The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1921-04-07

they came tramping over to the siue-
track. But Mr.. Norcross had a dlf-
ferent think coming.
"Out Of sight-qulck, Jimmie" he
whispered, and In another second he
had whipped the young woman over
the big footing timber to standing
place under the tank among the
braces, and l had done the same for
the girl.
What followed was as mysterious
as chapter out of an Anna Katherine
Green detective story. After doing
something to the switch of the unused
spur track, the four men separated. One
of them went back to the auto, and
the other three walked down the main
track to the lower switch of the short
siding, which was on the same side Of
the main line as the spur. Here the
fourth man rejoined them, and the
girl at my elbow told us what he had
gone back to the car for.
"He has lighted a red lantern" she
whispered. 81 saw II when he took
1t out of the auto"
|
us by this time that there was some
thing decidedly crooked on the cards,
| but n we had known what IL was, we
couldn't very well have done anything
| to prevent II. There were only two
of us men to their four; and. besides,
there wasn't any time. The lantern
| carrying man had barely reached the
lower switch when we heard the whis-
| tie of locomotive. There was a train
coming from the west, and few sec
onds later an electric headlight showed
up on the long tangent beyond the
siding.
1t was bandit hold-up. all right.
One of the men stood on the track
waving the red lantern; we could see
him plainly in the glare of the head
light. There wasn't much of a scrap.
There were two or three pistol shots
and then, as near as we could make
out, the hold-up men, or some of them,
climbed into the engine.
Before you could count ten they had
made flying switch with the single
| car, kicking 1t In on the siding. Before
the car had come fully to stop, the
engine was switched I'm behind 1t, cou.
| pied on, and t.. reversed train. with
the engine pushing the car, ratified
away on the old spur that led Off into
the hills; clattered away and was lost
to sight and hearing in less than a
minute.
It was not until after the train was
switched and gone that we discovered
that two of the bandits had been left
behind. These two reset the switches
as they had found 1t, and ther
crossed over to the auto.
was just thinking that all this
mystery and kidnapping and gun play
must be sort of hard on the young
woman and the girl, but, though my
half of the allotment was shivering
little and smuggling up just grain
closer to me, she proved that sh'
hadn't lost her nerve.
"Did you see the name on that cal
when the engine went past to get IL
behind it?" she asked.
NO" said the boss; and l hadn't
either.
II did" she asserted. showing tha
her eyes, or her wits, were quicker
than ours. II had just one little
glimpse of 1t. The name is A-l-e-x-a,
spelling It out.
Mr.. Norcross started as If he hat
been shot.
| fs hr
wick's private car-they've kidnapped
himl" Then he whirled short on me
Jimmie, are you man enough to e
with me and try tackle on thos'
fellows over there in that autO?"
/ said l was but / didn't add wha
thought-that 1t would probably b.
a case Of double suicide for us two t
go up against pair Of armed thug
with our bare hands. The young wo
man put in her word.
"You mustn't think of doing such
thing~ she protested; and she wa
still telling him all the different rea
sons why he mustn't, when we hear,
the creak and grind of the stolen en-
gine coming back down the old spur
After that there was nothing to d.
but to wait and see what was goin
to happen next. What did happen wa
as blind as all the rest. The engin
was stopped somewhere in the gulcl
back of us and out Of sight from on
hiding-place, and pretty soon the tw
men who had gone with her came hur
rying across out Of the hill shadows
making straight for the auto. A min
ute or two later they had climbe
into the machine, the motor had sput
tered, and the car was gone.