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Bart shook his head. "Well, I'll tell you, it's a bill, do you hear? a bill. It's for eighty-five dollars, damage done maliciously on my private grounds, yesterday evening. It represents the bare cost of a new copper pedestal to replace the one you shot to pieces last night, and it's a wonder you are not in jail for mu...
"Nor can I get it." "Then," observed the colonel, restoring the bit of paper to his pocket--"go to jail!" Bart regarded his enemy dumbly. Colonel Harrington was a power in Pleasantville, his will and his way were paramount there. "I am sorry," said Bart finally, in a tone of genuine distress, "but eighty-five dollars i...
"But I shan't!" "I would like to offer payment or replace the pedestal on reasonable terms." "It don't go!" "And, further, I am not to blame in the matter."
"What!" roared the colonel "what's that?" "It's the truth," asserted Bart. "I never knew the cannon was loaded with a ball." "Do you know who loaded it?" Bart was silent.
"You won't tell? We'll see if a jury can't make you, then!" fumed the colonel. "Aha! it's serious now, is it? Not so much fun breaking up my home and breaking up my speech at the grove to-day, hey?" Bart saw very plainly that what rankled most with his volcanic visitor was the blow to his pride he had suffered that aft...
"Colonel Harrington," he said decisively, "my mother has nothing to do with this affair." "She has!" vociferated the magnate, "or rather, her teachings. You're full of infernal pride and presumption, the whole kit of you!" "We have our rights." "I'm a stockholder in the B. & M., and I fancy my influence will reach the ...
Bart was dismayed--that threat touched him to the quick. He had felt very glad that Mr. Leslie had not met the irate colonel. The mean-spirited magnate noted instantly the effect of his threat. "You'll insult and defy me, will you?" he cried, with a gloating chuckle. "Very well--you take your medicine, that's all." Bar...
"Eighty-five dollars--one, the name of the person who loaded that cannon--two, C.O.D. before ten o'clock to-morrow morning, or I'll sweep you off the map!" shouted the colonel. He marched off, puffing up as his vain senses were tickled with the fancy that he was a born orator, and had just given utterance to some profo...
He did not, however, retrace his steps. Instead, he came to the strangest rigid pose Bart had ever seen a human being assume. He stood staring, spellbound, at the partly open door of the nearest freight car. His cane had fallen from his hand, his head was thrown up as if he had been struck a stunning blow under the chi...
QUEER COMRADES So many sensational occurrences had marked the last twenty-four hours of Bart Stirling's career, that it seemed as though the accumulating series would never end. It was a particularly ragged and miserable-looking arm, and why it could so summarily check, halt and hold the great magnate of Pleasantville,...
Suddenly the strain was removed. The colonel threw up his arms with a gasp. He started to turn around, clutched at his neck in a strangling kind of a way, tottered, reeled, and plunged forward on his face against a heap of cinders. "This is serious," murmured Bart. He rapidly covered the two hundred foot space between ...
Bart tried to pull him over on his back. As he partially succeeded, he noticed that the colonel's face was pitted, and in one or two places scratched and bleeding from contact with the cinder particles. The bulky form was quivering and convulsed. The colonel had been dazed, it seemed, but not rendered entirely unconsci...
"Get me away from here," he moaned--"get me away! What's happened to me?" "That is what I was going to ask you," said Bart. "Don't you know?" The colonel passed his hand over his face and mumbled, but made no coherent reply. Bart glanced at the freight car. It afforded no evidence of present occupancy. He reflected for...
"Wait for just two minutes," he directed. Running over to the drug store on the next street, he spoke a few words to the man in charge, and darted out again as the druggist hurried to his telephone to call up the livery stable. When he got back to the colonel, Bart found the latter sitting propped up against the cinder...
As he stood trying to keep his charge on his feet, a cab rushed across the tracks. Its driver, bluff Bill Carey, nodded familiarly to Bart, and looked the colonel over critically. He got the latter into the cab in an experienced way. "Same old complaint!" he intimated to Bart with a wink. "Drinks pretty heavily." Bart ...
The colonel gave him a fishy stare, groaned and put out a wavering hand. "Come," he mumbled. "Jump in," directed Carey. "You'll be useful explaining the 'fall' up at the house!" As they went on their way, the young express agent experienced a striking sensation.
A topsy-turvy day of excitement was ending with the peculiar combination of his riding in the same carriage with his most bitter enemy, and acting the good Samaritan. They proceeded slowly, or rather cautiously, for the popping and banging had recommenced all over town. Carey had to keep the spirited horses in strong c...
