
Storm dashed into the chemists of.
flee close at hand and seized a Win.
chester rifle. Helen Sprang to a team
and empty wagon, waiting for load,
and climbing up to the seat seized the
relns at the moment Storm, rifle in
hand, ran out of the office to join her.
She dashed the horses forward and
headed with very different load from
what they had expected, for Valley.
Bill and his confederate in the box
car, elated by their huge success
servers and seeing none, began to
dump the sacks of precious quartz one
after another out on the right of way
But it was a day Of surprises for
everybody. The agent at Valley-who
had asked to be sent out to the desert
on account of his rheumatism-wa
peacefully lighting his pipe, after the
one great event of the day-the de-
parture of the local freight-when he
heard somewhere out of doors an un-
wonted rumble. 1t grew and still it
grew and the next moment team, he'll.
ter SHELTER on the run dashed down
the road from the Superstition mine
toward the depot In moment he
was dumbfounded to recognize in the
man behind the threatening rifle as he
drew close: his old acquaintance in
the Oceanside yards, Geolge Storm,
the eX-engineman.
Could George Storm have turned
bandit? Was he running amuck?
Would he take the life of an old and
unoffending friend without provoca-
ton? These and similar queries
raced through his head when Storm,
addressing him with shout by an
old-time familiar nickname, asked
where the box car of ore was, that had
stood on the siding.
The agent now saw everything dou.
BILE but look as he would he could see
no car. Not until now had he given
the presence Of the box car a thought. |
He knew the train had not taken it be- |
cause it was not ready. He knew the |
conductor had started without it-but |
where was it? The car of ore had |
disappeared completely.
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