Daily British Whig (1850), 29 Jul 1916, p. 19

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ich Pictures At Griffin's DIVIDE," "STRATEGY OF GREAT RAILROADS," ETC. NOVELIZED FROM THE MOV. ING PICTURE PLAY OF THE SAME NAME. PRODUCED BY THE SIGNAL FILM CORPORA- TION. corvmont, is, BY FRANK H. SHARMAN, SYNOPSIS. Little Helen Holm railroad Storm, a newshoy. Grown womanhood, Helen saves Storm, her father, and his friends ander, financier, and Robert promoter, from a threatened coi- febreakers employed by Seagrue jteal General Holmes' survey plans of the jut-off line for the Tidewater, general and escape. Her fa- er's estate beZly involved by his death, goes work on the Tidewater. recovers the survey plans from Sea- and though they are taken from her, an accidentally made proof of the rvey t. orm is employed by inelander. Bpilke and his confederate ors steal Rhinelander's pay roll ney. Helen rsues and, with a police an"s % caplures two of them and re- ers the money. Spike, befriended by en, in his turn saves her and the flahe-of way contracts when Seagrue kid- ! EIGHTH INSTALLMENT THE RACE FOR RIGHT OF WAY daughter of Gen- What to do with Spike after he had | turned over his first leaf in the book of gratitude proved a difficulty for Helen. But it seemed to her the first thing to be attempted was to get him | well away from Seagrue's influence. Beagrue, with the ample backing at | his disposal, had established an elabo- rate construction camp well" out on { they lift you in for the next shock, the desert, where he coupled with his | railroad building enterprise as much | of fraudulent deceit and force as he | flare display toward Rhinelander and | the men in the Copper Range & Tide- | water construction work. The prize for which both. reads were playing In the tremendous effort of each to ahead of the other was a sub- tial one, and Seagrue was never talled to account at his headquarters for his strategy in the comstruction trenches. On the morning that "Helen took Bpike down street. to a Las Vegas clothing store, had him fitted out with new clothes and provided him with pome pocket money, Seagrue was on his way over to his camp, accom- panied by the two strong-arms, known by no more respectable names than Bill and Lug. He saw Helen on the street with Spike and watched the two for a moment. Dispatching Bill then to the garige for his motor car and bidding Lug, on his life, not to lose sight of Spike, Seagrue, himself, hastened to the office of the local sheriff. Explaining to this official, already made complacent by generous of ferings, that he had on his hands a contract laborer who was trying to Jump his job, he engaged his promise of vigorous co-operation 'to bring Bpike to time. Seagrue led the way with him to the machine, which Bill had brought up, and, getting fn with the sheriff, Bill drove toward the station. Helen had returned with Spike to the office, she had paid for a railroad ticket which was to carry him to the city, where, she believed, freed from Sea- grue"s contaminating influence, Spike would have a chance to get back on his feet, Spike, in a comfortable frame of mind, was looking down at the ticket in his hand and reflecting what an ex- traordinary friend Helen had been, and how considerately she had treated him, when a quiet voice at his elbow spoke just two words into his ear: "Hello, Spike!" Spike, who lived, as it were, at all times over a powder magazine of the unexpected, started a little as he turned to look into the composed gray eyes of Seagrue. He stood a moment bound by their spell. Seagrue's face was lighted only by a pleasant smile, "Where you going, Bpike?" he asked in friertlly fashion. He looked about him with indecision, and as his eyes wandered he saw Sea- grue beckoning to the sheriff to come over from the machine. Seagrue, meantime, put his hand in his pocket. From it he drew a worn little pamphlet, and affecting careful deliberation, held it in his hand before Spike's wavering eyes. In the black- faced type om the cover a name and deseription' were printed, but what Spike saw staring at him were the fig: ures and the words: é "$500.00 REWARD!" But to Spike that one line of type meant infinitely more than it could mean to any ofher man. Beagrue watched closely the chang: fog expressions on the hunted crim-' fnal's face; he was even quiet and, pleasant in his demeanor as he mut: | tered: "You shouldn't try to leave me, At least, not until I say you #"Seagrue" Spike almost hissed, "1 can