Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1922-03-24
CHAPTER XII.

A moment later McCarty and I had
to lie down and cling desperately to the
castings to stay upon the rocking car.
This is the end Of a desperate adven-
ture," thought: and then I saw Proth-
ro's purpose. He was making a nice
calculation Of the momentum we were
gaining and our chance to run to the
first dead end of the switchback, which
was rather wide cut, with no sheer
drop below as here and no curve what
soever. In that moment / got a new
idea Of what a cool headed man can do.
At precisely the safest moment. as fig
ured by the calculus of engineering,
Prothro, with swift, clean cut, severed
the hose. It popped like a rifle. There
was a jumbed wreck, which threw me
against the upper wall of rock in the
dead end, which hurt my shoulder for
the third time.
While l was trying to scramble to my
feet Prcthro came running along the
ground
''Hurt7" he asked.
Not much"
He rushed on, leaping over the wreck
age. Barnette came behind him, and
l got my feet aud raced after them
Il think everything's good at this
end; It was back by the caboose that they
caught IT,"
We heard a faint low moaning and
scrambled through the wreckage as best
we could. In a moment we we're gathered
around a pitiful object 1t was Battling
Bourke. He had tugged at his brake
wheel TO the last moment and had been
hvoE
were all but severed from his body.
Prothro knelt above him and gave
him some brandy from a Bottle be had
in his pocket.
"Prothro." murmured the dying man.
Il know about Sife-"
Tell me, Bourke. old man, what about
Sifert?"
"slfert and serino-killed-tha be-
tweenf"
Killed Im2 When? where7"
might OF the storm-throwed him
overboard-I saw en-"
But Bourke. why didn't you tell US
before?"
Il was scared o. them-they'd ha'
stuck me. rs that the bell? Hey.
help me up. Don't let 'em count me
outr'
He thinks he's in the prize ring" said
Barnette In a husky voice. moment
later the man was dead
Good man. said Prothro, solemnly.
Every man present removed his hat.
"'E wOs good man." said Spinks
Anybody need my attention? Any
broken bones?" asked Prothro briskly.
Every one had been pretty severely
jolted up, but there were no more seri-
Gus hurts than my little hurt and a
couple Of sprained ankles.
Two men were left with the dead.
while McCarty, Barnette, Prothro and I
started back over the track, rifles in
hand, to look for any man, able bodied,
wounded, or dead, that might need our
attention.
We found one man, a Mexican brake
man. He was dead with three clean
holes through his body.
"Retributive Justice" muttered Pro
thro grimly; and I wondered how 1t felt
for one to know that he had killed q
man even In a righteous cause.
We walked on till we came to the snow
banks at the top of the grade where the
track entered the longest Of all the
tunnels. and there we found the locomo-
tive brought to a standstlI and aban-
doned. Why the engineer and freman-the
conductor was also in the cab-abandoned
it there instead of staying on and run
ming down the grade on the other side I
have never learned 1t may be that they
were lying in ambush for us in the tun-
mel. None of them were wounded evil
IDENTIFY, for although there were many
bullet marks about the cab and tender,
there was no blood about anywhere
"Do we follow them ?" asked Barnette,
who was spelling for a fight.
(TO Be Continued.)