Show A STORY WILY WHY HK HE IS 18 NOT HOT OS ON THE FORCE 1 l ANY ANYMORE MOKE two men sat toge together in the rear seat of a smoking car on one of our railroads and chatted familiarly of the ups and downs clowns of miners life tle t e topic being suggested by a landscape dotted with coal breakers aud and furrowed with coal roada the freedom and interest of their conversation did not seem to be dampened by the fact that the younger of the two carried a revolver while his companion wore a pair of those articles of ef jewelry which are known in criminal circles qa as bracelets the few persons who had observed them learned from the confidential brakeman that they were a noted detective and his prisoner on the way to trial As far as ages went the pair might have been taken for father and son the line fine gray bead of the one contrasting tr strongly with the crisp brown curls curia 0 of his bis captor what crime had bad been committed the brakeman brake maa did not know but hazarded a conjecture coE cor jecture that it must have been a pretty bad one or gaorge have took the trouble to put them things on his wrists presently toe brakeman brake maB and the conductor the I 1 joint demands of etiquette and curiosity by stopping to exchange a few words with the detective the former then perched himself upon the direct directly lr behind the prisoner and the latter atter dropped magnificently into the seat in hront the train was sweeping around a curve and past a ruined trestle on the hillside at which both of the pas pasa 4 engerg looked with some sume interest 1 11 I remember that place baid the 0 old d man so do d I 1 ll 11 responded responded the younger 1 I was born there camb near being buried there too I 1 he resumed after 4 a moments how was that atsa its a pretty long story said aard the detective but I 1 guess well have time for it between this and the next station way up there donahe OH be slope IB the little settlement where I 1 made my debut so to speak from it to tile the bot bos torn tom of the hill there used to be a gravity road a long winding track reaching from the settlement down to the top ot of a bank baumwall bau kwall wali of earth where a slide occurred the year I 1 was boru born on both sides of the track grew sap hugs that had sprung up nines the dis aster what I 1 am telling you occurred flye anve years yeara later and they crowded the road and hung over the old hd raire rails on which the coal cars used to 0 run you yau must remember that the houses houses were burt built near the mouth of the pit that was one of the first mines worked in and one of the first to be abandoned time I 1 am telling about some men were walking up track and a lot of children playing near the top climbing in and out 0 of f un old car which bad lain there since it made its last tri trip p with ae ie broken spraggs still ir in its wheels w I 1 the men were miners all but one of them I 1 who questioned his bis co companions apan about their work and the country they lived in lie he was evidently a stranger presently as they talked a shout from the top of the slope attracted their attention and they looked up just in time to see the car begin to move so slowly aly do down wa the grade there was an impatient exclamation from the eldest man in the party them brats is al always way s up to some so me mis chief he said they have started that old thing off at last ive been expecting pectin ex ial to see it go at anytime any time this live five year 1 be breaking their necks yet wita their tom feeling 1 and another of the group added we must dust out of this lively unless we want to detour get our necks broke shell either jump the rail or go to pieces at the bottom lucky there aint no one aboard of her s the stranger was looking anxiously up at the approaching runaway his quick ebie eyie had caught sil sight of something round and golden above the car rim theres a child in that car he said quietly if was a second or two before his companions realized the awful meaning of that statement A child that was as if he had said that in a few moments some one perhaps one of themselves them relves would be childless with one impulse they turned to look at the broken rails at the be edge of the fault Shuddering ring they fixed their eyes eves again on the approaching mass theu hopelessly at each other they could not dream ot of stopping the progress ot of the car But quick as thought almost the stranger took hold bold of a sapling eagling and bent it down till it nearly touched the track hold on he said to one of the men it t will help to check her hen A rod further down another and then a baird and fourth were held IS ift the same way bolour so lour of the party waited for a few breathless seconds while the two remaining ones hurried further down but one more effort and the car was upon them the arst obstacle was whipped out of the hands of the strong man who held e I 1 d it and the car rushed on to the SC second od with hardly lessened force again the barrier was brushed aside but this time the speed of the old wreck was perceptibly less by the time the fifth obstruction was reached the newcomer was able to clamber aboard and throw the child into the arms of his compan before be had time to save him bun sell the old truck had bad regained some thing of its momentum and was wag plunging on t toward oward the preci precipice pico well abe man jumped justas lust as they reached the edge just before his re hide hicle shot over into the airout he be bj very little time to choose his brou and so landed as luck would have on the only heap of stones in al sighs gh the others picked him up lor for dead and n carried him up to the settlement where the miners held a regular wake over him but he came to life la in the middle of the abe festin the obsequies I 1 mean sod and found that he was only crippled for life the miners folks not easily moved were enthusiastic about tha th affair and gave such testimonials as they could to show their gratitude and appreciation one of these expressions took the form farm of a souvenir signed sidled by every man io in the place and stating ta ia very grandiloquent laug language gage what the poor fellow had done doile his quick wit seemed tg to baem more wonderful than abis courage and devotion in a community where neither quality is unusual at all the man who takes his bis own life in his hand every day and has frequently to tight fight for the life of some companion values a brainy action in the box with the testimonial was a purse of fifty dollars and a curious old g gold old cross that had been treasured by the brother of the abe lad who was saved as his one piece of fluery finery on etwas it was rude rudely engraved these words I 1 given ven by the miners at the notch to the man who risked hi life for a child that was all the poor fellow went away and would have been forgotten only that the old eld miners told the story sometimes to their children the prisoner was looking out of the window windo fv the conductor rustled around as though ashamed of the interest he be had shown in the story a 11 story which he be did not doubt was pure fiction only the brakeman brake maa gave way to his sympathy and asked whether the mailhan ever been found not that I 1 know of replied the dett detective active I 1 and was you the boy booy that mat ne he saved 1 I was the kid I 1 and you never heerd tell what be came of the man what would y yon on do if you chuld come acrobat hi him in some time evidently the brakeen brake brak mn emun had an imaz lostion which was trying to assert itself oh id try to even the thing thin up somehow I 1 suppose common decency ncy would demand that id treat RG him as well as I 1 knew how 11 look here said the prisoner turning from the window with an apparent effort to change a conversation which for some reason had not seemed to interest him look here old man ive got a little keepsake klepsa that your story just reminded ren I 1 me of and if I 1 could get at it id al aar kill you ou to take charge of ef it for me e t tiu I 1 11 ill this thing is over if yot re pat t boar handin band in there and pull out th that it bit of ribbon so 11 the conductor almost lumped jumped out of his bis seat blamed it if it aint the cro cross that youve just been telling about go is be e shouted A mouth month bater later the detective was undergoing der going a cross examination by the conductor and brakeman yes he was a bad lot oh yes he have a leg to stand upon the he facts were all as clear as day dav all true about the cross and the rest of it just as true as gospel what bad he been doing throwing bombs bomba the last thins thing punished well nell to tell you the truth they wont be apt to punish him till they catch him again I 1 guess the tae tact fact is he got away from me somehow that same night who me oh no im not on the lorce force any more ive been bounced lowll lovoll mw courier |