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Show A. Jfl iLIIUCl WilliamMacHorg j ' I ' 1 ' - l.e'e I'.ir.vn ro-0 C:rn ;,: ny j niE TEtCCHAM j C orl :l Warden. " .1 r t f-n 1 i t rr ! - j 1st, tilij I1I.4 LulU-r lej is eNoeehr,;,' h , jl. rr, to bo ;elioi'.ieil wiiie'ii: : :;.tr o !.,.!. II- j:,f..fi! hi '.'! il::ir:-r ti..i! thr -ulei.s loot if n; ,e.i:uei ;i umivm htr ro s . 1 ! r. liit: oeiy io norfiloe nr.e. Vanli:- leaves 11. 1- i.e. ise 111 hia car nni! meet;-; 11 ii.-iti , em he takfs ln the 10:1-'lioie. 10:1-'lioie. (V'heii the r :i r r-; u 1 ri home, Wm'Um is found tt. -tel. murdered, and alone. '1 iie e-ti'er. n voiim ni:ni, hris been at V.'urdi.:f9 house, liut leaves unobserved. Huh t'on-nery, t'on-nery, oonductor, receives orders to lioM train fo a party, Five men nd a yirl Ooard the train, ttie I'a.aern Kyrress. The father of the irtrl, Mr. rrns, Is the person lor whom ir.c train was held, t'tilllp I. Kator. a yotiiii? man, also hoarded the train. Ijorne tells his daughter anil his seeretary, Don Avery, to lind out what they can eoiicernintf 1dm. Tho two mQke I. 'a ton's acquaintance. CHA YER III Continued. 3 "You tin ?n " The sentence, obviously, obvi-ously, wan one "she felt It better not to finish. Aa though be? recognized that now the must wish the conversation conversa-tion to end, lie got up. She rose stiffly. "I'll see you Into your enr, if you're returning there," he offered. Neither spoke, ns he went with her Into (he next car; and nt the section where her Anther sat, Eaton bowed silent ly, norldtpd to Avery, who coldly returned his nod, and left her. Eaton went on iato his own car and sat down, his thoughts In mad confusion. 1 How near he had come to talking to Ihls girl about himself, even though he had felt from the first that that was what she was trying to make him do! Was lie losing his common sense? Was the self-command on which he had so counted that he had darod to take this train rlesertln.tr him? He felt that he must not see Harriet Dome ngalii alone. In Avery he had recognized, by that Instinct which so strangely divines the personalities one meets, an enemy from the start; Dome's attitude toward him, of course, wan not yel defined; as for Harriet Dome he could not ie'l whether she was prepared to he his enemy or friend. Eaton went Inlo the me s's compartment compart-ment of his car, where he sat smoking smok-ing till after the train as under way again. The porler look id in upon hlui there to ask If lie wished his berth made up now; Eaton nodded assent, and fifteen minutes later, dropping the cold end of his cigar and going out Into the car, he found the berth ready for him. A half hour later tho passage of someone through the aisle anil the sudden dimming of the crack of light which showed above the curtains cur-tains told him that I lie lights in the car hart been turned flown. Eaton closed his eyes, but sleep was far from him. Presently he oegan to feel the train beginning to labor with the increasing grade and the deepening fiimv. It was rearing the mountains, and the weather weath-er was getting colder and the storm more severe. Euton lifted the curtain from the window beside him and leaned on one elbow to look out. The train was running through a bleak, white desolation; no light and no sign Eaton Went Into the Men's Compartment Compart-ment of Hi3 Car, Whore He Sat Smoking Till After the Train Was Under Way Again. of 'habitation showed anywhere. The events of t lip day ran through his mind agai.i will) sinister suggestion. He had taken that train for a certain detinlie, dangerous purpose which required re-quired ids remaining its obscure and as. inconspicuous as possible: yet al-p;ndj al-p;ndj be bad been singled 011: for t-tnt t-tnt (:. Rt far, he was sure, ho had 1 eivoil m ciore than that aiten-tbtf. aiten-tbtf. curlos'ly concerning him. lie had nor suffered recognition; but that might cure at any nicroent. Could he risk longer waiting to ct? lie dropped on his back on the boil end lay with Ids bands clasped under b: la-ad. his eves staring up at the r i),' of ice t:r. Jr. t'o -! ,"oon 1 of lite observation rr. r. ;i!n;.h r I'm! or.nversatiro' c':!: t.o ;r. fro time: r'"-t I o'niin- ishid as oiw by one the passengers went away to lied. Connery, loi.':lng into this car, found It empty and the poller cleaning up; he slowly passed on forward thiough the train, stopping momonlnrily in the rear Pullman