Show the AV w wrecker aab go radu W 11 Q by bv I 1 FRANCIS FRANC IS T LYNDE N D E LI copyright by charles berliners son bons THE PACE FACE AT THE WINDOW N Synopsis Graham norcross railroad manager and his secretary jimmy dodds are marooned at sand creek siding with a young lady shella sheila macrae and her small cousin baisle ann unseen they witness ft peculiar train holdup in which a special car to Is carried on off norcross rec ogus the car as that of john chadwick financial magnate whom he was to meet at portal city ha to and dodds rescue chadwick the latter offers norcross Nor croas the manager management nent of f the pioneer short line which Is in in the hands of eastern speculators bended by breckenridge dunton president of the line norcross BS learning that shella sheila macrae to la stopping at portal city accepts dodds overhears conversation between rufus latch hatch and gustave Ilen henckel ckel portal city financiers in which they admit complicity in chadwicke their object being to keep chadwick from attending a meeting of directors to reorganize the pioneer short line which would jeopardize ise their interests to curb the lie monopoly controlled by latch hatch and lien henckel ckel the red tower corporation norcross Nor croBa forms the citizens storage and warehouse company lie begins to manifest a deep interest in shella sheila macrae dodds learns that sheila Is married outliving but living apart from her husband norcross Nor croas does not know this the does boss disappears report has it that behas he has resigned and gone eone east jimmy turns turna vie cledth ith suspects he has been and effects hits hl rescue norcross resumes control of the pioneer short line refusing to give place to DIs Dl whom dunton has sent to take charge as general manager jimmie follows an emissary of the red tower p on norcross Nor croas to a coal yard where he overhears a plot to arrest arfst th bosn a murder chorge lie ile frustrates it and thereby drives his enemies tg desperate meni meaurx me aurs CHAPTER IX continued it was up to me to move again was striking matches and holding bottling them so that Cla Clann lian could look under the cars and I 1 could feel in anticipation the shock of a bullet from the big gun in the dive keepers fat list fist as I 1 crawled cautiously out on do the far side creeping along behind the string of coal curs cars I 1 came presently to the great gantry crane used lor for unloading the fuel it was a huge traveling machine straddling tile the tracks and a good port part of the yard and the clamshell clam shell grab bucket was down resting on oil its two lips on the ground at first I 1 thought of climbing to the framework frame work of the crane and trying to hide bide on the big bridge beam then I 1 saw that the he two halves of the clam chell bucket buchet were slightly open just wide enough to let me ina squeeze in it if they were looking tor for a full sized man tarbell for instance who was as husky us as a farm hand never think of that crack in the bucket and in another second I 1 had wriggled through the V shaped opening aud and was sitting humped up in one of the halves of the clamshell clam clow shell that was a mighty good guess when hatch batch came back with his gun they combed that coal yard with a fine tooth comb a lantern that hatch had gotten from somewhere and missing no hole or corner where a roan man might hide bide save and excepting only the one I 1 had bad preempted pre empted As it happened the search wound up finally under the crane with the three standing so near that I 1 could have reached out ot of the crack between the bucket halves and touched them der has gone mit himself ofer der fence yes puffed henckel and then vot for iss he shoot off dem pistols en clanahan confessed I 1 suppose because he knew he would have to sooner or later it was a holdup hold up he growled th warrants war ranta gone out av my pocket hatcha hatchs comment on this was fairly y bloodcurdling blood curdling in its profanity then its up to you to get him some other way you blundering son of a thief 1 ne raged 1 1 I dont care what you do but if you dont make this country too hot to hold him its going to get too hot to hold you I 1 and what more he was going to say I 1 dont know tor for at that moment a belated police patrol began pounding at the gates on the town side and want vi to know what all the shooting was about it was after they hadell gone away leaving the big coal yard in silence and darkness that I 1 got mine good and hard sitting all bundled bunched up in the grab bucket and waiting for my chance to climb out and make a getaway the common senac reaction came and saw what I 1 had done with the best intentions in the world in trying to mil kill off the chance offered to the enemy by the oregon warrant and the trumped up charge of murder I 1 had bad merely saved bayed the boss an arrest a i rest and a possible legal tangle and ila bad put him in peril of ills his life CHAPTER X the man at the window of course the farst thing I 1 did the lie morning after that adventure in the lie coal ynid yard vas it as to tell tile the boss nil about it and I 1 was just foxy enough to do it when mr air ripley was present mr norcross say much all onil for flint matter neither did the lawyer though he hd did ask tile