The Bolivar County Democrat., 1921-04-09

| she told the boss. Il sha'n't mind 1t
in the least"
! The boss lighted his cigar. Ihen
there was more talk, in which IL
turned out that the young woman and
! her cousin We're to have been met al
Portal City by somebody she cailed
Cousin BASIL" but there wouldn't be
/ any scare, because she had written
| ahead to say that possibly they might
stop over with some friends in one OF
the apple towns.
! Then Mr.. Norcross said he wouldn't
miss anything by the drop-out but an
appointment he had with an ola
| friend, and he guessed that could wait.
listened, thinking maybe he would
mention the name Of The friend. ana
| after a while he did. The forwarded
| Portal City telegram the boss had got
ten just before we went to dinner IN
the dining-car was from Uncle John
/ Chadwick. the Chicago wheat king.
and that left me wondering what the
mischief Mr.. Chadwick was doing
away out in the wild and wOolly west
ern country where they raise more
apples than they do wheat. and more
mining stock schemes than they do
| either
We had been marooned for nearly
an hour when | struck Il match ana
looked at my watch. Mr.. Norcross
was doing his best to kin time for the
D l. in, he
exciting part of a railroad story, telling
about a right -of-way fight on tie Mid
land. when the little girl grabbed my
arm and said: Listen"
I did, and broke in promptly. "EX-
cuSe me" | called 10 the other two
but l think there's a train coming" "
The boss cut his story short and
we ali listened. 1t seemed that ! was
wrong The noise We heard was more
like an auto running with the cut-out
open than a train gumbling.
"What do you make it, Jimmie?'
came from the boss end of the tim
ber
motor car" I said, pointing in the
darkness toward the east.
My guess was right. In less than
minute we saw the lights of the ear
1t stopped a little way below the water
tank and about a hundred yards north
of the track, or maybe less, and four
men came tumblng out of it. If |
had been alone on the job | should
probably have called to the men as
they came tramping over to the side
track. But Mr.. Norcross had diff
ferent think coming.
"Out of sight-quick, Jimmie" he
whispered, and in another second he
had whipped the young woman over
the big footing timber to a standing
place under the tank among the
braces, and l had done the same for
the girl
What followed was as mysterious
as a 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. Il saw it when he took
it out of the auto"
l guess it was pretty plain to all of
US by this time that there was some
thing decidedly crooked on the cards,
but if we had known what it was, we
couldn't very we'll have done anything
to prevent it. 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 a 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