Ligonier Banner., Volume 35, Number 31, Ligonier, Noble County, 1 November 1900 — Page 7

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. CHAPTER VI.—CONTINUED. | Reassuring as he meant his words to be, Marshall Dean himself locked anxiousiy about.at the unprotected walls. Not even the customary “dugout’ or underground refuge seemed to have been prepared. Almost every homestead, big or little, of those days, had its tunnel from the cellar to a dugout near at hand, stocked with provisions and water and provided with loopholes commanding the neighborhood, and herein the besieged could take refuge and stand off the Indians until help should come from the nearest fort. “The name of Folsom is our safeguard,” said Mrs. Hal, in her happy honeymoon days, but that was before the mother told her of the threats of Burning Star or the story of the Ogallalla girl he vainly loved. “All that happened so long ago,” she murmured, when at last the tale " svas told. But al should have known, if she did not, that even when it seems to sleep Indian vengeance is but gaining force and fury. : Presently Mrs. Hal came tripping forth again, a little carte de visite in her hand, a smile of no little significance on her lips. “Now, Mr. Dean, . will you tell me what you think of that for a pappoose?” 4 And with wonderment in his eyes -the young officer stod and held it and gazed. : There stood Pappoose, to be sure, but what a change! The little maiden with the dark braids of hair hanging far below her waist had developed into a tall slender girl, with clear-cut oval face, crowned by a mass of dark tresses. Her heavy, low-arching brows spanned the thoughtful deep, darkbrown eyes that seemed to speak the soul within and the beautiful face was lighted up with a smile that showed just a peep of faultless white teeth, gleaming through the warm curves of her soft, sensitive lips. The form was exquisitely. rounded, yet supple and erect. : “Hasn’t Jessie written you of how - Nell has grown and improved?” said * Mrs. Hall with a woman’s quick note of the admiration and surprise in Dean’s regard. : : “She must have,” was the answer, “I'm sure she has, but perhaps 1 thought it schoolgirl rhapsody—perhaps I had too many other things to think of.” : ' “Perhaps you’ll find it superseding these too many other things, Mr. Soldier Boy,” was Mrs. Hal's mental com- _ ment. “Now, sir, if you've gazed enough perhaps you'll tell me your plans,” and she stretched forth a reclaiming hand. ' . But he hung on to the prize. “Let me keep it a minute,” he pleaded. “It’s the loveliest thing I've seen in months.” And, studying his absorbed face, she ¢ yielded, her eyebrows arching, a pret- : 1y smile of feminine triumph abouther ~ lips, and neither noticed the non-com- " missioned officer hurrying within the gateé, nor that half the men in- “G” troop at their bivouac along the stream were on their feet and gazing to northeast, that far down the valley a horseman was speeding like the wind, that little puffs of smoke were rising from the crests -of the grand landmark of ihe range and floating <into the blue of the heavens. Both started to their feet at the abrupt announcement. : . “Lieutenant, there are smoke sig-nals-on Lar'mie Peak.”

GHAPTER VII. : . Lieut. Dean’s orders required that he should march his troop without unnecessary <lelay to Fort Emory, there to’ take station relieving troop F, ordered to change to Frayne, which meant, in so many words, to take the field. Capt. Brooks, still wrestling with the fever, had retired to his quarters at the old frontier fort that stcod so long cn the bluffs overlooking the fords of the Platte. The surgeon said ke must remain in bed at least a weelk, so meantime the troop packed up, sent its wagons ahead over the range, bade God speed to F as it passed through en route to the front, exchanged a volley of chaff and chewing tobaceo over the parting game of “freeze out” fought to a finish on many an outspread saddle blanket, then jogged on toward Gate City, - making wide detour at the suggestion of the field officer in command at Frayne, that they might scout the Laramie plains and see . that all was well at Folsom’s ranch. ¢ This detour was duly reported to the peppery veteran at Fort Emory, an old colofrel whose command was by this time reduced from “headquarters, field, staff and band,” six companies of infantry and four troops of cavalry to , the band and two desperately over- | worked companies .of foot. “Two nights in bed” were all his men could . hope for, and sometimes no more than one, so grievous was the guard duty. Hence “old Pecksniff,” his adjutant and gquartermaster and his two remaining companies saw fit to take it as most unkind in Lieut. Col. Ford to authorize that diversion of Dean’s, and highly improper on Dean’s part to attempt it. By this time, too, there was in circulation ;at Emory a story that this transfer jof C to interior lines and away from probable contact with the ~ Sioux was not so much that it had done far more than its share of that arduous work, completely using up its captain, as that, sew the captain was used’ up, the authorities had their doubts as to the “nerve” of the lieutenant in temporary command. A fel- - low who didn't care to come to Emory ~and preferred rough duty up along the - Platte must be lacking in some essential particular, thought the women - folk, and at the very moment that - Marshall Dean sat there at Hal Fol- . ihePiktierioei ’gﬁ%w@ﬁ% e O N B s to mﬂ»vﬁn"ﬁxﬁﬁﬁﬁ";;&*%ﬁ@ww i s R

