Evening star., 1922-08-17
The Treasure Train
By Arthur B. Reeve.
The Stars Week End Fiction
First of Three Insta71,nents

just this time. 1t leaves the whole
matter in the hands of Lane"
At the mention of Lane. which her
father accompanied by keen glance,
she flushed a little and bit her lip. I
wondered whether 1t meant more
than that of the two suitors, her
father obviously preferred Barnes.
Euston had called to see Barnes.
and. as the doctor led him up the
hall again. Miss Euston rejoined us.
.hs You nSas need not drive drive us, us back. @
the subway. I'll let you know the mo-
ment l have arrived at any conclu-
sion.''
On the train we happened to run
across former classmate, Morehead.
who bad gone into the brokerage
Queer about that Barnes case.
isn't It," suggested Kennedy. after the
usual greetings were over. Then,
without suggesting that we were
more than casually interested, What
does the street think OF it?'
1T is queer" rejoined Morehead.
All the boys downtown are talking
about it-wondering how it will af-
feet the transit Of the gold shipments.
! don't know what would happen If
there should be a hitch. But they
ought to be able to run the thing
through all right"
It's pretty ticklish piece of busi-
ness. them" | suggested
well. you know the state of the
market just nova little push one
way or the other means a lot. And
suppose you know that the insiders
on the street have boosted Conti
mental Express up until it is practi
cally one of the war stocks too.
Well. good-bye-here's my station"
We had scarcely returned to the
laboratory however. when a car drove
fppr oyvSlv, l4l
in to see us.
You do not know me-" he intro
duced, but l am Rodman Lane, gen.
eral manager of the Continental Ex-
press. You know our company has
had charge of the big shipments Of
suppose you've read about what hap
pened to Barnes. our treasurer. l
don't know anything about it
haven't even time to find out. All I
know is that it puts more work on
me and I'm nearly crazy already"
l watched him narrowly.
We've had little trouble of any
kind so far" he hurried on. until
just now | learned that all the roads
over which We are likely to send the
| more broken rails than usual
Kennedy. had been following him
keenly.
II should like to see some samples
of them. he observed.
You would?" said Lane. eagerly.
I've a couple of sections sawed from
rails down at my Office. where I asked
the officials to send Them
We made a hurried trip down to the
company's express office. Kennedy
examined the sections of rails minute
ly with strong pocket lens.
mo ordinary break" he commented.
You can see that it was an explosive
that was used-an explosive well and
properly tamped down with wet clay.
Without tamping the rails would havS
been bent. not broken"
Done by wreckers. them" Lane
asked.
Certainly not defective rails" re-
piled Kennedy. Still, l don't think
you need worry so much about them
for the next train. You know what
to guard against. Having been dis
covered. whoever they are. they'll
new wrinkle that must be guarded
against"
1t was small comfort. but Craig
was accustomed to being brutally
frank.
Have you taken any other precau-
fore?"
Yes" replied Lane. slowly. 1.-The
railroad has been experimenting with
wireless on its trains. We have plac-
ed wireless on ours. too They can't
cut us off by cutting wires Then. of
course. as before. we shall use pilot
train to run ahead and strong guard
on the train itself. But now I feel
that there may he something else
that we can do. So I have come to
you"
When does the next shipment
start?" asked Kennedy.
Tomorrow. from Halifax
Kennedy appeared to be consider
ing something.
THE trouble" he said at length,
''is likely to be at this end. Perhaps
before the train starts something may
happen that will tell US just what ad-
ditional measures to take as it ap-
proaches New York.
Copyright. 1927
Continued in tomorrow's Starr