"Whoa! whoa!" yelled Bill Carey. "You young villains! get that infernal machine out of the way. Can't you see--" Bart stuck his head out of the cab window to view an animated scene. A fourteen-inch cannon cracker was hissing and spitting out smoke barely two feet ahead of the terrified horses in the middle of the stree...
Bart saw the staunch driver dragged from his seat. He lit on his feet, braced, but was pulled over, as, with a fierce tug, the horses snapped the line in two. Then, unrestrained, the team shot down the street without guide or hindrance and with the speed of the wind. CHAPTER XI "FORGET IT!"
The young express agent acted quickly. A single glance told him that the driver of the cab could do nothing. The frightened horses were speeding ahead at a furious rate, could not be overtaken, and Bart doubted if anyone could stop them. No one tried, but all got out of the way promptly as the team went tearing along. ...
The swing the horses made just then sent his feet flying out in a wild circle, but he held on, and the rebound landed him on the seat. Our hero cast a quick look within the vehicle. The colonel had "rousted" up somewhat. Buffeted from side to side by the erratic and violent movements of the horses, he was trying to mai...
"We'll be killed!" cried the man. "No, we won't. Do as I say. I'm on deck, and I'll--" Bart sized up the situation, counted its risks and possibilities, and described a sudden forward leap. The lines were torn and trailing under the horses' feet. He cut the air in a reckless, but well planned dive.
Bart landed sprawling between the two horses, his knee striking the carriage pole. Bracing himself there, he caught out at the head of either horse. With a firm grip his fingers closed on the bridle reins. Ahead was a stony wagon track lining a deep gravel pit dangerously near its edge. About a hundred feet further on ...
Bart drew the bridles taut. He feared the tremendous strain would break them. The heads of the horses were now held as in a vice, but they snorted and continued to plunge forward with undiminished speed. As a wheel landed in a rut full of thick mud, their pace was momentarily retarded. Bart jerked at the bridles. The h...
"Wait a minute!" he puffed. "Gently! Wait till I get out. Then you can go on," was his remarkable concession. Bart saw the bulky body of the magnate fall, rather than step from the vehicle. He landed clumsily at the side of the road, rolled up like a ball, but unhurt. He was so near to the grinding wheels of the vehicl...
He drew the bridles at a sharp, taut slant that must have cut their mouths fearfully at the tenderest part, for they fairly screamed with pain and terror. He succeeded in facing them sideways, ran their heads into some brush, vaulted over them, and, landing safely on his feet in front of them, grabbed them near the bit...
Farther away was a flying excited figure. Bart recognized the disenthroned cabman. They met where the colonel sat. "All gone to smash, I suppose!" hailed Carey. "No, a window broken, wheels scraped a little--nothing worse," reported Bart. "Where is the team?" panted Carey.
Bart pointed and explained, and the cabman forged ahead with a gratified snort. "You stuck till you landed 'em," applauded Carey. "Stirling, you're nerve all through!" Bart went up to Colonel Harrington and the latter got on his feet. Bart could see that either the druggist's potion or his succeeding violent experience...
"Me? Now? Ah yes! Quite--er--er--thank you." Bart was somewhat astonished at the words and manner of his whilom enemy. Colonel Harrington looked positively embarrassed. He would glance at Bart, start to speak, lower his eyes, and, turning pale as he seemed to remember, and turning red as he seemed to realize, would fum...
Bart turned to leave. He heard the colonel spluttering. "Hold on," ordered the magnate. "I want to give you--I want to give you--some money," he observed. "I can't take it, Colonel Harrington," said Bart definitely. "If I have been of service to you I am glad, but you will remember I was in the same danger as yourself,...
"Well, put up your money, Colonel," advised Bart. "As I say, if I have been of service to you I am glad." "You hold on!" ordered Colonel Harrington, as Bart again moved to leave the spot. The speaker poked in his wallet and brought out a strip of paper, which Bart recognized as the one he had so menacingly waved in his...
"You take that," he directed. "Why, this is a receipted bill for the damage done to your statue," said Bart. "Eighty-five dollars--just so." "But I haven't paid it!"
"You needn't. Serious mistake--I see that," said the colonel. "That is, I see it now. Satisified you didn't mean any harm. Sick of whole muddle. And about getting you discharged and all that rot--didn't mean it. Forget it! Was a little mad and excited; see!" "I can't take your receipt for what I haven't paid, and what ...
