Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 171, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1916 — TURNED DOWN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TURNED DOWN

Bu H. M. EGBERT

(Copyright. ISI6. by W. G. Chapman.) I. Turned down. That was Rolfe’s position after he had worked five days for the Eastern railroad. He had been taken on after submitting his references, because the line needed men in a hurry. It had just come out of liquidation, and everything was topsy-turvy. Freight and passenger trains were mixed; e certain number had to be- sent along the metals to anywhere within a certain time, for the retention of a franchise; altogether the Eastern railway was in confusion. But Wilbraham, the new president, was going to make It efficient. Nobody doubted that-. Rolfe’s references were satisfactory, hut there was a gap in them. He did not offer any explanation of the gap, but resolved to make good.

On the fifth morning the president sent for him. "Rolfe, you are said to have served a term in the penitentiary for theft," he said. "It’s true, sir, but —" “You are the son of William Rolfe of Leeds?" “Yes, sir. I —■’* "You can lay off until I send for you,” said Mr. Wilbraham. Rolfe left the office in a blind fury. The theft had been nothing but the thoughtless act of a boy. He had stolen some money from his stepfather in order to go West, and had been arrested five miles from home. Despite his mother’s tears the old man had -pressed the charge to the limit. Rolfe’s mother, terrified, had not made a favorable impression on

the court and Rolfe had got two years. When he came out, crushed jn spirit, he resolved to fight his . way nevertheless. He obtained several positions, but every time old Stevens had him discharged. His stepfather’s hatred of him seemed the passion of his life. The malice of the old man was beyond understanding. Why did he hate him so?

Anyway, Rolfe was resolved to justify the world’s opinion of him. He went back to gather up his things, with a deliberate plan in his mind. The superintendent called him. “Rolfe, you’ll take Joe’s place as conductor on the 5:12,” he said. The line was desperately short of men. The 5:12 consisted of an engine and a single empty passenger coach, required to comply with the terms of the franchise. No! Rolfe's heart leaped up as he remembered something more, and the blood began to hammer in his ears. A cash shipment of $50,000 was to go in a special express car. And the superintendent had evidently not heard that he was discharged. "All right, sir,7 Rolfe responded.

11. Just as the train swung out Rolfe saw old Wilbraham step aboard hastily, a telegram in his hand. He was to be the sole passenger on the train and was evidently on some important and last-minute mission. Rolfe watched him clamber aboard. He showed himself deliberately; but the president appeared not to remember him. Rolfe smiled bitterly. So little was a man's job or reputation worth to old Wilbraham! He stood sulkily upon the platform. From there he could see old Saunders, the guard in the express car, seated reading a newspaper, his carbine beside him. Saunders was a Civil war veteran, the safe an old-fashioned affair that a man could just lift and ■end crashing through the window. Probably, thought Rolfe, the fall would of itself burst the flimsy old thing open. He was glad Wilbraham was aboard. He would show the president what it infant to be unjust. He would make his coup when the train passed Cutts tunnel. The 5:12 was running to Leeds, arriving about 8 o’clock, and It would be dark about 7, after the tunnel was passed. The country was

very wild about there; ft would not be hard to carry, out his plan. He peered into the car at Wilbraham. The president, still holding the telegram, was bending forward, chewing an unlit cigar, evidently in a brown study. A blind anger surged through the boy’s heart as he thought of the injustice and persecution that made his life a hell. Then he remembered that the train was actually speeding toward his old home, which he had not seen for six years. His mother and old Stevens lived near Leeds. His mother wrote occasionally, and once a year he sent her a few lines. She never complained, but he knew that Stevens made his mother’s life unbearable. Then a new thought came to the boy. Why should he be content with rifling the safe? Why not kill—Stevens —Wilbraham — all who had persecuted him. He had tried hard on bls mother's account to atone for the boyish error. The world was against him; he would be against the world. As he stood there, with a roar the train plunged into the tunnel. When it emerged it was nearly dark. The boy, fingering his cheap revolver in indecision, looked through the glass front of the door of the express car. Old Saunders was still reading his newspaper. With a resolute gesture Rolfe took the revolver from the pocket into which he had thrust it and moved forward.

Suddenly he heard shouts from the engine, and then the train began to slow down. He heard a revolver shot, another shout; the train stopped suddenly, the wheels biting into the metals, as if the brakes had been jammed down hard. The engine snorted and puffed to a standstill. The next moment two men clambered aboard the platform of the express car, so hastily that they did not see Rolfe on the platform of the car behind them. They carried revolvers, and pushed open the door. Rolfe saw old Saunders start up. He grabbed his carbine. The next instant, before he could aim it, one of the men brought down the butt of his revolver with a sickening thud upon the old veteran’s head. Saunders pitched forward insensible upon the floor of the car.

One of the men raised the limp body in his arms and cast it into,the ditch at the bottom of the embankment beside the line. Old Saunders groaned feebly in the darkness. The other man snatched at the safe and, raising it on high, staggered tbward the platform with it. Then it was that Rolfe realized he had been forestalled. And the evil thoughts died out of his heart.

He held the revolver in his right hand and aimed steadily. He fired. The man who was carrying the safe dropped it with a crash and toppled forward. He sat up, looking with ludicrous surprise at a stain of blood upon his trousers. The other man spun round and fired wildly in Rolfe’s direction. Rolfe heard the bullet whiz past his head into the air. Then he had leaped upon the express car platform and engaged in a furious fight with the second bandit. The man thrust his revolver into his face; Rolfe dodged just in time to avoid the bullet, and closed with his opponent. He knocked the revolver from hfb hand, and it went spinning across the floor of the car.

The bandit released himself and snatched up Saunders’ carbine. He aimed a stunning blow at the boy’s head. Rolfe ducked; it caught him on the shoulder, and his arm dropped as the collarbone fractured. With his left hand Rolfe seized the carbine. The bandit wrested it from him and sent him staggering back upon the platform. He saw the man coming for him again, was conscious of a shower of sparks before his eyes, and —fainted. IV. He was in the little room that he had occupied years before in his mother’s home. He saw her face bent over his, and looked at her without understanding. It all seemed like a dream. "Mother!” he cried. "What has happened?” She laid her cool hand on his forehead. "Hush, dear!” she said, as if he were a little boy again. “I can’t stay in this house, with — him.” “He died three weeks ago, Renny,” she answered. And the thought of that long martyrdom, and of her new happiness filled her eyes with tears. They wept together.

It was not until a week later that he learned the truth. The president, receiving the letter from Stevens, had been impressed by its injustice. Being the. sort of man who deemed that no sacrifice was too great for an employee, he had taken the train that night for Leeds, in order to interview Stevens. He had arrived on the express car platform in time to see Rolfe stricken down and to aid in capturing the outlaw, assisted by the engineer, who had surprised the third man that had overcome him, and knockedihim senseless. Rolfe was the hero of the day. No lives had been lost but the three outlaws were now in the county jail. Then Wilbraham, going on to the house as if nothing had happened, together with the doctor and the unconscious Rolfe, had ordered that no expense should be spared in caring for him. And in Rolfe’s mother he recognized what he had suspected—the existence of an old sweetheart. So —but with that part the story does not concern itself. Only that, two weeks later, Rolfe sat down in the president’s office as his private secretary, knowing that the pagt was buried and the future golden. . '

Saunders Pitched Forward Insensible.