send you to the chair; man-do you know that?" 3 lost none of his composure. Ile returned Spike's angry look undis turbed: "Do you know what will hap pen when do? he in even tones, "After they lift me out of it ¥ i 40 phe = Spike. When you're ready to commit suicide, I'm ready to go to the straps 'ahead of you or after you--that's as the sheriff may prefer. But until that moment comes, Spike" z~a threatening intonation made itself felt within the studied utterance--"until that moment, Bpike, you will take your orders from me--understand ?" Spike looked gloomily down at the ticket he held in his hand. He real ized he was utterly helpless, "All right," he said grufily. Seagrue shook hands with the sher- iff: as he followed Spike across the platform. "I don't think I'll have any more trouble with him," he said in an undertone. "Thank you just the same, sheriff." With the rival construction crews, matters were reaching a somewhat critical stage in their race. Both the Colorado & Coast and the Copper Range & Tidewater companies had reached the limits of the city of Las Vegas, where, owing to the topogra- phy of the country as well as to the difficulties of getting through the town, possible rights of way were ex ceedingly scarce. A section almost immediately in front now of both con struction gangs was occupied by » Helen Understood the Necessity for Prompt Action. weather-beaten pioneer who bore the name of Cassidy, and his comfortable cottage obstructed both surveys. The advent of two railroads building neck and neck across the desert through the 1ittlé town had naturally stirred every inhabitant of it to a high pitch of excitement. Small wonder that Cassidy's head had become in some degree confused as to values and by the time Rhinelander got around to see the bronzed plonee: with a check for two thousand dollars (--the price first put upon the property by its veteran owner--valuations had risen and Cassidy declared that he would sell for ten thousand dollars and not a cent less. Rhinelander, considerably taken aback, impatiently assented to the ex- orbitant sum named, and going inside the cottage, wrote out his check for it. In exchange he received Cassidy's rather uncertain signature, on the cus tomary legal form, granting to the (Copper Range & Tide Water Railway company privileges over the Cassfily land as a freehold owner. Seagrue, arriving from town, learned from his foreman of the status of the insignificant plot of ground, adverse possession of which might frustrate their persistent plans for obstructing Rhinelander. With his surveyors Sea grue hurried to the end of the work, and reached the ground just in time to encounter Rhinelander coming out of Cassidy's house and the agreement duly signed and delivered in his hand. And behind Rhinelander came Geotge Storm ready to bring the men up to take possession of the Cassidy de mesne. Seagrue and his followers halted them and Rhinelander, feeling the vie tory all his own, explained the situa- tion to Seagrud, while Storm, amiably, but firmly, ordered Seagrue's men to get off the Copper Range property. Seagrue, without saying anything to controvert what he had heard, walked straight into Cassidy's Louse. "I'm sorry to be a little late, Cassidy," he began, bluntly. "You know we want Four property. And we're prepared to pay you a reasonable price for it-- not an extravagant price," declared Seagrue, impressively, "nothing of that kind, but--" he asked. buttonholing the old man with friendly emphasis, "just what is right and fair. I don't know what you consider your property worth," he continued, talking so fast the old man could not get a word in edgéwise, "Put I have written out a check here for Sftgen thousand dol » lars. And if you will give me your signature to this right of way contract | the check, old boy, is yours" "But--" sputtered Cassidy, with dif- | ficulty, "I've sold this place this min- | ute, Mr. Seagrue, to this man Rhine. | lander here for ten thousand dollars." | "Do you mean to say," demanded | Seagrue, impressively, "that you don't | consider your property worth fifteen | thousand dollars?" i "Sure, I do," agreed Mike, his eyes | blinking with astonishment. "Then," exclaimed Seagrue, solemn- | ly, "this mau has fraudulently imposed | on you." 1 Cassidy, bewildered, looked to his | friendly adviser for a suggestion. ' "Phwat the divvle 'm I to do?" | "Do!" thundered Seagrue, seeing now that he had his victim coming. "Tear up your fraudulent contract here and now