and, of course, Pappoose—so close at ‘ hand in town, ' there was gaining ground. at the post an impression that | the safety of the board of officers sent - to choose the site of the new Big Horn pest: had been imperiled by Dean’s weakening at a critical moment in presence of a band of probably hestile Sioux. Burleigh had plainly intimated as much to his chief clerk and Col Stevens, and when Loring and Stone came through a day or two later and questions were asked about that meeting, the aid-de-camp gave it as distinctly to. be understood that he had practically assumed command, Dean’s inexperience being manifest, and his own prompt measures had extricated the little detachment from a most delicate and dangerous position. The engineer, let it be said, did not hear this statement, and the aid was very careful not to make it in his presence. He was a comparative stranger, and as no one presumed to question him he volanteered no information. Planning tobivouacuntil dawn of the next dayat Folsom’s, Dean had then in- . tended to reach Fort Emory in three easy marches. He was anxious to bring his horses in in best possible condition, despite all their hard service; yet now, barely two o’clock on thishot June afternoon, came most unlookedfor, most importunate interruption to his plans. Springing to the gate at thesergeant’s summons, he first directed his gaze to the distant peaks, recognizedinstantly the nature of the smoke puffs there rising, then turned for ex-: planation to the swift-riding courier, whose horse’s heels were making the dust fly from the sun-dried soil. One ortwo ranch hands. with anxious faces, came hastening over from the corral. The darky eook rushed up from the kitchen, rifie in hand. Plainly those fellows were well used to war’s alarms. Mrs. Folsom, with staring eyes and dreadful anxiety in her face, gazed only at the hurrying courier, clinging the while to the pillar of the portico, as though needing support. The smoke 1 puffs on the mountain, the dust-clond back of the tearing rider were symp- | toms enough for Dean. 1 “Get in your herd, sergeant!” he shouted, at the top of his voice; and ‘ over the rushing of the Laramie: his words .reached the rousing bivouac, and saddle blankets were sent swinging in air in signal to the distant guards, and within a few seconds every horse was headed for home; and then, to the sound of excited voices was addéd the rousing thunder of scores of bounding hoofs, as, all in a dust-cloud of their own, the sixty chargers came “galloping in, ears erect, eyes ablaze, nostrils wide, manes and tails stream--ing in the blaze, guided by their eager guards full tilt for camp. Out ran their riders, bridles in hand, to meet and check them, every horse when within a few yards of his master seeming to settle on his haunches and plow up the turf in the sudden effort to check his speed, long months of service on the plains and in the heart of Indian land having taught them in times of alarm or peril that the quicker they ‘reached the guiding hand and bore, each, his soldier on his Dback, the quicker would vanish the common foe. Even before the panting steed of the headlong courier came within hailing distance of the ranch, half the horses in the troop were caught and the bits were rattling between their teeth; then, as the messenger tore along the gentle slope that led io the gateway, his wearied horse laboring painfally at the rise, Mrs. Folsom recognized one of her husband’s herdsmen,; a man who had lived long years-in Wyoming and could be unnerved by no false alarm, and her voice went up in a shriek of fear as she read the tidings in his almost ghastly face. -~ * “Where is Hal?” she screamed. “Oh, what has happened?” : “He’s safe,” was the answering call, as the rider waved a reassuring hand, but at the instant he bent low. “Thank God, you're here, lieutenant,” he gasped. “Mount quick. Hal’s corralled two miles out there under the butte—Sioux!” Andsthen they saw that he was swooning, that the blood was streaming down the left thigh and leg, and ‘before hand could help him, he rolled senseless, doubled up in the dust at his horse’s feet, and the weary creature never even started. -