the boss a question or two about tile the real facts in ili ue the 11 idland of M uy squabble but I 1 noticed after that hut that cur roan man tarbell was continually turning up tip nt at oil all sorts of times throes und and in nil all sorts of 0 odd places so I 1 took it flint ripley hail bad given him ills tip and that hut lie he ans sort of body bod guarding mr air norcross on the quiet though I 1 am sure in re the boss bois know anything about that lint part of it t lie he was such a square tighter fighter himself flint lie he probably have stood for cor 1 I t f tie lie lind had meanwhile things grew warmer andl and warmer in III the lie tussle we ne were ir waking taking to pull the old short line out of the mud w warmer arnier in ili a number of ways anys bec because aure in ili addition to the fight for the hie rumar L i we tsau just j then to line have a perfect epidemic of wrecks the boss turned tile the material trouble over to mr air van britt and devoted leo ted himself pretty strictly to the public side of things everywhere and on every occasion at dinners at the dlf dif ferent chambers of commerce and public banquets given to tills this tint flint or the other visiting bigwig big wig he was always ready to get on his feet and tell the people that the true prosperity of the country carried with it the prosperity of the railroads that the two things were viere onland one and inseparable and that when it came right down to baste basic facts the railroads were real really y a part of the progress machinery of the country at large and should be regarded not as alien tax collectors but as contributors tribu tors to the general prosperity and welfare by this time also red bed tower consolidated soli dated was beginning t to 0 find out what it meant to have active tive competition the C S IV re people were hammering their new plants into working shape and they were getting the patronage both of the producers and consumers hand over fist track facilities and yard service were granted freely and while no discrimination was permitted as against thi the red lied tower people the friendly attitude of the road counted for something as it was bound to during those few pro pre election weeks the new york end of us seemed to have petered out completely we heard beard nothing more from president dunton Di inton borse worse than an occasional wire complaint about the number of wrecks we were having though the stock was still going down point by point and so far as a man up a tree could see we were making no attempt to bow abow net earnings were all our money into betterments as fast as it came in I 1 knew that go on without a flurry of some sort the new yorkers would never be able to break even to say nothing of 6 profit and I 1 looked every day tor for it a hoal that would tear things straight up the back while all these threads were weaving along im sorry to say that I 1 yet drummed up the courage I 1 had butted in with a telegram to tell the boss bos tile the truth about sirs airs sheila lie he kept on going to tile the mi jors every chance lie had and anti ann was making lite lire miserable for lite me because c I 1 toll told him calling me a coward wid everything under the sun still I 1 told her to tell him herself and she retorted hint flint I 1 knew slie bile nt flint it was ill my job find nobody elsos we fussed bussed over it a lot nud I 1 most railways contrived some excuse to 0 o chase ou to tile mie kendrick kt house nt at tile the boss 1 heets 1 1019 merely to help tarbell Ti irbell kepp keep cases ciliNe Fl on him there were plenty of chances for tile the fussing it wits i one of these chasing trips to Keni kenwood that hint the roof fell in the major and ila gone out somewhere to 0 o the th theoter enter I 1 guess faking ms his wife vire and ann and the bos anti anil mrs airs shella sheila were sitting together tog ellier in the majors inn jorg den on with a little coal blac in the basket grate because the nights flights were bagi ix ailing to 10 gut get a bit chilly 1 ila had butted in with a telegram which might just ns as well have stood over until the next nest morning if you want to know after illiad had delivered it mrs sheila gave nie me that funny little laugh of hers and told me to go built in tile the pentry and see it if I 1 C could find a piece of pie and aie tie boss added that flint if ill wait hed go back to town with me pretty soon I 1 fount found the pie and ate it in the dining l I 1 room oom making noise enough about it so that they could know I 1 was waa there if they ivain wanted ted to but they went real right oil talking and paid no attention to me do you know Sl iella they had bad long since got past the mr 11 and mrs airs 1 youve been the greatest poi possible help to me in this rough housh all the way along the boss was saying you have liew held roe me up to III lie rack time and again when I 1 have been ready to throw it nil all let go why llave have you done it I 1 heard the little laugh again and she sold said it Is worth something to io have a friend odd as it may seem grubart Gru barn I 1 have been singularly poverty in that respect and I 1 have wonted wanted to see you ou succeed though you ou are still calling it merely a business deal it Is really a mission you know crammed full of good things