and sign an honest one." The sturdy pioneer, with a show of indignation, tore up his copy of Rhine- lander's contract, signed a more equi- table one for the obliging Seagrue and put another and untainted chetk for: Aifteen thousand dollars into his pocket. Seagrue beckohed to his posse of men and, headed. by Cassidy, they told Rhinélander and his companions to get off the premises before they 'were put off. Rhinelander, familiar with the bul lying tactics of his enemies, saw the (situation he faced. But he stood his 'ground before Seagrue and Cassidy, listening patiently to what the victim- ized old man had to say, but absolute ly firm in his resolve to stand on his rights. "My right of way is legal," he said to both men. "And I'll bring the law here right now to enforce it." Hastening to the telegraph office in- 'side one of his outfit cars, he tele- graphed to Helen: Seagrue is using force to protest my right of way. Have attorney meet me at the depot at 11 o'clock. Arrange for a special to bring deputies up here. RHINELANDER. The move was not lost on Seagrue. When he saw Rhinelander board the car containing the telegraph outfit, he summoned his own operator and dis- patched him to a spot between Rhine- lander's 'car and the main line with instructions to "tap in" and take what- ever messages passed. Rhinelander thus sat in his own car watching the operator tick off his message to Helen, and her reply cay promptly: Attorney will mpet you on arrival. Special will be ready to leave any time after eleven. HELEN. But Seagrue's operator industrious- ly copied both message and answer and turned them in to his employer. Storm, in the meantime, was mak- ing the most of his opportunity, and with his men on Cassidy's place was preparing to push possession as far as possible. ! "Run the steel cables around--the house, George, and we will swing it in later." After giving this order, Rhinelander had hastened to the station to meet the local train when it came in. So swift, however, had been Seagrue's dispositions that his redoubtable scouts, Bill and Lug, were already at the station with instructions from [Seagrue to delay the special until nightfall; by which time he reckoned he could make his possession secure on the Cassidy place. These worthies had already reached the spdcial and boarded it. On the platform, Rhinelander met Helen and the attorney she had summoned, and with him, Rhinelander hastened up- town to get armed deputies--Bill and Jug now trailing behind to keep track fot every move. At Cassidy's, Storm was urging his men to speed on with their track lay- ling. Seagrue's gang was almost jabreast of them and setting a pace, 'too, that it was dificult to cope with ~--8Seagrue, himself, directing the oper ations. The house, so long the peace iful abode of old man Cassidy, now be |came the very storm center of an {extraordinary disturbance. Seagrue {racked his brain for an idea that {would hamper the advance of Storm jand his energetic crew. And when the {inspiration struck him, he put it in- stantly into effect. | "They're beating us," he said to his foreman; "that's flat. But | can stop [them. Bring up the wrecker." i } The word was passed and the pon- derous wrecking car, its huge crane {thrust threateningly forward, was! .pushed alongside Cassidy's house and surrounded by a swarming gang of | men. Seagrue's order to throw out | the whips was Instantly executed and | 'almost within a minute, it seemed, aft- | 'er the huge machiné had been brought | 'into play the house was enveloped in a | network of steel. There was a sharp 'word of command; a rattle of pistons; | the old house quivered for an Instant | in the grip of the mysterious monster | ~then it rose like a mad aeroplane ! from its foundations; hung and swung | a moment doubtfully in the air, pitched | headlong toward the other end of the lot and settled with a heavy bang! down to earth exactly in the path of | Storm and his perspiring men. { Rhinelander, the moment he se cured the deputies, hastened back to the station and boarded the special train. Allarge engine coupled to ono coach, stood in waiting, and as they pulled out, Helen wished him good luck. Unfortunately, Seagrue's two worthfes, Bill and Lug, unobserved by anybody, hid on the head end of the coach, and as soon as the town was left behind, the two climbed over the tender and held up the fireman and engineer. The engine crew, taken thus unawares, could offer no resist- ance whatever and the two were forced