The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1921-07-01


ohue, when once more the Strathcona
branch sounder began to click furi-
ously, shipping out the headquarters
call.
Donohue cut in and we all heard
the Strathcona mans new bleat. The
way he told it, it seemed that one
member of the party that had char
tered the special to come to Portal
City had got left, and this man was
now In the Strathcona wire office, bid
ding high for an engine to chase the
train and put him aboard.
At first the boss said, ''NO," short
off, just like that; adding that it
wouldn't be keeping faith with the
strike committee. But at that moment
Hoskins blew in again, and when he
was told what was ON the cards, he
took a little responsibility of his own.
Go to it, Mister NorcrOss, if there's
any more money in it FIR the railroad"
he told the boss. "I'll stand fr it with
the boys" And then to Donohue:
who'll be runnin' this chaser en-
gineY
It'll be John Hogan and the Four
Sixteen" said Donohue. "There's mo-
body else at that end of the branch"
The arrangement, such as it was,
was fixed up quickly. The man who
was putting up the money seemed to
have plenty of it. He was offering five
hundred dollars for the engine, and a
thousand if it should Overtake the spe-
cial that side Of Bauxite Junction.
/ guess the bleat unraveled itself
pretty clearly for all of us; or at
least, it seemed plain enough. A min
Ing deal of some kind was on, and this
man who was left behind was going
to be left in another sense of the
word if he couldn't butt in soon
enough to break whatever combination
the others were stacking up against
him.
In just a few minutes we got the
word from the StrathcOna operator
that the money was paid and the
chaser engine was out and gone. Kir-
gan had come in to say that our good
natured strikers had thrown a guard
into the shops and were patroling the
yard, when Fred May showed up, max
ing signals to me. l heard him when
he edged up to the boss and said:
There's lady in the Office, wanting
to see you, Mr.. NorcrOss."
"Holy Smoke!" said I to myself.
l knew it couldn't be anybody but Mrs.
Sheila, at that time of night, and
saw seventeen different kinds of bloody
murder looming up again when I
tagged along after the boss on the
trip down the hall to our offices.
The guess was right. both ways
around. It was Mrs. Sheila, and she
had the major with her. And the air
of the private Office was so thick with
tragedy that 1t made the very cleo
Shella didn't have a bit of color in
her face, and her eyes had a big hOr-
ror In them that was enough to make
your flesh creep.
won't attempt to tell all that was
said, partly by the good old major and
partly by Mrs. Sheila. But the gist of
1t was this: COllingwood had con-
tinued his booze fight in his rooms at
the Billiard until he had worked him
self up to the crazy murder pitch.
Then he had gone on the warpath.
hunting for Hatch. He learned that
Hatch and a bunch of his Red Tower
hackers had gone to Strathcona on g
mining deal, and had started to drive
to the gold camp In an auto to get his
man.
Before leaving Portal City he had
written a letter to Mrs. Sheila, tell
ing her what he was going to do, and
that when he got through with it,.
she would be free. The letter, which
had been left at the hotel, HAD Veen
DELAYED in delivery-had, in fact, just
been sent out to the majors house by
the night clerk who had found it.
J. Long before the story could get it.
self fully told, the different gaps in
,it9Mere filing themselves up for me-
and for Mr.. NorcrosS, as well, l guess.
When Mrs. Sheila came to the auto
drive part of it, the boss whirled and
shot an order at me.
''Jimmie, chase into the dispatcher's
Office and find out the name of the
man who chartered that following en-
giner he snapped; and 1 went on the
run, remembering that in the strike
excitement and hustle it hadn't Oc-
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