"Yes, I suppose so. Come here, quick!" He grabbed Bart's arm and drew our hero close up to him, as though he had some pressing intelligence to impart before the cab interrupted. "Forget it!" he whispered hoarsely. "About the statue--I'll be glad to," said Bart frankly.
"No--no, the--the--" "Runaway? I shall not mention it, Colonel Harrington." The colonel released Bart's arm, but with a desperate groan. It was evident he was not fully satisfied. "Sure you'll forget It!" he persisted, very much perturbed. "I don't mean my abusing you, or the runaway, or--or--I mean I had an accident a...
The colonel cast a penetrating look on Bart, who shook his head negatively. "I don't know, Colonel," he declared. "Oh, come, now!" croaked the colonel, making a ghastly attempt to give the statement the aspect of a joke. Honest, you didn't hear anyone call to me?" "No," replied Bart.
The cab drove up and halted. "Don't do any talking. Don't start any gossip about--about--of course you won't! I've got your word. You're a truthful, reliable boy, Stirling, and I--I respect you," stumbled on the colonel. "Mum's the word, and I'll--I'll make you no trouble, see?" "Thank you, Colonel Harrington," said Ba...
"That man is scared half to death over something," reflected Bart, as he took a short cut to regain the express office. CHAPTER XII THE MYSTERIOUS MR. BAKER The little express office looked good to Bart as its precincts again sheltered him.
Things appeared better and clearer to him now than at any time during the past twenty-four hours, and his heart warmed up as he put his papers and books in order, saw that the safe was secured, and decided to close up business for the day. Doctor Griscom from the hospital had dropped in for a few moments, and brought s...
"It is all a question of time, and after that of skill," continued the surgeon. "Your father must have absolute rest and cheerful, comfortable surroundings; above all, peace of mind. I shall watch his case, and when I see the first indication of the services of some skilled specialist being of benefit to him I will tel...
Amid the buoyancy of the relief from the continuous strain and troubles of the day, Bart was bent on a quick dash for home when he remembered something that changed his plan. "The roustabout, the poor fellow that I've got the ten dollars for, the good fellow, if I don't mistake, who saved the books and the contents of ...
Back at one end were some broken grapevine crates, and it was dim and shadowy there, so he called out. "Any one here?" "Yes," came from the corner, and there was a rustling of straw. "I guess I know who," said Bart. "Come out of that, my good friend, and show yourself," he continued heartily.
"What for?" propounded a gloomy, wavering voice. "What for? that's good!" cried Bart. "Oh, I know who you are, if I don't know your name." "Baker will do." "All right, Mr. Baker, friend Baker, you're true blue and the best friend I ever had, and I want to shake hands with you, and slap you on the back, and--help you."
A timid, muffled figure shifted into full outline, but not into clear view, against the side of the car. Bart took a step nearer. He promptly caught at one hand of the slouching figure. Then he regarded it in perplexity. The roustabout held with his other hand a canvas bag on his head so that it concealed nearly his en...
"Burned." "False?" "Yes." "Then you were disguised?"
"I tried to be," was responded faintly. Bart stood for a moment or two queerly regarding the roustabout. "Mr. Baker," he said finally, "I am bound to respect any wish you may suggest, but I declare I can't understand you." "Don't try to," advised the roustabout in a dreary way. "I'm not worth it."
"Oh, yes, you are." "And it wouldn't do any good." "It might. It must!" declared Bart staunchly, "See here, I want to ask you a few questions and then I want to give you some advice, or rather tender my very friendly services. Do you know what you have done for me to-day?" "No. If I have done anything to help you I am ...
"I'll be a better one--that is, if you will let me," pledged Bart warmly. "You warned me about the burglars last night; you helped me save my father's life." "Anybody would do what I have done." "No one did but yourself, just the same. Don't be cynical--you're something of a hero, if you only knew it. It was you who we...
"I say so, and you know it--don't you?" Baker made no response. "Do you know what all this means for me and my family?" went on Bart. "You have done for me something I can never pay you for, something I can never forget. You are true blue, Mr. Baker! That's the kind of a worthless good-for-nothing person you are, and I...
"I don't know your secrets," continued Bart earnestly, "and I certainly shall not pry into them without your permission, but I want to repay your kindness in some way. I can't rest till I do. All I can do is to guess out that you are in some trouble, maybe hiding. Well, let me share your troubles, let me hide you in a ...