“Saddle up, men!” rang the order across the stream. And then while strong arms lifted and bore the wounded herdsman to the porch, Dean turned to the wailing mistress, who, whitefaced and terror-stricken, was wringing her hands and moaning and running wildly up and down the walk and cailing for some one to go and save her husband. Dean almost bore her to a chair and bade her fear nothing. He and his men would lose not a moment. On the floor at her feet lay the little card photograph, and Dean, hardly thinking what he did, steoped, picked it up and placed it in the pocket of his hunting shirt, just as the trumpeter on his plunging gray reached the gate, Dean’s big, handsome charger trotting swiftly alongside. In an.instant the lieutenant was in saddle, in another second a trooper galloped up with his belt and carbine. Already the men were leading ‘into line across the stream, and, bidding the trumpeter tell Sergt. Shaughnessy to follow at speed, the young officer struck spur to his horse and, carbine in hand, a single trooper at his heels, away he darted down the valley. C troop, splashing through the ford a moment later, tfook the direct road past the stockade of the corral, disappeared from sight a moment behind that wooden fortification and, when next it hove in view, it was galloping front into lne far down the Laramie, then once more vanished behind its curtain of dust. : : “Two miles out there under the butte,” was the only indication the young officer had of the scene of the fight, for fight he knew it must be, and even as he went bounding down the valley he recalled the story of the Indian girl, the threats of Burning Star, the vowed vengeance of her brothers. Could it be that, taking advantage of this raid of Red Cloud, far. from all the reservations, far from possibility of detection by count of prying agents, the three had induced a gang of daring, devil-may-care young ‘warriors to slip away from the Big Horn with them and, riding stealtflﬁg away from the beaten trails, to ford the Platle beyond the ken of watch*h;,.ggm?;:;;;f* to the ﬁmwgismaﬁ%ﬁ%gg

those he loved? What was to prevent? Well they knew the exact location of his ranch. They had fished and sported all about it in boy days—days when the soldiers and the Sioux were all good friends, days before the mistaken policy of a post commander had led to an attack upon a peaceful band, and that to the annihilation of the attacking party. From that fatal day of the Grattan massacre ten years before, there had been no real truce with the Sioux, and now was opportunity afforded for -a long-plotted revenge. Dean wondered Folsom had not looked for it instead of sleeping in fancied security. = A mile nearer the butte and, glaneing back, he could seehis faithful men come bounding in his tracks. A mile ahead, rising abruptly from the general level, a little knoll or butte jutted out beyond the shoulders of the foothills and stood sentinel within three hundred yards of the stream. On the near—the westward-side, nothing could be seen of horse or man. Something told him he would find the combatants beyond—that dead or alive, Hal TFolsom would be there awaiting him. A glance at the commanding heights and the ridge that connected it with the tumbling, wood‘ed hills to the north, convinced him that at that moment some of the foe were lurkiig there, watching the westward valdey, and by this time they knew fuié well of the coming of the cavalry to the ‘rescue. By this time, more than likely, they were scurrying oft to the mountains again, returning the way they came, with a start of at least two miles. ~ “With or without the coveted scalps?” he wondered. Thus far he had Deen riding straight for the butte. ' The road wound around and disappeared behind him, but there was no sense in following the road. ‘“Pursue and punish,” was the thing to be done. Surely not more than a dozen were in the band, else that courier could never have hoped to get in, wounded as he was. The Indians were too few in number to dare follow to the ranch, guarded as, by almost Godgiven luck, it happened to be through the unlooked-for ' presence of the ‘ troops. No, it was & small band, though a daring one. Itslockout had surely warned it by this time of his coming, and by this time, too, all save one or two who rode the fleetest ‘ponies and lingered probab.y for a parting shot at the foremost of the chase, had scampered away behind the curtain of that ridge. Therefore, in long curve, never cpe'g}{ing his magnificent stride, Dean guided his bounding bay to the left—the northeast—and headed: for the lowest point of the divide. ; And then it all occurred to him too that he was far in front of his men,

