CHAPTER XXVi-Continued.
we | Genre
“No; you didn’t say too much,” was
the low-toned reply. And then: “Billy,
a few months ago I was jerked out of
my place in life and set down in an-
other place where practically every-
‘thing I had learned as a boy and man
had to be forgotten. I don't know
that I'm making it understandable to
you, but-—"
“Yes, you are,” broke in the man at
the wheel. “I've had to turn two or
three little double somersaults myself
in the years that are gone.”
“They used to call me ‘Monty-Boy,’
back there in Lawrenceville, and I fit-
ted the name,” Smith went on. “I've
Just had to do the best I could out
here. I found that I had a body that
could stand man-sized hardship, and a
kind of savage nerve that could give
\
A
{]
“They Used to Call Me Monty.Boy.”
and take punishment, and a soul that
could drive both body and nerve to the
limit. Also, I've found out what it
means to love a woman.”
Starbuck checked the car's speed a
little more to keep it well in the rear
of the ambling cavalcade,
“That's your one best bet, John,”
he said soberly.
“It is. I've cleaned out another room
since you called me down back yonder
in the Little Creek road, Starbuck. I
can't trust my own leadings any more:
they are altogether too primitive and
brutal; so I'm going to take hers. She'd
send me into this fight that is Just
ahead of us, and all the other fights
that are coming, with a heart big
enough to take in the whole world
She said I'd understand, some day:
that I'd know that the only great man
is one who is too big to be little: who
can fight without hating; who can die
to make good, if that is the only way
that offers.”
“That's Corry Baldwin, every day
in the week, John. They don't make
em any finer than she is,” was Star-
buck’s comment. And then: “I'm be-
ginning to kick myself for not letting
you go and have one more round-up
with her. She's doling you good, right
along.”
“You didn’t stop me” Smith af-
firmed ; “you merely gave me a chance
to stop myself. It's all over now, Billy,
and my little race is about run. But
whatever happens to me, either this
night, or beyond it, I shall be a free
man. You can't put handcuffs on a
soul and send it to prison, you know,
That Is what Corona was trying to
make me understand; and I couldn’t—
or wouldn't.”
Over a low hill just ahead the pole-
bracketed lights at the dam were star:
ring themselves against the sky, and
the group of horsemen halted at the
head of the railroad trestle which
marked the location of the north side
unloading station. Harding had sent
two of his men forward and they re-
ported that there were no guards on
the nérth bank, and that the stagings,
on the down-stream face of the dam,
were also unguarded. Thereupon
Harding made his dispositions. Half
of the posse was to go up the northern
bank, dismounted, and rush the camp
by way of the stagings. The remaln-
ing half, also on foot, was to cross
at once on the railroad trestle, and to
make its approach by way of the
wagon road skirting the mesa foot.
At an agreed-upon signal, the two de-
tachments were to close in upon the
company buildings in the construction
camp, trusting to the surgrise and the
attack from opposite directions to over.
come any disparity in numbers,
At Smith's urgings, Starbuck went
with the party which crossed by way
of the railroad trestle, Smith himself
accompanying the sheriff's detachimens,
With the horses left behind under
rd at the trestle head, the up-river
roach was made by both parties
uitaneously, though in the dark-
intervening, neither could see the
Smith kept
his place beside Harding, and to the
sheriff's query he answered that he
“You've got a nerve” was all the
ent Harding made, and at that
came among the stone debris in the
h-side quarries.
From the quarry cutting the view
struck out by the camp mastheads was
unobstructed. The dam and the une
completed power house, still figuring
to the eye as skeleton masses of form
timbering, lay just below them, and
on the hither side the flooding tor-
rent thundered through the spillway
gates, which had been opened to thelr
fullest capacity. Between the quarry
and the northern dam-head ran the
smooth concreted channel of the main
ditch canal, with the water in the res-
ervolr lake still lapping several feet
below the level of its entrance to give
assurance that, until the spillways
should be closed, the charter-saving
stream would never pour through the
canal,
On the opposite side of the river |
the dam-head and the camp street |
were deserted, but there were lights
in the commissary, in the office shack,
and in Blue Pete Simms’ canteen dog-
gery. From the latter quarter sounds
of revelry rose above the spillway
thunderings, and now and again a
drunken figure lurched through the
open door to make its way uncertain.
ly toward the rank of bunk houses.
Harding was staring Into the farther
nimbus of the electric rays, trying to
pick up some sign of the other half of
his posse, when Smith made a sug-
gestion,
“Both of your parties will have the
workmen's bunk houses in range, Mr.