"Come," rallied Bart, giving him a ringing slap on the shoulder, "brace up and be what you have proved yourself to be--a man!" Baker started electrically. His tones showed some force as he said: "All right--you've made me feel good. But you don't know a whole lot, and I can't tell you. You say you're my friend." "You b...
"Yes, I do, and that's why I don't want to drag you into any complications. This ten dollars is mine, isn't it?" "Certainly." "Will you spend it for me?" "What do you mean?"
"I want you to give me a pencil and some paper, and I will write out a list of some things I want. You take it and the ten dollars and bring me the things here to-morrow. I want you to promise in the meantime, though, that if you come upon me unawares, or when I'm asleep, or under any circumstances whatever, you will t...
"Yes," answered Bart promptly. "Can't I get the things you want to-night?" "I am afraid not, for most of the stores are closed." "That's right. Well, then, let me make a suggestion: I have two keys to the new express office. I'll give you one. After dark, if you don't want to do it in daylight, go over and unlock the d...
"I don't want to make you a lot of trouble," he finally faltered out. "Of course you don't, and won't," asserted Bart--"you want to give me pleasure, though, don't you? So you do as I suggest, and I'll sleep a good deal sounder than if you didn't. Here's the key. I will be over to the express office about eight o'clock...
"HIGHER STILL!" About eight o'clock that evening Bart came down to the express office carrying a lunch basket and a blanket, as he had promised his erratic friend, Mr. Baker. The young express agent had spent a busy day, and the evening promised to continue to furnish plenty for him to do. He had the infinite pleasure ...
She had received some intimation of this from her husband's lips an hour previous at the hospital, and said that Mr. Stirling was feeling relieved and hopeful over the visit of the express superintendent, and the prospects of Bart succeeding to his position. Bart very much wished to visit his father at once, but Mrs. S...
He glanced over to the far dim end of the place. Baker had built a regular cross-corner barricade of packing boxes, man-high. Bart set the lantern on the bench and approached the roustabout's hide-out. "Are you there, Mr. Baker?" he inquired. "Yes, I did just as you told me to do," came the reply, but the speaker did n...
"Well, here's a blanket. Can you make up a comfortable bed?" "Oh, yes, I've got a broad board on a slant, and plenty of room." Bart lifted over the lunch basket. "There you are!" he said briskly--"now enjoy yourself, and don't take a single care about anything. Have you made out that list of things you want?"
"Yes, here it is," and Baker handed over a piece of paper inclosing the ten-dollar bill. "I'll attend to this promptly," said Bart. "Supposing I look it over right here? There may be some things you have noted down I want to ask you about." "Maybe you'd better," assented Baker. Bart sat down near the lantern. The bit o...
The list was not a very long one, but it was not easy to fill. Baker gave the measurements of a very cheap cotton suit and the size of a cap with a very deep peak. He also notated a green eye-shade, a pair of goggles, and the ingredients for making a dark brown face stain. In addition to this he wanted a dark gray hair...
"You're mighty kind," said the refugee. "Hold on. I want to tell you something. Of course you think I'm acting strange. Some day, though, if things come out right, I'll explain to you, and you will say I did just right. There's another thing: you may think from my actions I am some desperate character. I hope I may bur...
"Do you know Colonel Jeptha Harrington?" he asked suddenly. "Hoo--eh?" He had startled Baker--his incoherent mutterings persuaded Bart of this. "Don't you want to tell?" continued Bart. "All right, only it was you who waved an arm at him from the freight car this afternoon, wasn't it, now?"
"Well, yes, it was," admitted Baker in a low tone. "And you said something to him." "Yes, I did. See here, I heard him calling you down and threatening you, for I slunk up to the shed here to see what he was up to. I'm interested in him, I am, and so are others. When I got back in hiding I spoke out, I told him somethi...
"Because I had certain knowledge. Don't ask any further. It will all come out, some day--the day I'm waiting and working for. You saw how he was affected. Well, I threatened things that laid him out flat if he dared to so much as place a straw in your path." "I understand, now," said Bart. He waited for a minute or two...
"This has been a pretty dull Fourth for you, Bart," said his mother sympathizingly. "It has been a very busy Fourth, mother," returned Bart cheerfully--"I might say a very hopeful, happy Fourth. Except for the anxiety about father, I think I should feel very grateful and contented." A graceful rocket parted the air at ...
A second rocket went whizzing up. It raced the other, outdistanced it, seemed bound for the furthest heights, never swerving from a true, straight line. Then it broke grandly, sending a radiant glow across the clear, serene sky. "That's my motto," said Bart, a touch of intense resolve in his tones--"higher still!" CHAP...
