Gunnison news-champion., 1923-01-05

Gsten Went Into the Msn's cempsrS-
ment Of His Car. Whsrs He Sat
Smoking TIL After the Train Wac
Under Way Again.
white de.olation: no light and no sign.
Of habitation showed anywhere. The
events Of the day ran through his
mind again with sinister suggestion.
He had taken that train for q certain
definite. dangerous purpose which re-
quired his remaining as obscure and
as inconspicuous as possible: yet al
ready he had been singled out for at
tention. So far. he was sure. he had
received no more than that-atten-
ton, curiosity concerning him. He
had not suffered recognition; but that
might come nj any moment. Could he
risk longer waiting to act?
He dropped on his back on the bed
and lay with his hands clasped under
his head his eyes staring up at the
roof OF the car.
In the card-room Of the observation
car. playing and conversation still
went on for time; then II dlmin-
ished as one by one the passengers
went away to bed. Connery. looking
into this car. found It empty and the
porter cleaning up; he slowly passed
on forward through the train. stopping
momentarily in the rear Pullman op-
posite the berth OF the passenger
whom President Jarvis had commend. .
ed To his care. His scrutiny OF the
car told him all was correct here; the
even breathing within the berth as
sured him the passengers slept
Connery had been becoming more
certain hour by hour all through the
evening that they were going to have
great difficulty In getting the train
through. Though he knew by Presi-
dent jarvis note that the officials OF
the road must be- watching the prog
ress Of this especial train with par.
ticular interest, he had received no
train orders from the west for sew
eral hours. His inquiry ut the last
stop had told him the reason for this:
the telegraph wires to the west had
gone down. To the east communica-
tion was still open. but how long II
would remain 20 he could not guess.
Here in the deep heart Of the great
mounfains-they had passed the Idaho
boundary line into Montana-they
were getting the full effect Of the
storm; their progress, increasingly
slow, was broken by stops which were
becoming frequent and longer as they
struggled on.
At Fracroft-the station where he
wis to exchange the ordinary plow
which SO far had sufilced, and couple
on the "rotary" to nght the noun
tain drifts ahead-Connery swung
himself down from the train, looked
In at the telegraph ofiice and then
went forward to the two giant loco
motives. on whose sweating, mon
strous backs the snow, suddenly Wis
ible in the haze Of their lights, melted
as 1t fell. As they started. he swung
aboard and In the brightly lighted
mems compartment Of the first Pull
man checked up his report sheets with
q stub Of pencil.
Again they stopped-once more
went on. Connery, having put hts
papers into his pocket, dozed, awoke.
dozed again. The progress Of the train
halted again and again; several times
1t backed. charged forward again
only to stop. back and charge again
and then go on. But this did not dis .
turb Connery. Then something went
wrong.
All at once he found himself, by .
trainman's instructive and automatic
action. upon his feet; for the shock
had been 30 slight as barely to b.
felt. far too slight certainly to have
awakened any Of the sleeplng passen-
gers In their berths. He went to the
door Of the car, liftsd the platform
stop. threw open the door Of the ves-
dbule and hanging himself By ooe
h1hd 10 the ran. swung hluself ct
from the side Of the ear and lcohai
ahead. He saw the forward e0e -
~ tve Locomotives wrapped h douGD
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foens4 fully 10 ~ apbrshnslsa ut
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