Harding, and we mustn't forget that
Colonel Baldwin and Willlams are
prisoners In the timekeeper's shack.
If the guns have to be used—"
“There won't be any wild shooting,
of the kind you're thinking of,” re-
turned the sheriff grimly. “There
ain't a single man in this posse that
can’t hit what he alms at, nine times
out o' ten. But here's hopin’ we can
gather 'em in without the guns, If
they ain't lookin’ for us—"
song of a jacketed bullet passing over.
head, followed by the erack of a rifle,
“Down, boys!” said the sheriff softly,
setting the example by sliding Into the
ready-made trench afforded by the dry
ditch of the outlet canal; and as he
with fire spurtings from the comimnls-
sary bullding and others from the
mesa beyond to show that the surprise
was balked In both directions.
“They must have had scouts out,”
was Smith's word to the sheriff, who
was cautiously reconnolitering the new-
ly developed situation from the shel
ter of the canal trench, “They are
evidently ready for us, and that knocks
your plan In the head. Your men
can’t cross these stagings under fire.”
“Your ‘wops’ are all right, anyway,”
said Harding. “They're pouring out of
the bunk houses and that saloon over
there and taking to the hills like a
flock o' scared chickens” Then to
his men: “Seattér out, boys, and get
the range on that commissary shed,
That's where most of the rustiers are
cached.”
Two days earlier, two hours earlier,
perhaps, Smith would have begged a
weapon and flung himself Into the
fray with blood lust blinding him to
everything save the battle demands of
the moment. But now the final mile.
stone in the long road of his metamor-
phosis had been passed and the dark-
some valley of elemental passions was
left behind,
“Hold up a minute, for God's sake I”
he pleaded hastily. “We've got to give
them a show, Harding! The chances
are that every man in that commis
sary belleves that M’Graw has the law
on his side-—-and we are not sure that
he hasn't. Anyway, they don't know
that they are trying to stand off a
sheriffs posse |"
Harding's chuckle was sardonie,
“You mean that we'd aught to go over
yonder and read the riot act to ‘em
first? That might do back in the
country where you came from. But
the man that can get into that camp
over there with the serving papers
now'd have to be armor-plated, I
reckon.”
“Just the same, we've gqt to give
them their chance!” Smith insisted
doggedly, “We ean't stand for any
unnecessary bloodshed—I won't stand
for it”
Harding shrugged his heavy shoul-
ders. “One round into that sheet-iron
commissary shack'll bring ‘em to time
~and nothing else will. I hain't got
any men to throw away on the dew-
dabs and furbelows.”
Smith sprang up and held out his
hand, .
“You have at least one man that
you can spare, Mr. Harding” he
snapped. “Give me those papers, I'll
go over and serve them.”
At this the big sheriff promptly lost
his temper,
“You blamed fool!” he burst out.
“You'd be dog-meat before you could
get ten feet away from this diteh 1”
“Never mind: give me those papers,
I'm not going to stand by quietly and
see a lot of men shot down on the
chance of a misunderstanding |”
“Take ‘em, then!” rasped Harding,
meaning nothing more than the call-
ing of a foolish theorist's bluff,
7
before anybody could stop him he was
down upon the stagings, swin#ing him-
self from bent to bent through a storm
of bullets coming, not from the com-
missary, but from the saloon shack
on the opposite bank-—a whistling
shower of lead that made every man
in the sheriff's party duck to cover.
How the volunteer process-server
ever lived to get across the bridge of
death no man might know. Thrice in
the half-minute dash he was hit; yet
there was life enough left to carry him
stumbling across the last of the stag-
ing bents; to send him reeling up the
runway at the end and across the
working yard to the door of the com-
missary, waving the folded papers like
an inadequate flag of truce as he fell
on the doorstep,
After that, all things were curiously
hazy and undefined for him. There
was the tumult of a flerce battle be-
ing waged over him; a deafening rifle
fire and the spat-spat of bullets punc-
turing the sheet-iron walls of the com-
missary. In the midst of it he lost
his hold upon the realities, and when
he got it again the warlike clamor was
stilled and Starbuck was kneeling be-
side him, trying, apparently, to deprive
him of his clothes with the reckless
slushings of a knife,
Protesting feebly and trying to rise,
he saw the working yard filled with
armed men and the returning throng
of laborers; saw Colonel Baldwin and
Williams talking excitedly to the sher-
If; then he caught the eye of the engl-
neer and beckoned eagerly with his
one avallable hand.
“Hold still, until I can find out how
dead you are!” gritted the rough-and-
ready surgeon who was plying the
clothes-ripping knife, But when Wil
liams came and bent down to listen,
Smith found a volce, shrill and strident
and so little like his own that he
scarcely recognized it.
