Adventure Magazine Cover, August 18, 1921 — page 92: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

86 “Think you can make it up on top the cupboard from there?” he asked. “T expect so,” said Munn, plainly puzzled. “Then after while that’s where we’ll get,’ stated Crane. “Be a pretty tight squeeze for the two of us, but I think we can manage.” “Vesp”’ “If we stretch out behind that barricade of lanterns, bottles, buckets and so on I don’t believe any one ever will see us. We'll have to keep mighty quiet and if any- body comes we'll have to keep quieter than that.” But what about Bissel?”’ *That’s it exactly. Bissel above all. He mustn't know we're here; absolutely not.” “T don’t quite get you; but I’ve given you my word. I'll stay mum,” said the super- intendent. “Then that’s understood,” said Tom. ‘‘Now let’s slip out and find a bite to eat. We want to get back before Number Sixty Five gets in.” : It was gathering dusk when they came back to the station and let themselves into the office. Five minutes later Sixty-Five arrived, paused a few seconds and was gone. The station was dark. From a front win- dow of the office Crane cautiously peeped out. Down at the far end of the platform he could see Officer Bissel’s bulky figure. A few hundred yards west of San Marcos depot stood a distant-signal—a signal which governed the approach of westbound trains to “SM” tower; this latter being a block signal-tower located about three-quarters of a mile west of San Marcos station. When the distant-signal stood at yellow a westbound train could pass it without stop- ping as it approached the tower. But when the distant-signal stood at red the train was to come to a stop; after which it could at once start on, approaching the tower under full control. It was toward the distant-signal’s light, now glowing yellow in the semi-darkness, that the officer seemed to be gazing while Crane watched him. Bissel stood there for several moments, then crossed the track and disappeared behind some cars standing on a siding. “Bissel has arrived on Sixty-Five all right,” Tom informed Munn as he turned away from the window. ‘But we needn’t get up on our perch yet. I doubt if he Adventure comes in for an hour or two. Have a chair. We may as well be comfortable while we can.”’ But before he himself sat down he went to his desk and took from a drawer a dull- colored, flat, handy pistol. He put it ina side pocket of his coat. clock there was a subdued click at <<” the outside waiting-room door. A few seconds later there was a second click. The door of the silent office swung open and Officer Bissel entered, a small circle of light from an electric pocket-light traveling be- fore him on the floor. Closing the door, the officer at once moved quickly to the front windows of the office and pulled down the shades. With pins he fastened the edges of the shades close to the window frames, so that no par- ticle of light could have filtered out. Going to the rear window he did the same thing. His movements were swift, confident—like one thoroughly familiar with his surround- ings and perfectly certain of his purposes. The window-blinds fastened to his satis- faction, the railroad policeman next ap- proached the switchboard, his little light still glowing. With the assurance of one entirely at home with such things he picked up the plug attached to the free end of the cord of the telegraph test instrument which stood on the little counter, or shelf, just below the lower edge of the switchboard. Turning his light on the long row of num- bers that extended along this lower edge of the switchboard, he ran it over them until number 236 was revealed—the figures de- noting that the wire connected to the switch- board-strip just above went by that number. Each strip or wire in the board had two sides; an east and a west side. From the east side of 236 Bissel pulled a brass plug, and in the hole in the switch- board from which it had been taken he thrust the plug attached to the test instru- ment. At the same instant, in the ground wire strip at the top of the switchboard— and which extended from one end to the other of it—he stuck a plug on the west side of 236. The armature on the test instru- ment closed with a snap. Placing his flashlight on the narrow counter, Bissel trained its rays so that they illuminated the instrument, then on the latter turned the screw which adjusted the AT A few minutes past eleven o’- C© MICLOOKS CO