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Show - : 1 I An Eye For An Eye j 1 I(Tmrys YEN a phrenologist vfWl jtfk might have found a III BntA prominence ou one II IW1 portion of the Ik v4k tramP'8 cranium fl fri course, was hardly VJ S worth the mention-iMLJ""! mention-iMLJ""! n" e bad a Pa'r I of sleepy blue eyes, I and a straggling yellowish beard; ho wore a coat that had been an overcoat, a ve9t that had been an army blouse, no shirt, trousers trous-ers and shoes of the common fashion of trampdom. But to the well, whatever it was After all. vengeance was the predominating predomi-nating thing In it When he was a boy, his father had sold the very finest fin-est farm In his county and moved to a nearby town, where the had been welcomed into the best society long enough to be fleeced. After ten years of unavailing struggling, the father had died very poor, and soon afterward after-ward the mother had goDe, too. leaving leav-ing their one child to be cuffed about like any ordinary street arah Then Tom Linebaugh had become a tramp He went back to the little city every three or four years, always in the winter, for the little city was in the South and he didn't know why he went back, for they kicked him out of the city limits each time! And Lonesome Lone-some Tom a few other tramps who knew him called him that because he wasn't very social would have sold the immortal part of him to the Ruler of the oldtlme fiery Pit to get even with the people of Johnsvllle. Lonesome Tom was again on his way to Johnsvllle. In fact he lacked but twenty-five miles of being there. His blue eyes were glittering now. He forgot to shiver at the biting wind. His dirty fists were clenched in his pockets. His strung-up tomato-can banged his right hip with unwonted rapidity as his footsteps trod tho gravel beside the tracks and made a noise like tho noise a mule makes when chewing hard corn. Then his fiery eyes caught sight of a sudden sparkle in the gravel just ahead. He stooped and picked up a diamond necklace worth many thousand of dollars' dol-lars' He thought of the special that had passed him, going toward .Johnsvllle, .Johns-vllle, five minutes before, that was a pari of the answer. Vengeance was in his hands at last! For money would buy vengeance. Ho would go to a big city, sell one of the very smallest of the diamonds, dress himself neatly with the proceeds then sell the other stones and go to hated .Tohnsville. He would work out the rest of it more leisurely. Then he realized that the necklace would be missed, and that they would search his clothing if they found him and It was plain to him that they would find him. So Lonesome Tom put the valuable thing in his tomato-can. pressed the tin together at the top, crossed a fence, walked across a meadow and threw his find into the middle of a thick briar copse Then he went back to the railroad and set out for a village he had passed through two hours before; he would wait there until the excitement died down. The wind was higher, and it was now in his face. He turned his coat collar up as hiph as It would go, and pulled his shaggy, yellowish head downward for tho sake of warmth He came to so gradually that he was hardly surprised to find himself Iving in a bed in the private car of a railroad president. Above him burned a bright lieht; about him stood two big men with pointed beards, a young woman prettier than the beauties of art calendars, and a black man with a white towel on one arm. His nose seemed unnaturally white; he knew it had been washed; he lifted one hand to his head, and felt a bandago there The doctor interfered: "Careful, my man! Rest easy now." "Please pellucldate," growled Lonesome Lone-some Tom, his gaze resting not upon the doctor's face, but upon the young woman's eyes. "Rest easy now," repeated the physician. "You'll learn all about It later " "HI learn all about It right now," declared the tramp, with as much vehemence ve-hemence as his weakened condition would permit For to his mind theso people belonged to snobs, and they were his natural enemies, "I ain't never done nothin' to b a subject for vivisection; I don't owe the bloorlv human race nothin What did you do With my arm and my brains?" The doctor smiled a patronizing smile, it was evident that to him a tramp wns a tramp But the young woman, of course, was a much gentler person. She stepped step-ped to the side of the bed. and sat down. She leaned toward Lonesome Tom. and said In a low sweet tone 'It was all my fault I had eharce Of a railway gasoline car which ran you down. The wind was in your face, and you didn't hear us coming and It was on a sharp curve We were moving fast, even though we were all looking alone the side nf the track for a diamond necklace I must have dropped out of tlic car window. Yes. It was all my fault We are now in a little place called Bosdale, and there Is no hospital here. Put we'll take care of you, because it was all my fault that you were hurt One of your irm is fractured nnrl vonr hi was was considerably damaged. How do you feel now?" The blue eyes of Lonesome Tom stared straight into tho blue eyes of the young woman, and there was a sneer in the gaze of the tramp. "Oh, I feci fine, of course!" he snapped "Lyin' here with a feeler smashed, and my brains oozin out by the barrelful T feel fine! Why didn't you watch where you was goin' with your bloody gasoline car?" He was th'klnp of vengeance deferred. The young woman dropped a tear or two. "I I'm so sorry!" she said "Cry baby! Cry baby!" taunted Lonesome Tom. "Cry baby! Snob! Snob'" lie congratulated himself upon bis shrewdness In hiding the necklace. Then he closed his eyes and went to sleep When be awoke the following morn-Ing, morn-Ing, the doctor and the railroad president presi-dent were standing beside bis bed. "It's your move, Doc." be sneered to the physician. "I don't want to catch you around here any more or I may break a slat for you v'under-stand v'under-stand that Doe" You've done all 'nn can do; catch a freight. I don't like you a bloody bit." Nevertheless the doctor puttered about over him for some fifteen minutes min-utes before he left. The hie railroad man still stood looking down upon him, and there was a queer twinkle in the deeply set pray eyes. 