opposite op-posite Hie berth of the passenger whom President Jarvis hail commended commend-ed to his care. His scrutiny of the car told him all was correct here; the even breathing within the berth as sared him the passengers slept. Connery had been becoming more certain hour by hour all through the evening that they were going to have great diiliculty In getting the train through. Though bo knew by President Presi-dent Jarvis' note that the oliicials of the road must he watching the progress prog-ress of tabs fspecJal train with particular par-ticular interest, be had received no train orders from the west for several sev-eral hours. Ills Inquiry at the las! stop had told him the reason for this; the telegraph wire.i to the west had gone down. To the east communication communica-tion was still open, but bow long it would remain so he could not guess. Here in the deep heart of ihe great mountains they bad passed the Idaho boundary line into Montana they were getting the full effect of the slorm; their progress, increasingly slow, was broken by stops which were becoming f refluent and longer as they struggled on. At Fracrnft the station where he was to exchange the ordinary plow which so far had sufficed, and couple on the "rotary" to fight (he moun tain- drifts ahead Connery swung himself down from the train, looked in at the telegraph oliioe and then went forward to the two giant locomotives, loco-motives, on whose sweating, monstrous mon-strous hacks the snow, suddenly visible vis-ible In (he haze of their lights, melted as it fell. As they started, he swung aboard and In the brightly lighted men's compartment of the first Pullman Pull-man checked up his report sheets with a stub of pencil. Again they slopped once more went on. Connery. having put his papers into his pocket, dozed, awoke, dozed again. The progro:-s of the train halted again and again; several times il backed, charged forward again only to stop, bad; and charge again and then go on. Put this did not disturb dis-turb Connery. Then something went wrong. All at once he found himself, by a trainman's Instinctive and automatic action, upon his feet ; for the shock bad been so slight us barely to be felt, far too slight certainly to have awakened nnr of the sleeping passengers passen-gers in their berths. He went to the door of the car, lifted the platform stop, threw open the door of the vestibule ves-tibule and hanging himself by one hand to the rail, swung himself out from the side of the car and looked ahead. He saw the forward one of the two loci. -iioth cs wrapped in clouds of steam, ard men arm-deep in snow wallowing forward to the rotary still farther to the front, and the sight conformed con-formed fully to his apprehension that this halt was more important ami likely to last much longer than those that had gone before. CHAPTER IV Are You Hillward? The bell In the washroom at the end of the car was ringing violently, and someone was reinforcing Ills ring with a stentor'an call for "Porter ! Porter!" Eaton realized that It was very cold in his berth also that the train, which was standing still, had been in that motionless condition for some time. He (brew up the window curtain cur-tain as he appreciated that, and, looking look-ing out. found that he faced a great unbroken bank of glistening white snow as high ns the top of the ear at this point and rising even higher ahead. He listened, therefore, while the Englishman for the voice calling to the porter was his extracted all available information from the negro. "Porter, where are we?" "Between Eracroft and Simons, sun." "Yet?" "Yessuh, ylf!" "That foolish snow still?" "Yessuh ; and snow some more, sub?" "But haven't we the plow still ahead?" "Oh. yessuh: the plow's ahald. We still got It; but that's all, sub. It ain't doin' much; It's busted." "Eh what?" "Yessuh busted! There was right smart of n slide across the track, and the crew, I understands, diagnosed It Jus' fo' a snow bank and dotie bucked right into It. But they was rock In this, sub; lie's lay hi right below a bill; and that rock jus' busted that rotary like a Belgium shell hit It. Yessuh pieces of that rotary essentially essen-tially scattered themselves In four directions di-rections besides backwards and fo'-wards. fo'-wards. We ain't done much travelln' since then." Eaton no longer paid attention. "Snowed In and stopped since four!" T:ie realization startled him