MRS. HARRINGTON'S TRUNK "Hey, there! Stirling." Bart was busy at his desk in the express office, but turned quickly as he recognized the tones. Trouble in the shape of Lem Wacker loomed up at the doorway.
"What is it?" asked Bart. It was a week after the Fourth, and in all that time Bart had not seen anything of the man whom he secretly believed was responsible for the fire at the old express office. "Who's the responsible party here?" demanded Lem, making a great ado over consulting a book he carried. "I am."
"All right, then--I represent Martin & Company, pickle factory." "Oh, you've found a job, have you," spoke Bart, forced to smile at the bombastic business air assumed by his visitor. "I represent Martin & Company," came from Wacker, in a solemn, dignified way. "Inspector. We want a rebate on that bill of lading." Lem r...
"What's the matter with it?" inquired Bart. "Consignment short," announced Wacker. Bart looked him squarely in the eyes. Wacker had made the announcement malignantly. His gaze dropped. "I'm hired to stop the leaks," he mumbled, "and if this office is responsible for any of them I'm the man to find it out."
"Well, in the present instance your claim is sheer folly. I see you note here one hundred and fifty pounds shortage. What is your basis?" "I weighed them myself." Bart consulted his books. Then he turned again to Wacker. "This consignment was shipped as nine hundred and fifty pounds," he said. "It weighed that at the s...
"That's what the shipping agent says, yes." "And you claim eight hundred pounds?" "Exactly." "It was weighed up here when received--nine hundred and fifty pounds."
"Come off!" jeered Wacker. "Wasn't I an express agent once and don't I know the ropes? What receiving agent ever takes the trouble to re-weigh!" "My father did--I always do," announced Bart flatly. "Even if you did," persisted Wacker, "what little one-horse agent dares to dispute the big company's weight at the other e...
"Yes, I do--I am an expert!" "Sorry to disturb the profundity of your calculations, Mr. Wacker," said Bart quietly, "but in the present instance there could not possibly be any mistake. Our scales were burned up in the fire. The new ones have not yet arrived, and in the meantime, as a temporary accommodation, our weigh...
"What are you so anxious to catch us for?" inquired Bart coolly. "Never you mind--I'll get you!" Lem Wacker had said that before, and as he backed away Bart dismissed him with a shrug of his shoulders. There were too many practical things occupying his time to waste any on fancies. Bart had put in a very busy week, and...
Thanks to his brief, but thorough apprenticeship under his father's direction, he had acquired a knowledge of all the ins and outs of the office work proper. He had shown great diligence in clearing up the old business. In three days after taking official charge Bart had forwarded to headquarters all the claims coverin...
Bart had purchased the articles the roustabout had required, and that evening Baker came out from his hiding-place marvelously unlike the great-bearded, shock-headed individual Bart had previously known. A green patch and goggles, a deep brown face-stain, and a pair of thin artistically made "side-burns" comprised a pu...
Bart had half planned to hire Baker for what extra work he had to give out. He had to look about for someone else, and Darry Haven and his brother, Bob, alternately came around to the express office before and after school, and helped Bart. The company allowed for this extra service, but Bart had to take a separate vou...
The surgeon there had told him that his case was not at all hopeless, and the old express agent was cheerful and patient under his affliction, and nights Bart made a great showing of the necessity of going over the business of the day, so as to keep his father's mind occupied. So far Bart's affairs had settled down to ...
It was to take place in thirty days, and the superintendent had relied on Bart's judgment to make it a success. Darry Haven came in as Bart was laboring over an advertisement for the four weekly papers of Pleasantville and vicinity. "Here," he said promptly, "you are of a literary family. Suppose you take charge of thi...
"If you make the price right, of course," answered Bart. "We can afford to underbid them all," declared Darry; and so the matter was settled. "Oh, by the way," said Darry, as he was about to leave--"Lem Wacker's out of a job again." "You don't surprise me," remarked Bart, "but how is that?"
"Why, Martin & Company are buying green peppers at seventy cents a bushel. They heard that down at Arlington someone was offering them to the storekeepers at one dollar for two bushels, investigated, detected Dale Wacker peddling the peppers from factory bags, and found that his uncle, Lem, was mixed up in the affair. ...
