The Daily Alaska empire., 1932-10-12


 "A fellow I met down there"
 He got frown and clear in dignant look.
 What was he?"
 "A chemist" said Ferdinand.
 You mean = an experimenta chemist?"
 "Yes-that was quick of you"
 She shook her head.
 "Why could he make the guer. fila chief do as he iked?" Chemists are sometimes useful. 1 How was Eisenthal useful?"
 "A handy fellow" said Ferdi. nand.
 Don't you know?"
 Well, yes, I know"
 Are you going to tell me?"
 Well, that's what I don't know
 "Why?" He saw a faint sensi- tive clouding of those eager eyes Her lips parted. You're not go- ing to tell me"
 "Eisenthal was genius gone wrong. He looked like any other professor, only more respectable and he5d a fierce brain. And he'd got an invention that had been extraordinarily useful to that gue- rilla chief"
 What was it?" said Nan.
 "WhatT you do if I tell you?' q won't tell anyone" He began to speak in the sort of voice that barely carries a yard.
 About a month before he'd cap- tured me, Pedro Ramirez ha6 brought off a little coup. He was carrying on operations in the Mad alena district and harrassing the government quite bit. Then the government turned nasty and sent up some real troops-and that's where he brought off his coup. There were three trains, and they left Dadalena at three-hour intervals. The first of them ran off the line on the edge of the big pass where it enters the hills. T. went down a couple of hundred feet, and there weren't many sm- vivors. The second train crashed through the parapet of the bridge over the Madalena River about five miles short of the hills. And the third ran off the track only ten miles tout of Madalena."
 How" said Nan.
 "Eisenthal," said Ferdinand.
 "Yes-but how?"
 FF. waved his hand towards the sea.
 I'm not a chemist, but I go the idea that Eisenthal had invented a think that disintegrated certain substances. The man who told me said he'd seen the ties where those three trains left the line. and they were just mush."
 Nan lookd at him with eyes like saucers.
 yifsBut F. F.-the first train got as far as the hills"
 He nodded
 Why didn't it crash sooner? It must have run over the places where the other two trains went off, and the second train must have run over the bit of track where the third one crashed"
 "Yes. You're bright-arent you? I was bright, too. I said to the man who told me, Look here, what are you telling me?' He said, I don't knowlbut as told you, so it happened Afterward I ask ed Eisenthal I'm an inquisite man, and I like to know how things happen, so when I got a chance I asked him, and he told me that it all was matter of careful timing.
 You spray the stuff on, and it takes just so long to make thing soft, and so much longer for it to rot through. It must all be calculated very carefully. The place where the first train crashed was done first. It ran over the other two places before they'd got 
 Nan looked away to the distant blue of the sea. She said under her breath.
 'The stuff made wood rotten?"
 50 I'm told"
 "Jervis' bridge was rotten"
 That's when I began to think about Eisenthal."
 Nan turned around quickly.
 What happened to Eisenthal?"
 I'm not quite sure. think he's dead"
 He's not. ?"
 Leonard? Not on your life! All know is that they were both n Mexico at the same time-but that's not very discriminating for Leonard"
 Will you tell Jervis?"
 He shook his head.
 Not a bit of good telling Jer- wis. shall keep my eyes open. Don't yOlI want any coFfaa2 II