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too far to be of use to them and just far enough to be an easy prey for the lurking foe. Then, too, it occurred to him that he must not leave the ranch unprotected. Already he was within _lbng rifle range of the height; already probaply some beady eye was glancing through the sights, and the deadly tube was =2overing him as he came bounding on.:. Three hundred yards more and his life probably wouldn’t be worth a dollar in confederate money, and wisely the young leader began to draw rein, and, turning in saddle, signaled to his single companion, .laboring along one hundred yards behind, to hasten to join him. Presently the trooper came spurring up,a swarthy young German, but though straining every nerve, the troop was still a mile away. “Ride back, Wegner, and tell the sergeant to take ten men around that side—the south side of the bluff,” and he pointed with his hand; “the rest to come straight to me.” - Oh, well was it for Dean that he checked his speed, and as the young dragoon went sputtering back, that he himself drew rein and waited for the coming of his men. Suddenly from far out along the ridge in front, from the very crest, there leaped a jet or two of fire and smoke. Two litfle spurts of dust and turf flew up from the prairie sod a dozen yards in front, a rifle bullet went singing off through ‘the sunny air, Rabb, his handsome bay, pawed the ground and switched about, and up on the crest, riding boldly in full view, two lithe, naked, painted warriors, war bonnets trailing over their ponies’ croups, yelling shrill insult and derision, went tearing away northward, one ¢cf them pausing long enough to wave some ragged object on high and give out ringing, exultant whoop ere he disappeared from view. “It’s a scalp, lieutenant,” shouted the foremost sergeant as he came up to join his chief. “They’ve got one, “anyhow.” . “Come on, then, and we’ll get it ‘ back,” was the only answer, as with nearly - thirty troopers stringing out behind them, the two launched out in chase. 5 3 [To Do Continued.] : ‘ His Ambition Crushed. _ Weary Wraggles—Why so sad, Lonesome? : e Lonesome Samy-——Dis paper says a man wot’s born in a foreign country can’t never be president of de United ’States., _ o : s “Well, what of it?” ) “Dat wuz de one job I've allus be’'n lookin’ for'ard ter!”—N. Y. World, | Very Unfashionable, ~ She—Of all things! Did you ever e ook Wty £ g . He—ln what way? Bhe—ln what way? Where are your -eyes? She has a sunshade that the sun ean't shine through—N. Y.

*.V . * $ Saved from Ruin $ TP At PPt €6y THINK you had better attempt I no explanation, Mr. Halbon,” the senior partner was saying to me, very quietly. “No,” he went on, as I was on the point of interrupting him, “either to excuse or to incriminate yourself. For the sake of your father, who was one of the staunchest and best servants the firm ever possessed, and icr the sake of his widow, Mr. Sampson and myself have determined to make his son every allowance. As the matter stands, there is a balance of £97 unaccounte. for, and you are the omly person who can make it right. If the amount is—ahem!—replaced by this day fortnight. nothing more will be said. But if not—" “Then, went on Mr. Sampson, the junior partner, “the firm will require your services no longer, Mr. Halbon. Possibly, for the sake of those whem Mr. Marsh has mentioned, we shail not take any more stringent ~measures; but, of course, such a dismissal, without reason or references, would be ruin to you. We trust, therefore, that you will be dble to rectify the mistake. Good afternoon.” > > : Ruin! That was just the word for it all, and it rang in my ears with terrible significance as I left = the ‘presence of the two partners and took my seat at a desk in the office outside. For although they had not named the word, the terrible charge that was staring me in the face was emkbezzlement. They had discovered it all. Fool that T had been; alas! the ‘duplicate of many. Not half a dozen years out of my teens, with a berth that many an eolder man might have envied, the under-cashier in the wealthy firm of Marsh & Sampson, of Silkminster, one of the largest houses in the Midlands. ! o Could Ido it? I asked myself the question that night in the solitude of my ledgings. I had been invited out to spend the evening at the house of my fiancee. Alas! I dared not face her now. So I sat alone in an agony of anxious thought. Time after time I counted out my resources. The utmost I could scrape together was 24 shillings, and, look where I would, I could not see my way to laying my hand on more. ' The game was up; that was evident. And out of the situation there grew the desire, stronger anc stronger, to get away, anywhere from Silkminster —to London, perhaps—London, whither every fortune-hunter or fortuneloser turns his steps. At length a definite plan took possession of me. I had one article -of value left, my bicycle, and I determined to ride it up to London, a distance of a hundred odd miles or so, and sell it when I got there. More than that, I made. up my mind to start that very night. I was just in the mood for it. I wanted to do something, and here was the chance. o : - Hastily I packed a few things in my bicycle “hold-all,” filled my lamp, knocked at my landlady’s docr, and said: “I am going for a long ride, Mrs. Smith—to see a friend. He’ll be almost sure to ask me:to stay the night, so don’t expect me till tc-mor-row evening.” ' » And in another minute I was bowling through the suburbs of Silkminster, until the houses became more and more scattered, the lamp-posts began to disappear, and at length I was out in the open country speeding away on the road that led to nordon. Dullminster was now a good five miles behind me, and I had entered upon a stretch of road that was more than usually dreary and secluded. On my right was an open expanse of common, and on my left, on the top of an embankment, the main line of the Great West-Northern railway ran for some two or three miles parallel with the road, a hedge between me and the bottom of the embankment. The momentary flash of a waining red light on a signal-post as I began riding by the side of this embankment set my mind flowing in a new channel. The whole country had recently been aroused to the sense of a terrible danger. The most cold-blooded and dastardly attempts were being made on certain of our great trunk railways to wreck express trains. Some of these attempts were successful, and more than one accident was the result; some were discovered only just in time to prevent an appalling disaster; while others fortunately proved powerless to upset the magnificent engines and trains for which they were intended.