over the tender to the head end of the coach. a niin ii Cutting off the engine as soon as they had accomplished this, Seagrue's men pulled away with the stolen loco- motive and left the coach just where it abruptly stopped when the air went ! on, with the intention of putting as many miles as possible between the | coachload of deputies and Rhineland- er's chances for defending the right of Way. The conductor of the marooned coach did not lose a moment in get- ting into action. An emergency tele- phone was snatched from its bracket, connected up with the main line wires and the conductor called up Helen in the office at Las Vegas. In a few words he told her what had happened. | and while Rhinelander and the dep- uties listened around him, he asked what she could do to help them out | of their predicament. Helen understood the necessity for | prompt action. But how, she asked herself as she looked anxiously from the office window up and down the yards, to help them quickly? Her eye lighted on the little roundhouse away down at the lower end of the yard. Resting within the friendly shade of its north wall she espied the crazy old yard switch engine, known ir- reverently among the switchmen as "Soda Water Sal." Soda Water Sal | the armed deputies. took her disreputable nickname from | the fact of her misfortune in being crusted white a good part of the time with alkali The excited girl dashed at the top of her speed down the platform and across the yard to rouse the crew and get them to carry her to Rhinelander. But though Soda Water Sal stood as peaceful as an old Dobbin munching her noonday repast, the switching crew was nowhere to be found. Be- yond a doubt, Helen felt, they were all down town, eating their dinners, and to find them quickly was out of the question. . She called out a few times, hardly hoping for a response, and none met her ears. There was steam up, and without loss of time Helen climbed into the cab, and, open- ing the throttle, gave Sal steam. A venerable mare, struck, in the midst of her lunch, with a whip, could not have been more startled than the old engine at lielen's summons. Soda Water Sal started and trembled. Helen touched her heels again. No such sight as she made was gver before seen on' the main line of the Copper Range & Tidewater. If Soda Water Sal had been dancing a two- step on the rails, she could not have plunged and cavorted more wildly than she did as Helen, pushing her to a pace undreamed of in her long and peaceful yard career, achieved a miracle of speed with her. Up the line, Rhinelander, the dep- uties, the train crew and the engineer and fireman of the stolen engine sur- rounding the marooned coach, searched the horizon vainly for a sign of assistance, The conductor, the mo- ment after he had raised Helen on the wire and told of their plight out between ons on the main line, had not béén able to get another word from Las Vegas office. In his impa- tience and excitement, Rhinelander had taken over the telephone and used his best endeavors to make him- self heard by Helen. The suspicion came to him that Seagrue, with some unsuspected deviltry, had succeeded in cutting off even wire communica- tion from the helpless rescue party. But as he dropped the receiver in de- spair, a shout arose among the dep uties, and, looking down the far per spective of the long tangent that sep- arated them from Las Vegas, Rhine lander's men saw a faint line of smoke on the horizon. It grew rapidly more distinct and spread blacker and heavier. An engine was bearing down on them. The railroad men were non- plused. None 6f them could recognize In the distance the shambling gait of st uties aboard, the conductor from the rear platform gave Helen her signal. Helen opened the throttle again and away went Boda Water Sal, pushing the loaded coach up the line ahead. To Soda Water Sal a coach was a mere toy--a plaything; indeed, she felt as if she were only now coming into her own when she had something in her hands to push: And without showing the slightest appearance of strain, Soda Water Sal ate up the miles ahead of her like city blocks and got within sight of Seagrue's two stal- wart tools, who were trying to run away with the engine of the special. Indeed, the pair in the stolen cab felt quita secure in their quick get-away until Bill, acting as driver, looking back, saw a train behind and an omi- nous cloud of smoke pouring from the stack of Soda Water Sal--the conduc- tor was firing for Helen and he un- derstood