'Well,' labbed the tramp, "spit tt out. Tell it. Throw it from vou. Get it out o' your system What is It? I ilidn t ask for your bloody hospitality, did I?" Now Thornton Plair was no! accustomed ac-customed to being addressed thus. Put a look of forbearance, and not a look of aer "rflcd down over bis usual ly austere features. "We've pot to wait here two days '' he said I am to be joined here by other railroad men, and we are to decide de-cide whether the bippest railroad in the South is to run through this town, Bosdale, or through Johnsvllle, a little Bit eighteen miles south of here When niv friends have ioined me we will move on to Tohnsville where We will JeTve vni ot a hospital." "A hospital In Tohnsville!" Lonesome Lone-some Tom's face showed a prent bitterness. bit-terness. Take him to n hospital In hated Johnsvllle! He continue!. "I'd rather die than to f?o to a hosnltsl fin h' blood v town! That v ie wrfcirg " Then he told Thornton Rlair all about his hatred for the little city everythinp. And Plair appeared to understand perfectly. Then an idea e.f crcat hrllllnnce entered the aching Ite"" of T,oecnTe Tom "Listen here 1 he said "The railroad rail-road poln' through Tohnsville would make it would be the makin' of Johnsvllle, wouldn't It?" "Certainly," agreed Thornton Plair "Well, what s your opinion about the railroad qoin' that way?" Lonesome Lone-some Tom Dursued "We've desiided once on Pos'ale. and cne on Tohnsille." said Plair. "Tlrs time will tell ' "You lost a fine diamond necklace, didnt you?" the tramn prowled "Very fine, indeed'" exclaimed the magnate it belonged to my dead wife. We have searched everywhere, and have never found b " "I've got It," said Lonesome Tom. his blue ees shin in z "You have!" piair exclaimed excitedly excit-edly "Where is it" Where i it?" "You don't find out ot. not on your bloody life.' and the tramp sniiled grimlv "You'll get tho necklace after certain things happen. Otherwise Other-wise all o tho torture in Hades wouldn't get It out o' me. If you'll turn the big new railroad through Bosdale instead o' .Tohnsville, and dress me up after a King Edward fashion, and take me to Johnsvllle In this private car. and Introduce me to the citizens o' the place as Vive-President Thomas Linebaugh, and let me tell 'em wh they don't pet the big new railroad, and then make out a paper to me readin'. "When the such-and-such railroad runs through .Tohnsville. this state. I hereby, of my own free will, bind myself to pay 10 Thomas Linebaugh the sum O one hundred thousand dollars ' then. and only then, will you get the bloody necklace!" Thornton Plair was pale. 'De scribe the necklace." he demanded. Lonesome Tom described It fully. Are you aware of the fact that I can send you to prison for this?" muttered mut-tered Plair "Yes." admitted Lonesome Tom "Rut that won't get the necklace for vou I'd like to do a little time, anv-way. anv-way. And about that paper, we'll have to have disinterested witnesses - we can get 'em here in Bosdale, where the people are crazy to get the big new railroad." All the threats and grillinp of which the mnpnate was capable did not make an Impression on Lonesome Tom Neither did the tears and the pleadings plead-ings of Plair s daughter prevail upon him He was determined. He was going go-ing to wreak vengeance upon the people who had cuffed him about on their streets as a boy. and kicked him out of the town limits as a man Weak as water in other lines, the tramp was a veritable Gibraltar of strength in this one. The next day the tramp stole from the private car. and wont to the office of the most Influential lawyer In Bosdale. Bos-dale. This lawyer, naturally, wanted to work to his own betterment, of course. A little later Lonesome Tom J . and the lawyer went lo interview tho president of the big new railroad Several days later, Thornton Plair s private car pulled up before the station sta-tion at .Tohnsville The citizens of that little city were expecting it. expecting ex-pecting lo be told that they would get the railroad, and were gathered together, all of them loudly cheering. Then Thornton Plair and a well-dressed well-dressed man with hlfl golden heard trimmed King Edward fashion, a hlsh stlk hat In one hand, came out upon the rear nlatform. "Gentlemen," began Thonton Plair, I will Introduce to vou the present vice-president of the P. N W Hallway, Hall-way, Mr Thomas K Linebaugh, whom some of you no doubt remember, remem-ber, as this i bis home town," A strange silence settled down upon the populace. All too well they remembered re-membered Thomas K Linebaugh "You haven't forgotten, have you. Johnsvllle," boomed the voice of Lonesome Tom, "about fleecln' my father and sendin' him down into the grave of a pauper7 Nor have you forgotten for-gotten about turnin' my mother out of your society doin's after she became be-came poor. Nor have you forgotten about cuffin' me about your streets as a bov, or out of your city as a man. You don t get the B. ft N. W. Pall- road, and I am goln' to pit my enor- '"M mous wealth and my great Influence against the Job o' gettln' this one railroad rail-road out o' here. Now take that, you dlrtv snobs!" Lonesome Tom went back into the car. His triumph was complete. |