Engine drivers, one of the pluckiest class of men in the kingdom, grew nervous and distrustful. The foot-plate became & post that meant a terrible and sudden danger. Strong men clutched tremblingly at the regulator handle as they dashed away through the open country in the darkness of the night, and heaved a sigh of relief as they signed “off duty” at the journey’s end. Many a man actually refused promotion point-blank because he feared todriveanightexpress. Thematter was, in short, becoming ‘serious, and more than one railway company offered a very large reward for the discovery and arrest of the train-wrecking fiend. All this flashed across me as I plodded along slowly now, for I was riding on rising ground, and my legs were beginning to give out a bit. I had ridden over 30 miles with only a few minutes’ stop, and the nervous and physical strain was telling on me a little, Suddenly as I was riding thus slowly, T happened to glance upward at the railway embankment, and started violently at what I saw. There, outlined against the dim sky, was the figureof a man,snow standing, now stooping downward, seemingly doing something to the metals. The situation flashed across me in a moment. It was the train-wrecking fiend at work! Carefully I alighted from my machine, making up my mind the while how to act. The whole thing came as a flood of relief to me. If he were really placing something on the line he was a desperate fellow, and to attack him would be ‘desperate—just the very thing for a man in my mood. And then there came ‘across me another thought. The Great West-Northern had offered £lOO reward. What if I should win it? If so, Fwaswmeedl . .. ~ This idea gave me courage as I clam‘bered over the low hedge and crawled stealthily up the . embankment, At length my head came on a level with

the top. Good! He had seen and heard nothing. There he was stooping down with his back toward me, lashing something with a rope to the down metals. Ten yards separated us. Setting my teeth, I prepared for the attack. : With a spring I was upon him; but too late. He had heard me as soon as 1 had left the grassy slope and my feet sounded upon the ballast, and in a moment he was on his legs and facing me. I managed to get in one good blow under his guard with my left hang, which caught him square on the jaw, and with imy right hand I seized him by the collar. ' : “Curse you, let go!” he cried. “Not 1,” llshouted back. : “Then take that!” he replied. There was a glitter of steel as he raised his right hand aloft and struck at my breast. But I was too quick for him. Half-turning the blow aside, I caught it on the left forearm. I felt the knife slip under my sleeve, and the sharp point as.it entered my flesh. That only gave me redoubled fury. Releasing my grip on his collar, I gave his right elbow an upward blow, that sent the knife spinning away out of his hand right down the embankment, and the next instant I had dedged to the left, made a feint of rushing past him, and had tripped him up with a heavy back-throw with my right arm and leg —a dodge which I had picked up during a holiday at Cornwall. He fell, with an oath, striking the back of his head against the rail, and lay there, stunned, like a log. The battle was mine!