to a struggling world if you do succeed and I 1 mil am sure sure you are going to 10 you ou will leave this ahls community and hundreds of others vastly the better for what you are doing and demonstrating but that Is mans amans a point of view the boss persisted illow how do you yet get it you ore are all woman you know and your mixing and mingling at least since I 1 have known you has all b been een purely social how do you get the big overlook 1 I dont know I 1 was foolish and frivolous once like most young girls I 1 suppose but we all grow older and we ae ought to grow wiser besides the woman has the advantage of the man in one respect she has time to think end and plan andi and reason things out as a busy man liman cant have your tour lern lem has bus seemed very simple to me from the lie very beginning it asked fo a strong man and ad an honest one you were to take charge of f a piece of property that had been abused and knocked about and used as a means meana of extortion and oppression and you were to make it good again that Is a mans point ot of view oh no she protested quickly there it 14 no sex rex in ethics women are the natural house cleaners perhaps but that saying that a mian man cant bo be on too ton if lie nants vian ts to be at AtI this the boss got up and began to tramp up and down the room I 1 could hear bear him I 1 knew shed hed been be having the biggest kind of a job to keep him shut up in tills this sort of abstract corral when all the time he vas nas loving her fit to kill but apparently parent ly she had been doing it successful cess fully lv there the faintest breath of sentiment in the air not the slightest whiff when she began again I 1 could somehow feel that s she he was just in time to prevent ills his breaking out into all sorts of love making the time has come now when you must take another leaf out 0 of f my book she said bald with just the proper little cooling tang in her voice up to the present you I 1 have love been hammering your way to the end like a strong man rind and hint flint was right but you have been more or less reckless and on hint flint right or falcor just to a lot of other people the tramping stopped mid and I 1 heard him soy say 1 I dont know what you incon 1 11 I moan that matters have ahne come to such a puss poss now that you cant afford to tale tiny risks per risks if tin tile plan lite lie enemy Is trying tiding work orl it will hill try another and a more desp enite oil ain youve youe been talking to ripley lie he laughed ripley wants ants me to become a gun to PI and provide myself with a body hod gearil id look well I 1 hut but what filut to ilo you ion menn mean by tile plan ait lie e enemy Is no now tr trying I 1 n g ire she hesitated a and it tiler ill aid 1 I shall make no cani ch nigos because I 1 alae ave no ao proof nut but I 1 read lend the newspapers aind mr air van britt tells me now lint and then you ou are lieving 11 ji terrible lot of wi wre clia that Is werely merely bad luck lie rejoined easily Nash rips Is no part of true cour site she interpolated calmly As ag it private you sity hint flint your tire lire I 1 Is your own ili that you hate it perfect right to ID risk it a ns you asni ill as ii tile hie general gon irn of abc roll road with n lot it if your youl friends holding oell e you you cant say bay that besles Hes Besl ldes ds you boll are fight ing for a cause and that ginise wilt will strind or fall with you you ought to he 1 a I nir or of fill new reform legislature flat tl ul some ot ol our good frienda think Is urt up 1 lie e I 1 pike lk t ie Q i lint blit alic ill len orcil 1 1 the 1 g boil natured gibe alful inside hille cilip listen 1 I MIS its visiting a n iny flay or two lit it ih aln capital dinst areek all nicil nr in fluent ex nt lit 11 vork 01 k hull yim ilat kaw aliona if tile lil tili your administration a failure it wont hesitate to get rid of yuu you in tile the easiest way that offers there was silence in the majors ilen den for a minute or so and then the boss wa w A ai As usual you know more than you are are willing tyl lIng to tell me noll not was the prompt answer perhaps I 1 am only the onlooker who can usually see things rather better alin ther lier persona sons actu actually I 1 involved hitherto I 1 have burgad urged you to be hold bold and then again to be hold bold now I 1 am begging you to be prudent in what way careful for yourself for example yu you walked out here tills this evening dont do that any more come in a taxi and dont come alone I 1 see ills frown of disagreement but I 1 knew well enough it was there there chere spoke the woman in you he said if I 1 should show the white ten feather th er that way have some excuse tor for potting me there was v ns a silence again and I 1 got up quietly and crossed the dining room to the big recessed rec rece sRed window where I 1 stood looking out into the darkness of the tree lawn it was pretty evident that mrs shella sheila knew a heap more then than slie she was telling the boss just as lie he had said and I 1 help wondering how she clime came to know it what she said about the increased number of wrecks looked like a pointer was ashe 1 in touch with the enemy enemy ln in som awny way then my mind went back in a flash to what cihat maisie ann had told rue me was tbt th |