“Call "em out—call the men out and
in the queer, whistling voice which
was, and was not, his own. “Porsess
—-possession is nine points of the law
—that’s what Judge Warner said: the
spililways, Bartley—shut "em quick I”
“The men are on the Job and the
machinery is starting right now,” sald
Williams gently. “Don’t You hear it?
And then to Starbuck: “For Heaven's
sake, do something for him, Billy
anything to keep him with us until a
doctor can get here!”
Smith felt himself smiling foolishly, |
“I don’t need any doctor, Bartley;
what I need Is a new ego: then I'd |
stand some sha-—some chance of find. |
ing—" he looked up appealingly at
Starbuck—**what is it that I'd stand
some chance of finding, Billy? II
can't seem to remember.”
Williams turned his face away and
Starbuck tightened his benumbing grip |
upon the severed artery in the bared
arm from which he had cut the sleeve, |
Smith seemed to be going off again, |
but he suddenly opened his eyes and
pointed frantically with a finger of the
one serviceable hand. “Catch him! |
Catch Bim!” he shrilled. He's going |
to dy-dynamite the dam!”
Clinging to consciousness with a
grip that not even the blood loss
could break, Smith saw Williams
spring to his feet and give the alarm;
saw three or four of the sheriff's men
drop their weapons and huri them-
selves upon another man who was try-
ing to make his way unnoticed to the
“Catch Him! Catch Him!”
Btagings with a box of dynamite on
kis shoulder. Then he felt the foolish
smile coming again when he looked up
at Starbuck. .
“Tell the little girl—tell her—yon
know what to tell her, Billy; about
what I tried to do. Harding sald I'd
get killed, but I remembered what she
sald, and I dido't care. Tell her 1
sald that that one minute was worth
living for-—worth ali it cost.”
The raucous blast of a freak auto
horn ripped into the growling murmur
of the gate machinery, and a dust.
covered car pulled up in front of the
commissary, Out of it sprang first
the doctor with his instrument bag,
Smith caught at the warrants, and
and, closely following him, two plain
. CENTRE HALL, PA.
clothes men and a Brewster police
captain In uniform. Smith looked up
and understood,
“They're just—a little—too
weakly. “I guess—I guess I've fooled
them, after all”
troubles and trimmphings.
CHAPTER XXVII,
on
In Sunrise Gulch.
aside after the first aid had been ren
dered, and Smith, still
Williams' cot in the office shack.
“How about it, Doc? asked
mine owner bluntly,
fully.
“I can't say. He'll be rather lucky
if he doesn’t make it, won't he?”
Starbuck remembered that the doe-
tor had come out in the auto with the
police captain and the two plain-
clothes men,
queried.
The surgeon nodded.
on the way out.
place, I'd rather pass out with a bul
let in my lung. Wouldn't you?”
Starbuck was frowning sourly.
“Suppose you make it a case of sus-
“He told me
“The few of us here who know any-
thing about it are giving John the
benefit of the doubt. They'll have to
show me, and half a dozen of us, be-
fore they can send him over the road.”
“He knew they were after him?"
“Sure thing; snd he had all the
chance he needed make his geot-
away. He was while he
trying to get between and stop the
war and keep others from getting
killed.”
“It's a pity,
ing at the police captain to
whom Colonel Baldwin was appealing
“They'll put him in the hospital cell
at the jail, and that will him
whatever slender chance he might oth.
erwise have to pull through”
Starbuck looked up quickly, “Tell
‘em he can't be moved, Doc Dan” he
urged suddenly. And then: “You're
Dick Maxwell's family physician, and
Colonel Dexter's, and mine. Surely
you ean do that much for us?”
“I ean, and I will,” sald the surgeon
promptiy.
- *
Three days after the wholesale ar
rest at the dam, Brewster gossip had
fairly outworn itself telling and re
telling the story of how the High Lin¢
to
shot was
.
Aeros
Cost
- * * * *
ruthlessly abandoned by the
named principals, languishing bailless
in jail; of how Smith, the hero of all
point of death in the office shack at
the construction camp, and David Kin-
zie, once more in keen pursuit of the
loaves and fishes, was combing the
which was now climbing swiftly out
of reach.
ly new set of thrills, more titillating,
if possible, than all the others com-
bined.
It was on the morning of the third
day that the Herald announced the
return of Mr. Josiah Richlander from
the Topaz; and in the marriage no-
tate readers of the newspapers
learned that the multimilionaire's
daughter had been privately married
the
Jibbey,
chuckling over the news in the Hophra |
Two mining speculators were |
in to join them,
“What's the Joke?" quested the new- |
comer; and when he was shown the
marriage Item, he nodded gravely. |
“That's all right; but the Herald man
didn't get the full flavor of It. It was |
f sort of runavwny match, it seems ; |
the fond parent wasn't invited or con- |
sulted.”
