The Argosy, March 1907 — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

out one that would suit me better. x ~ ee ¢ Ras nnd nets Sow fe = opt mS hae” ate ca, “3 pa alam = -: “ Gardiner Davis, eh?” the man com- mented, baring his teeth in a wolfish grin. “Well, the old man couldn’t have picked I’ve got some old scores to settle with that same party on my own hook.” “How is that?” asked George. ‘The truth of the story was that in Gar- diner’s old sawmill days he had once discharged this man, and afterward find- ing him sneaking about the plant’ at night, evidently bent upon mischief, had given him a merited trouncing; but as Spear related the tale it took on a dif- ferent complexion. “Why,” he lied, ‘one time him an’ his gang got it in for me, an’ jumped me when I wasn’t lookin’. I could ’a’ handled ary one of ’em, man to man, an’ I begged ’em to give me fair play; but they was afeared. Hammer an’ tongs they all went at me together, an’ when I give in, more dead ’n alive, an’ holleréd ‘nough, this here Gardiner Davis still wasn’t satisfied. He kept on kickin’ an’ poundin’ at me till he got tired. I guess he thought he’d done for me; but I pulled through somehow, an’ I swore then I’d get even with the cowardly hound if it took me to the last day of my life. ‘“ Now I’ve got my chance, sonny, an’ you kin tell that pap of your’n that he needn’t be a mite worried. I'll guaran- tee that this’ll be one of the surest jobs we ever put over the plate.” Convinced, accordingly, as much by the ferocious glare of hate which sprang ito Spear’s glance as by the fellow’s spoken assurances, George left the mat- ter in his hands, and proceeded on to the coal company’s headquarters to in- form the superintendent that he was ready to assume the sinecure job which his father had provided for him. On the way, as it happened, he ran plump into Gardiner Davis, who was for the present making his headquarters at Berkely, and George scowled at him blackly in passing. Gardiner having’ no favors to ask of the Burnses, either father or son, merely smiled at the episode, and then, as he was very busy, let it pass from his mind. But it was destined later to be re-. called to him in rather startling fashion. - That afternoon, as he was setting out alone upon a visit of inspection to a the ) THE MAN, & ~ ~ tunnel in course of construction a few miles from Berkely, he discovered to his chagrin that he had no matches wherewith to light his candle. With an exclamation of impatience, he started hastily to retrace his steps; but he had not gone a dozen rods before there came a roar like a broadside from the guns of a battle-ship, and with the soil rocking and shaking violently under his feet, he was hurled to the ground. The place where he had been stand- ing a moment before showed an im- mense hole. Had he remained where he was, or gone into the excavation, his death would have been almost inevi- table. It did not take the young engineer long to determine that the occurrence was due to a blast of dynamite; but how the explosive had chanced to be at that point, or who could have set it off, remained a puzzle. There were, as it happened, no men employed in the tunnel at the time, and it seemed impossible, therefore, to ascribe the affair to oversight or carelessness. True, as Davis had staggered to his feet after the accident he had caught, or so it seemed to him, a_half-fleeting glimpse through the dust and haze of two wires being rapidly dragged away from the mouth of the tunnel into the underbrush of the hillside overhead. Still, as a careful examination of the ground showed no trace of any such apparatus, nor of any person having been recently in the vicinity, he was rather inclined to set down this impression to sheer fancy. Not so with Berschwind, his bright young assistant, for when Gardiner chanced to mention his trick of faulty vision the latter gave a quick start and his face assumed an expression of grave concern. “That may have been an hallucina- tion,” he said thoughtfully, “and again it may not. The very fact that none of our men were at work there, and that we had used no dynamite at that point for over ten days, gives a suspicious tinge to the incident at the start; but I have even stronger reasons for believing the affair may have been a plant. I was down at the Red Onion this morning, hunting up some of our men, when a stranger 7+. 5 > eH “i 2 > (0) - * uf PLAY hg oat ee Lye y ind rte tity Via? TU ey Be ee s nk comicbooks.c § > ae &- rt