his joh In spite of everything the two out- laws could do, Helen closed up the gap that separated the coach from them, and on the front end of the lat- ter the fleeing rascals could make out Had there been any doubt in their minds as to the temper of the men pursuing them, lit- tle puffs of white smoke rising from into the blazing sunshine convincea Seagrue that something was up. Rhinelander"s laborers and track lay- ers under Storm's directions parted and stood expectant at each side of the run of track on which Cassidy's house had been so unceremoniously dropped. Seagrue saw, too late, what Storm's radical move in the fight meant. Storm, scent of battle in his nos trils, stood on the footboard as the sturdy switch engine started. On it came, accelerating fast from one, two, ten, twenty miles an hour up to thirty. With the safety valve popping and smoke streaming in a cloud from the the coach front, and the whine of rifle bullets about their ears would have convinced Lug and Bill of the danger threatening them. Safety first was a household word with the two. Noth- ing of the disposition of martyrs had place in their make-up, and, abandon- ing the engine, Lug, with a word to Bill to ease the pace, descended the pteps of the tender and tumbled down OF NONTREAL Advises The Use Of "FRUIT-A-TIVES", Pai hemi FY MR. ROSENBURG 589 Casgrain St., Montreal, April 20th, 1915. "In my opinion, no other medicine in the world is so curative for Constipa- | fiom and Indigestion as ** Fruit-a-tives", | 1wasasufferor from these complaints for five years, and my sedentary occupa- tion, Musie, brought about a kind of Intestinal Paralysis -- with nasly Head- | aches, belching gas, drowsiness after eating, and Pain in the Back. I tried | pills and medicines of physicians, but nothing helped me, Then I'wasinduced | to try " Fruit-a-lives", and now for | six months I have been entirely well, fa soft bank to the right of way; his[ companion followed; a few minutes | later Soda Water Sal, rounding the | curve behind, shot past them with her | reeling coach | Overtaking the abandoned engine on a grade, a few miles ahead, the coach | was again coupled to it by the Rhine- | lander party, and when the Qqueer-| looking combination reached the first | passing track, the engine of the spe- cial, almost dead, was vigorously kicked by Soda Water Sal, together with the car, out into the clear. And Helen, with the more venturous of her legal lights clinging to the footboard | and running boar of Soda Water | and others in her ten- and crowdin cab, A again rushed the posse on to the scene of the trouble. At the camp der Rhinelander's forces | in trouble. Seagrue's strategy completely blocked them 3 was stumped by Seagrue's audac- And while the leaders were try- ing to pull themselves together, Sea- grue's men were rapidly extending their possession of the disputed ground, Storm, realizing that at any cost the | situation must somehow be recouped, ran over to where Wood was watching the enemy and whispered to him. Whatever the proposal, the old man startled when George Storm made it, Wood looked toward the camp dubi- usly. I don't know," he said finally t's pretty radical medicine. But Rhinelander isn't here and I suppose we've got to do something. It's a cinch they've got us beat out of three months' time in another hour, for if they once get hold of this section, we've got to drag them into court. If you think the old man will stand for it, George, slam away. You know as well as I do. But 1 can't take the responsibility.™ "I will," cried Storm emphatically. He turned to the foreman of their switching crew, who stood near, and pointed to the engine puffing at some little distance "Couple on to that outfit car, Carty, as quick as the Lord will let you, and get ready for a run." Carty' hurried down the track. Storm, giving orders right and left, asked Wood to send a crew of men were had body eve "They're Beating Us, but | Can Stop Them!" the queer flyer, and Soda Water Sal was well upon them before they real- zed it was she. None the less hearty, however, was her welcome, and when he expectant throng made out Helen's ace at the cab window a chorus of shouts went up to greet her, With her hair in the wind and her pyes burning with excitement, the iwhite-faced girl brought the aston- jshed old machine to a stop close to the coach. Rhinelander and the con- ; ductor ran to greet her. Few.words were needed in explanation, few were lost. Coupling the coach ahead of