with the necessity of taking it into account in his plans. He Jerked himself him-self up In Ids berth and began pulling bis clothes down from the hooka ; then. ns-abruptly, he stopped dressiag and sat absorbed in thought. He had let himself sink back against tho pillows, while ho stared, unseeingly, at the solid bank of snow beside the car, wlien the door at the farther end of the coach opened and Conductor Connery Con-nery entered, calling a name. "Mr. Hillward! Mr. Lawrence Hill-ward! Hill-ward! Telegram for Mr. Hillward!" Eaton started at the first call of the name; he sat up and faced about. The conductor was opposite Section Three; Eaton now waited tensely and delayed until the conductor was past ; then putting bis head out or his curtains cur-tains be hailed as (he conductor was going through the door. "What name? Who Is that telegram tele-gram for?" "Mr. Lawrence Hillward." "Oh, thank you; then that's mine." Connery held back. "1 thought your name was Hatou." "It Is. Mr. Hillward Lawrence Hillward is an associate of mine who expected to make this trip with me but could not. So I should have telegrams tele-grams or other communications addressed ad-dressed to him. is there anything to sign ?"' "So, sir train delivery." Eaton drew his curtains close again and ripped the envelope open ; but before be-fore reading the message lie observed with alarm that bis pajama Jacket had opened across the chest, and a small round scar, such as that left by a high-powered bullet penetrating, was exposed. He gasped almost audibly, au-dibly, realizing this, and clapped his band to his chest and buttoned his jacket. The message nine words without signature lay before him: "Thicket knot youngster omniscient issue foliage lecture tragic Instigation." Instiga-tion." It was some code which Eaton recognized rec-ognized but could no: decipher at once. The conductor was still standing stand-ing In the aisle. "When did you get this?" Eaton asked, looking out. "Just now. That message came through yesterday some time and was waiting for you nt Simons; when we got them this morning they sent It on." "I see; thanks." Eatoa. assured that If the conductor had seen anything he suspected no significance in what he saw. closed his curtains and buttoned Iietn carefully. The conductor moved 011. Eaton took a small English-Chinese pocket dictionary from his vest pocket and opened it under cover of the blanket; counting five words up from "thicket" he found "they"; five down from "knot" gave him "know"; six up from "youngster" was "you"; six down, from "omniscient" was "one;" seven up fror.i "issue" was "Is;" and so continuing, be translated the words to: "They know you. One is following. Leave Iraki Insiailly." Eaton, nervous anil jerky, as he completed the first six words, laughed as he compiled the tinal three. "Leav-i train instantly!" The humor of lhat advice in his present situation, as he looki'ii out the window at the solid bank of snow, appealed to him. A waiter from the dining oar came back, announcing the first call for breakfast, anil spurred him Into action. ac-tion. Passengers from the Pullman at the rear passed Eaton's section for the diner. He heard Harriet Pome's voicp in some quiet conventional re mark to the man who followed her. Eaton started at it; then he dressed swiftly and hurried inio the now deserted de-serted washroom and then on to breakfast. Harriet Pome v. as sitting facing the door at ilie second of the larger tables; opposite her. and with his back to Eaton, sat Donald Avery. A third place was laid beside the girl, as though they expected Dome to join them; but they bail begun theii fruit without wailing. The girl glanced up as Eaton halted In the doorway; her blue eyes brightened with a look part friendliness, pari purpose. "()h, Mr. Eaton." she smiled "wouldn't yon like to sit with us? 1 don't think Father is coming to breakfast break-fast now; and If he does, of coursi there's still room." She pulled back the chair beside hei enticingly: and Eaton accepled il. "Good morning, Mr. Avery," he said to Miss Dome's companion formally as be sat down, and the man across the table murmured something perforce. per-force. As Eaton ordered his breakfast, In appreciated for the first time that Ids coming had interrupted a conversation conversa-tion or rather a sort of monologue of complaint 011 the part of .Si mulish addressed impersonally to Avery. They engaged