"Value?" he asked. "Mrs. Harrington didn't say, and I don't know. If you saw all the finery in that trunk, though, you'd stare. You see, Mrs. Harrington is going to stay three weeks at the Springs, and is sending on her finest and best. I'll bet they amount to a couple of thousand dollars." Bart filled out a blank rece...
"That don't matter. The missus won't be going down to the Springs till Saturday." "You have just missed the afternoon express," went on Bart. "Yes, Lem Wacker said I would." "What has he got to do with it?" asked Bart.
"Why, nothing, I gave him a lift down the road, and he told me that." The driver departed. Bart stood so long looking ruminatively at the trunk that Darry Haven finally nudged his arm. "Hi! come out of it," he called. "What's bothering you, Bart?" "Nothing--I was just thinking."
"About that trunk, evidently, from the way you stare at it." "Exactly," confessed Bart. "I believe I am getting superstitious about anything connected with the Harringtons or the Wackers. Here, give me a lift." "All right. Where?" "Swing it up--I want to get it on top of the safe."
"What!" ejaculated Darry in profound amazement. "Yes, we don't handle property in the thousands every day in the week." "But the company is responsible only up to fifty dollars, when they don't pay excess." "That doesn't satisfy the shipper if there is any loss. I feel we ought to be extra careful until we get a new of...
Bart settled the trunk on top of the safe, and on top of that he set the lantern. When he locked up for the night he lit the lantern, and went over to the freight platform where the night watchman had just come on duty. Bart knew him well and liked him, and the feeling was reciprocal. He explained that a valuable trunk...
"Just take a casual glance over there on your rounds, will you, Mr. McCarthy?" he continued. "I certainly will. You set the lantern so it shows things inside, and I'll keep an eye open," acquiesced the watchman. Bart went home feeling satisfied and relieved at the arrangement he had made. All the same he did not sleep ...
CHAPTER XV AN EARLY "CALL" The young express agent was conscious that he shouted outright in his nightmare, for the trunk he was dreaming about as it struck him seemed to explode into a thousand pieces. The echoes of the explosion appeared to still ring in his ears, as he sat up and pulled himself together. Then he dis...
"Only five," he murmured, with a quick glance at the alarm clock on the bureau--"and someone at the front door!" Rat, tat, tat! it was a sharp, distinct summons. "Why," continued Bart briskly, jumping out of bed and hurrying on some clothes, "it's Jeff!" Jeff was "the caller" for the roundhouse. He was a feature in the...
"Something's up," ruminated Bart a little excitedly, as he ran down the stairs and opened the front door. "What is it, Jeff?" "Wanted," announced the laconic caller. "By whom?" "McCarthy, down at the freight house."
"What's wrong?" "He didn't tell---just asked me to get you there quick as your feet could carry you." "Thank you, Jeff, I'll lose no time." Bart hurried into his clothes. Clear of the house, he ran all the way to the railroad yards.
As he rounded into them from Depot Street, he came in sight of the express office. McCarthy, the night watchman, was seated on the platform looking down in a rueful way. He got up as Bart approached, and the latter noticed that he looked haggard, and swayed as though his head was dizzy. "What is it?" cried out Bart irr...
"I'm sorry, Stirling," said the watchman, "but--look there!" Bart could not restrain a sharp cry of concern. The express office door stood open, and the padlock and staples, torn from place, lay on the platform. He rushed into the building. Then his dismay was complete. "The trunk!" he cried--"it's gone!" "Yes, it is!"...
Bart cast a reproachful look at the watchman. The lantern, too, had disappeared. He sank to the bench, overcome. Finally he inquired faintly: "How did it happen?" "I only know what happened to me," responded the watchman. "I was drugged." "When--where--by whom?"
"It's guesswork, that, but the fact stands--I was dosed. You asked me to watch, and I did watch. Up to midnight that lantern on top of the trunk wasn't out of my sight fifteen minutes at a time." "And then?" questioned Bart. "I always go over to the crossing switch shanty about twelve o'clock to eat my lunch. The old s...
"Four hours afterwards--just a little while ago." "Then you--fell asleep?" said Bart. "Yes, I did, and no blame to me. I'm no skulker, as you well know. I never did such a thing before in all my ten years of duty here. I was doped." "How do you know that?" asked Bart.
"I warmed up the coffee and had my lunch," narrated the watchman. "Then I settled down for a ten minutes' comfortable smoke, as I always do. I felt sort of sickish, right away. I had noticed that the coffee tasted queer, but I fancied it might have been burned. Anyhow, half an hour ago I seemed to come out of a stupor,...

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