Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine, Vol. 107 No. 3 — page 147: what you’re looking at

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

sd Sfeel by George C.Shedd Author of “Ships Triumphant,” “A Legacy of Adventure,” ete. CHAPTER XXVII. THE THUNDERBOLT. HE greater part of the number of ban- dits had stopped in a group a few yards from the base of the white dam core, though a few stragglers were some way behind. Among these Steele Weir made out the figure of one whom he recog- nized as a white man—he whom the guard from the spring had mentioned as directing the company; and when, at a sudden clam- or of speech from Mexicans who perceived the engineer, the man lifted his face, Weir saw he was Burkhardt. No more than this was needed to show whose was the hand behind this treacherous conspiracy. Clear, too, it was that Burk- hardt, determined that no mistake or aban- donment of the operation should occur, had come to see it through in person. Weir could ask nothing better; he had one of the plotters caught in the act. Apparently orders had been to carry through the first part of the diabolical plan of destruction in silence, that of gaining control of the dam, for when two or three Mexicans flung up rifles to shoot at Weir a sharp word from another Mexican, seem- ingly their leader, checked the volley. Then the commander shouted to Burkhardt. The latter stopped, stared for a few sec- onds at the man on the white wall above, and finally signaled with a wave of his arm. ‘¢ Come down here,” he ordered. But Weir made no move to obey. He continued to stand motionless, coolly re- garding the party beneath. His eyes par- ticularly considered two men who carried wooden boxes, square and stout, on their shoulders. At last he spoke. ‘What do you want here?” “Come down; then you'll learn,” Burk- hardt shouted up, making no effort to hide the enmity in his voice. Weir puffed at his cigar, removed it from his lips to glance at its glowing end, while the Mexicans stared up at him in si- lence, puzzled by this lone guard who car- ried no rifle, who did not flee away to spread an alarm and seek aid, and who so unexpectedly had appeared as if anticipat- ing their visit. Murmurs broke out. Why were they not allowed to shoot him at once in the approved Mexican bandit method and pro- ceed to their work? If he were not shot at once, he could yet escape for aid. The party had to ascend the hillside in order to mount to the top of the concrete work. Time would be required to place and fire their charges of dynamite—and they were eager to get at the loot in the buildings above. “ Kill him!” Burkhardt roared suddenly, jerking forth his revolver and blazing at the engineer. The bullet sang past Weir’s head. He did not duck; -indeed, he kept his place calmly, while the Mexicans were raising their guns, as if to show his supreme con- tempt for their power. But at the instant Burkhardt fired again and a dozen rifles blazed he sprang back and dropped fiat, leaving the deadly missiles to speed harm- lessly above the dam. Raising himself cautiously, he seized the end of a fuse projecting from one of the This story began in The Argosy for April 5. 489 COMICEDOO© C)) S Co mM