the switch enxine and bustling the dev- | | to throw everything movable in the outfit car out on the sand. Seagrue, watching from a distance the sudden activity among Rhineland. ! pected what was coming. Climbed into the Cab and Opened the Throttle. i stack, the engine with Rhinclander's movable hotel in front of it, bore down on Cassidy's house. Cassidy, himself, sunning on a pile of Seagrue's ties, with his pipe in his mouth and his two checks in his pocket, little sus- But Rhine- lander's men saw and understood it all. A mighty yell rose from the de. lighted gang as the engine and car sped on. Storm, bareheaded, his black hair streaming in the sun--clinging with one hand for safety as he swung from the end of the foot-board and stretched his left 'arm far out as a semaphore---signaled the cab. The engineer checked heavily. A stream of fire ground from the driviag wheels; the engine jumped in the grip of the brakes and the outfit car, re- leased, headed like a catapult straight at Cassidy's house. Men jumped back as it hurtled past. The next instant, crashing and smashing ahead, it tore mp through Cassidy's house. Bsr cloud of dust and timbers rose as from an explosion and the next moment what had been a house lay torn into a thousand pieces along the right of way Like a spent cannon ball the outfit car drove on; men, amazed, watching its wild flight. It struck the end of the rails, hung for a moment poised, trembled and toppled headlong from the embankment into a borrow pit. Storm sprang from the foot-board ot the engine, and before the dust of the crash had settled, called his men for- ward. Rhinelander's gang responded with fresh hope and energy. Seagrue saw with wrath how completely he had been outplayed. He called his men together to rush the Copper Range forces for possession of the Cassidy yard. They ran forward with picks and shovels, and it locked to Storm as if blood might be shed in spite of everything, 'when the long, shrill whistle of Soda Water Sa! 'was heard down the line, and within a | few moments Helen brought the old | engine to a stop at the end of the | steel. The deputies, followed by Rhine- {lander and his attorney, poured out {of the gangway. Storm met his boss: Just what view Amos would take of the summary measures he had adopt- ed to clear their right of way the young man felt now a little uncertain about. Rhinelander looked ahead for the familiar landmark which he had just acquired at the rather extrava- gant price of ten thousand dollars and asked where the Cassidy house was. "Ahl gahn t' hell," interposed Cassidy {who stood listening), pathetically, Storm pointed tg the wreckage lit | ot stely A tering the right of way and told the . story of what had been done by Sea- grue and how his play had been de- feated. Rhinelander's face lighted with enthusiasm and Heleti's eyes danced with sheer joy. Seagrue, dis gruntled and beaten, had seated him self on his own right of way on the pile of ties vacated in excitement by Cassidy. Im another hour Rhineland- er's men had made their title to the disputed property good. Cassidy, bewildered by the extraor dinary turn things had taken, started to walk back to where Seagrue was, but on reflection. he changed his mind and, lighting his pipe, sat quietly . x down on a part of the roof that had er's forces, watched the new develop. ments with much curiosity and soe | *°7 NAGY years given him a peaceful little anxiety. He saw the switch eu- gine speed down the line, couple to the outfit car and back away with it for a dash. In the cab all was ex- citement. Under Storm's orders, prep- arations were being made for a rec ord dash, and as the engine stopped with the outfit car in front of it down below the second switch, huge vol umes of smoke pouring from the stack shelter, to view the vengeance 80 swiftly taken on his former abode. He had less than Seagrue haa to worry hbout. With both checks in his pock- bt, he felt sure he mist realize on at least one, and he sat on the sceme long after the men had quit work, Ihoughttully smoking his pipe and re- flecting on the goeer things that may happen fu 4 real railroad war. \, ~~ {TO BE CONTINUED) I advise any one who suffers from that | horrible trouble--Chronie Constipation | with the resultant indigestion, fo fry | ** Fruit-a-tives", and you will be , | agreeably surprised at the great benefit you will receive". A. ROSENBURG., 50¢c. a box, 6 for $2.50, trial size, 25¢. 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