“I don’t see that the fond parent has |
any kick coming” sald the one who |
had sold Jibbey a promising prospect |
hole en Topaz wountain two days ear- !
Her. “The young fellows got all kinds |
of money.”
“I know,” the land broker put in.
“But they're whispering it around that |
Mr. Richlander had other plans for |
his daughter. They also say that Jib- |
bey wouldn't stay to face the tausic:
that he left on the midaight train las!
night a few hours after the wedding,
80 rs not to be among those present
then the old man should blow in"
“What "in a chorus of two-—"left
his wife?"
“That's what they say. But that's
only one of the new and startling
things that isn't in the morning papers,
Have you heard about Smith?—or
haven't you been up long enough yet?"
“I heard yesterday that he was be.
ginning to mend,” replied the break
faster on the left., :
(T0 BE CONTINUED}
MAKING UNIQUE
LIABILITY RULES
Driving Load of Lumber to a
Corncrib Not One of the Vo- |
cations Covered by Risk. |
WRONG ELEVATOR RIGHT
Many Appeals Are Dismissed-—Reck-
less Man, Who Took It Against
Orders, “Furthering Employ.
er's Business.”
Harrisburg.
Thirty or more decisions were
at
Norkmen's
an-
the office of the Siate
Compensation Board. in
dozen in which compensa
yees of rail
roads engaged in interstate commerce
Courts were ide
the
sel as
Among appeals dismissed was
i which a claim for compensation
Ty
led while
fused
for dependents of a man k
labor
James W
could be
¢
n given for a
in farm
Commissioner
al there no
driving a
for a corn
COmMPpenss-
an lena
5 1H 3 ¥ yy
with 1 rio, u
He
umber
£ State law
hat the counsel f
“should have presente
Legislature,
urged to go before
The
the whole
ihe appellate
in affirming an award in
iermiak va, t
the
an appellate
loard would be leased to ave
i i i
gquesiion passed
upo
courts
he Pennsylvania 8
Board
engaged in irs
work
Gmpany,
an
mployer's
WAS nering nis
even though in going
drinking water he a
rohibited elevator and
obtain ueed
Was
o
E
i EOIn
portation whiet
by
tha ¢ 2 Ne g
he ¢ of Hemmig vs
Berks
that an empl
LHe
e Fisa.
er Hosiery Company. a County
was held
fell down
work Was
cause of the condition of the stairs, was
not compensation. In
opinion, after a rehearing. of Carr vs
Pennsylvania Railroad, the man is
compensation for being nurt
ugh being shoved off a bench dur
case, it yee who
after completing a
injured be
dig F
slairs
day's and not
entitled to the
awarded
iro
Appeals dismissed include Kelly vs.
Midvale Stee! Company, Philadelphia;
Wallace Meadow Hill Coal Com
pany, Scranton; Geffken Martin,
York; Roskowskl Pittsburgh Coal
Company, Pittshureh: Quigley vs. Me.
Dowell Paper Company, Philadelphia;
fron & Steel Com-
pany, Youngstown, O.; Love vs. Mar
shall Coal Company, Pittsbureh: Bry.
all va. Delaware & Hudson ompany
Scranton; Herbert vs Pennsylvania |
Pittsburgh; Achey vs. Phil- |
adeiphia & Reading Railway. Philadel. |
phia: Chovic vs Pittsburgh Crucible
Steel Company, Pittsburgh: Hazlett
Buchman & Rosen, Washington:
Sasnofsky vs. South Fork Coal Mining
Company, South Fork: Walters va.
& Reading, Pottsville:
Granville vs. Delaware Lackawanna &
Western Raflroad, Scranton: Blumen.
&tine vs. Philadelphia & Reading. Har
rishurg
The other cases come under Fe feral
decisions
va
Ve
va
vs
Republic
Vx
Box Cars For Coal Trade.
The Public
Bureau Rates
thls notice:
As an aid to relieve the difficulties
at the bituminous coal mines caused
by insufficient cars for shipment being
available, the Public Service Commis.
hae granted the coalecar ying |
railroads authority to amend the “car |
distribution rules” effective immedi-
ately, to permit the assignment of box |
Service
and
Cotimission’s
of Tariffs issued
uot to be charged in the distributions.
