The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-04-01

Jared Pitt tore the letter to bits,
thankful that his run as passen-
ger brakeman for the Mountain g.
Western Railroad would take him
away from town. Otherwise he would
have time to brood. The Argus
Agency, he knew, was a detective
firm.
Pitts chronology of conscience
had begun with a school scrape m
England. Jared had made the mis-
take of marrying the girl without
first consulting one. very necessary
person, his sole relative, Aunt
Lydia. Retaliation had been instant;
outraged, Aunt Lydia had disinher-
tied him. OF course, the girl had
left him then and Jared had ended
up in America, working on rail-
road. tt
A FTER a WHILE he had done
L a co n ST Ter bl e surreptitious
gambling; it was not easy to
be without money. He had lost
and borrowed. The loans had be-
come somewhat heavy. Old Man
Forrest, the usurer, had learned
where those loans had gone and
had threatened exposure. So, Jared
Pitt, afraid of his job, afraid of
public opinion, had killed the miser,
with substituted capsule of
strychnine during one of the old
fellows many illnesses. There had
been no investigation, apparently
nothing to fear, but Jared Pitt knew
that a murder often is discovered
long after the actual crime.
Besides, the obsession had been
constant to tell, to unburden him
self. He had even been afraid to
run away, as such. Finally he had
merely faded out of the life Of
North Benton; gone out West, leav-
ing a tangled trail behind him.
Years passed. Then came the letter.
A month later, there was another
one, this time registered. Pitt re-
fused it,.
Not for me-" he said jerkily.
Z.
be some other Pitt" ftft ~
e. r %
1T left him weak. He did not know
Il what to do--he could only hope
that the Argus Agency would not
continue its pursuit. If they ever
sent man after hin-Jared shud-
dered. He knew he could not face
an accusation.
Three weeks passed, without news.
Courage returned. One noon, No. IS,
east bound, pulled out of its ter
n1inal for Cheyenne, in the swirl of
a blizzard, with Jared Pitt aboard
as brakeman.
The first storm of the winter was
shrieking over Wyoming. Grinding
eastward from the mountains, the
train steadily encountered heavier
snow, tougher pulls on the grades,
long waits behind churning snow
plows. 1t inconvenience few be-
side the train crew--there were less
than a dozen passengers.
But when night came and the
train pulled out of the division point
of Hanover. Pitt noticed that the
hitherto empty observation car now
held passenger.
He was blocky man with beady
eyes; they seemed to bore through
Pitt as he entered the car from the
observation platform. The brake
man hurried to the front of the
train. suddenly alert with fear. An
hour passed, The train jolted and
rumbled-thlsre had been no pillow
over this RI Il for some time.
NECESSITY arose for Pitt to &C
IN again to the observation plat
form. He did so hurriedly with his
face averted from the blocky man
with the boring eyes. Returning as
swiftly. he felt a touch on his
shoulder as he reached the forward
vestibule.
Pardon me-" said the blocky
man, your names Pitt" Then
without waiting for a reply, he
went on: I'm Rupert, Argus
Agency. Suppose we step back here
and have little talk"
Jared Pitt staggered. He forced
back the wild desire to cry out that
there was no need for it, that he
was the man.
Like q deliverance. there came
from beneath him the jerky friction
OF emergency brakes on snow-grit-
ted wheels. The train stopped
roughly. Above the shrek of the
blizzard sounded far-away signal
ing from the engine, one long and
three short blasts.
Sorry" Pitt managed to say.
"The engineers whistling me out.
Got to go flag"
ID UPERT stepped quietly aside.
IN Pitt hurried for his flag equip
ment, and hurriedly tripping open
the vestibule, dropped into the
white flerceneSs of the storm.
From the vestibule ahead, the
conductor shouted something about
snow pillow stuck in a drift ahead
It would be some time before IL
could break through. Pitt gasped
A chance for escape!
no. $50. the California Fast Fruit
Freight. had stood in the hole, first
out behind them, when they had
passed through Hanover. It should
be along any minute now; he'd have
to hurry to flag it down. Then
Hurriedly Jared Pitt moved along
the back trail: progress was CON-
paratiyely easy: No. las passage
had smoothed the snow between the