in conversation ns they breakfasted a conversation in which Avery look almost no part, though Miss Porno Hied openly to draw liini in ; then the sudden entrance en-trance of Connery, followed closely by a stout, brusque man who belonged to the rear Pullman, took Eaton's attention at-tention and hers. "Which is him?" the man itii Con nery demanded loudly. Connery cheekeik him out pointed at the same time to Eaton. "That's him, Is itt" the other man said. "Then go nlufld." Eaton observed ' 1 1 -4 1 Avery, woo IwiJ I turned in his seat, was watchl:', this diversion on the part 'of the conductor with interest. Connery fit ipped beside be-side Eaton s seat. "You took a telegram for Lawrence Hillward this morning," he rsserted. "Yes." "Why?" "Because it was mine, or meant for me, us I si.id at the time. My name is Eaton; but Mr. Hillward expecieo to make this trip with me." The stout man with the conductor forced himself forward. "That's pretty good, but not quite good enough !" he charged. "Cenuac-tor, "Cenuac-tor, get Jhat telegram for me '." Eaton got up, controlling ilmsei! under the insult of the other's manner. "What business Is it of yours?" bo demanded. "What business? Why, only that I'm Lawrence Hillward that's all, my friend! What are you up to. anyway' Lawrence Hillward traveling witf-you witf-you ! I never set eyes on you until 1 saw you on this train; and you take my telegram!" The charge was madf loudly and distinctly; every one In the dining car Eaton could not see every one. but he knew It was so had put down fork or cup or spoon and was staring nt him. "What did if nil "Mr. Eaton," She Smiled, "Wouldn't You Like to Sit With Us?" you do It for? What did you wanl with It?" the stout man blared on. "Did you think I wasn't on the train? What?" Ea'on felt he was paling as he faced the blustering smaller man. He realized that the passengers he could see those at the smaller tables already had judged his explanation and found him wanting; the others unquestionably had done the same. Avery was gazing up at him with a sort of contented triumph. "The telegram was for me, Conductor!" Conduc-tor!" he repeated. . "Get that telegram, Conductor!" the stout man demanded again. "I suppose," Connery suggested, "you have letters or a card or some thing, Mr. Enton, to show your re latlonshlp to Lawrence Hillward." "No. I have not." Connery gazed from one claimant to the other. "Will you give this gen-ilemai- the telegram?" he asked Eatoa "I will not." "Then I shall furnish him another copy; It wf.s received here on the I rain by our express clrk as the operator. op-erator. I'll go forward a.id get him an other copy." "That's for yon to aclde," Eaton said; and as though the matter wa9 closed for him, he resumed his seat-, lie was aware that, throughout the car the passengers were watching him curiously. "Are you ready to go back to our car now, Harriet?" Avery inquireil when she had finished her breakfast, (hough Eaton was not yet through. "Surely (here's no hurry -about anything any-thing today," the girl returned. They waited until Eaton had finished. "Shall we all go back to the observation obser-vation car and see if there's a walk down (he track or whether It's snowed over?" she said impartially to the two They went through the Pullmans together. to-gether. The lirst Pullman contained four or live passengers: the next, In which Eaton had bis berth, was still empty as they passed through. The next Pullman aiso, at lirst glance, seemed to have been deserted In favor of the diner forward or of the club-car farther far-ther back. The porter had made m all the berths t here also, except one; but someone was still sleeping behind tile curtains of Section Three, for a man's hand hung over the aisle. It was a gentleman's hand, with long, well-formed fingers, sensitive and at the same time strong. Thnt was the berth of Harriet Dome's lather; Eaton Ea-ton was the last of the three to pass, and so the others did not notice his start; but so strong was the fascination fascina-tion of the hand in the aisle that he iiirned back and gazed at it before going on into- the last car. .Son eight or ten passengers men and iviiincn were lounging in t lie easy-chairs easy-chairs of the observation room; a couple, ulstered and fur-capped, wi'e standing on the platform gazing back fi'oui tlie train. I "No, No! Isn't this isn't this Basil Santoinc?" ITU fi. CuN'l 1NL Kt-'.'f |