This practice will be carried out |
only for west bound shipments of coal, |
and ie designed to make use of box
which are now moving West
rmpty for the grain movement Fast,
which is very heavy at this time of the |
year. It will also enable operators to |
Merease the output of coal, which will |
relieve not only the markets in the |
West, but also will have a beneficial
influence on coal supplied in the East, |
ears to this traffic which might other.
wiee he necessary for coal moving in
.
Reinsurance Local Now. !
ths State Fund, covering its catastro
pany licensed to operate in Pennsyl- |
#aid that prior to this time thers were |
impossible to place the business with |
i
i
The Btate Workmen's Insurance |
Board has placed the reinsurance of |
phe hazard, with an insurance com- |
vania and Incorporated. William 3.)
Roney, manager of the State Fund,
no companies Incorporated by this!
Commonwealth to write excess rein |
surance risks, and consequently it was |
a strictly Pennsylvania insurance com.
pany.
IRIE ss
PENNSYLVANIA
BRIEFS
THR se
The price of potatoes throughout the
Lehigh Valiey is gradually coming
down, and it is expected that they will
Bell $1 bushel.
«
UHHH
5
for less than a
ne
i sell
low as BO cents a bushel when real
harvesting commences
Mifflin county farmers are ing
én unusually large amount of ground
in wheat
ans
:
Plas
Further efforts will be made dus
the week by the Public Ba
mittee to put the Hazleton curb
fety Com-
tons
basis
General C. B. Dougherty
Barre, has been selected by ti
Armory Board to act
ucceeding the late
Thomas J. Stewart
The Montgomery County Fish
Ciation has planted 7.400 blue cs
threefifths long, and
small mouth black bass, two-fou
inches long, in the Perkiomen
Schwenkville and vicinity
More than 50
of Wilkes-
State
all,
al
as viceechairm
Adjutant Genes
inches
young men and
sent having thei
w
omen
at nre
aL pri
town
Kut
8
Z-
following
not menticr
following
are
$100, to
taried
at 50
ause of an alleged excessive
raise in rent, J. H
pe
S. Griess & Co., who
grist
ire
operated the Gabel
imark
Years have
mii Pottst land will re
Wn
October
a
from business 1
According to Controller
Fitzen received
brain He was
yards into a field. Tae was going
down a steep grade and Michaels lost
trol
CAr
con
than 170 children
Chester cared for community ga~dens
at their respective homes in co mpeti-
tion for the various prizes offered by
the Trust Company
and the New Century Club. The
prize $5 in gold
Robert Gamble
More
of West
Chester County
of was awarded
Marysville has eighteen school chil-
dren who are violating the compulsory
attendance law
Collegeviile Red Cross has made and
forwarded surgical bathrobes,
handkerchiefs and other useful articles.
Because there was not a sufficient
number of children, two public schools
in Lower Pottsgrove. Montgomery
county, were closed
shirts
Miss Margaret 8. Rankey has been
appointed teacher of Reading's fist
open air school
The Gimar Association. of Reading,
presented a medal to Edwin MeDow ell,
of that city, for saving R. C Schelly,
Harrisburg, from drow ning in the Sus
quehanna .
Ll. K. Hostetter. of Landis Valley,
has been in the bee business only
since 1904, when he started with two
hives. Now he has 110 hives. It is
believed that the bees in his colonies
number over 6,000,000. This season's
yield of honey may reach 10.000
pounds, and it sells at 20 cents.
Charged with keeping disorderly
houses, Obed Musser, aged 75. Lancas.
ter, and Mannie Clum, an extensive
Columbia real estate owner, were sen-
tenced to Lancaster county Jail
The Conemaugh Railroad is employ.
ing women painters at Leechburg.
Peter Markitis, of Minersville, lost
his life at Pottsville while trying
to recover his hat, which was blown
from his head while he was riding
on an autobus. Ie slipped and fell,
and the heavy wheels crushed his
life out.
Farm advisers have left for State
institutions, to make final inspections
of State-owned farms and complete
their plans for advising the kinds of
crops 10 raise next year.
Mrs. Gertrude Buck, of Lititz, who
is 84 years of age, and became a sol
dier's widow In 1869, has heen grant-
ed a pension of $20 a month, the first
pension she applied for.
Hagleton Council passed a resolu.
tion establishing a ctrd market on
trial for the next six woeks, as a
measure to cut down the high cost
An order for 42,000 smokestacks for
amy cantonments has been two-thirds
filled at the Berwick plant of the
American Car and Foundry Company.
Royersford and Spring City physi-
clans have increased fees.
Cosmos Precosia, of
wanted for the murder
talgia, December 31,
Centralia,
of Tony Bat.
1915, gave him-
oa BE