But there was more to be done, and no time to be lost. I had to remove the obstructions from the metals and secure my prisoner. I wanted light on the scene. Hastily I dashed down the embankment, took oft my bicycle lamp, and hurried back again. Then I saw the extent.of his devilment. ' He had managed to get three old sleepers, which were probably lying by the side of the track awaiting removal. Two of these he had lashed firmly across the metals, with a space of about a couple of feet between. The third he had been in the act of securing between them, pointing at an angle toward the train, so that it would catch under the Dbed-plate of the engine and wreck the works. The third sleeper I removed. Then I took the piece of rope he had been about to use, and tied the wretch’s arms behind him, lashing ‘his feet together also. Having disposed of him, I was turning my attention to the other two sleepers, when an eminous roar in the distance, in the direction of London. startled me. A train was coming! With a yell of despair, I set to werk at those ropes. It was no use. I could not undo them in time. I felt in my pockets—no! I had left my knife at home., ‘Ah! there was the train-wrecker’s weapon! Where was it? Alas! it would have taken me too much time to find it in the long grass of the embankment.. With horror I glanced ahead. There, in the distance, were two gleaming lights of the approaching train. How could I stop it? G R ‘ As I asked myself this question I felt something warm trickling from my left . arm. I turned my lantern on it. Blood—dripping red blood from the knife-wound, which I had forgotten. : :

Ah! An inspiration. And with. a prayer that it might not be too late, I proceeded to put it into execution. Drawing out my handkerchief, I quickly applied it to my arm. In three or four seconds it was saturated with blocd. - . I glanced ahead again. Oh! those tights! They were only about half a mile from me now. - Hastily I folded the dripping handkerchief twice or thrice, and stretched it across the face of my bicycle lamp. Eureka! I held in my hand a red light! ‘ Stumbling, running, leaping, I rushed toward the train, waving my extemporized danger-signal frantieally as I did so. The headlights gleamed brighter and brighter, the roar - became nearer and nearer. Would they never stop? Ah! A whistle. A shriek in the night as of a startled wild animal. And then a rasping and a grating of brake-blccks, a stream of fiying sparks from the:' rails as the wheels dragged along them, a glarz of light in my very face, and a hoarse voice from the foot-plate. “What's up there? D’ye kzow you’re stopping the Silkminster express?” “Thank God I have!” I answered. And then for a few minutes all was black—the excitement and the Iloss of blood were too much for me. When I came to there was a crowd of passengers around me, and they gave me some stimulant. “Have they got him?” I asked. “Got him? Aye, we’ve got him,” said the guard, ‘“and we won’t let him go in a hurry. : - They got my machine from the road, and I traveled in a first-class carriage back to Silkminster. The kindly guard, who had a knowledge of ambulance work, had bourd up my wound, which was a very slight one. One of my traveling companions, curiously enough, was a director of the line, and to him I told the story how I had captured the train wrecker.. He congratulated me heartily, and told me that the company would certainly pay me the;reward. bl “Excuse me,” I said, “but may I ask for it at orce—that Is, within this fortnight? The truth is that the money is a godsend to me. It wili save me from ruin.” | ~ And it did. A week afterward I was able to walk into the partners’ office with my books properly balanced. Mr, Marsh shook me by the hand. : “We will not ask,” he said, “for any explanation of the mistake or how it has been rectified. We only trust that our method of dealing with you will prevent such ‘a mistake from ever occurring again, for in that case not even such a plucky action as that ‘which you achieved last week—or the result ol it—will save you. But now ‘we trust the matter is at an end fore g - e : ] ~ And so it was. I do not think the partners *i?l;"'i’@??"!““'ft,f,'%i!‘?@!fﬂiiéhiﬂ ﬁm"ﬁ”pﬁa And the wftim saw Joseph Berch, ex-servant of the Great Wert Northern, diccharged in disgrace, senten gﬁ,’:ﬁf”"“«x“"" irs’ penal servitude for attempting to wreck the exPrees T sould ot Beip FiwARIY hesk: in mm&m%w ruin and giving me back all.— The

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BLOCK SIGNAL SYSTEM. Jt Virtually Prevents Railroad Collisions and Is Operated by the Faithful Tower Man. It is much safer to ride on a railway train now than it used to be. On many roads “lock and block” signals keep a train.from being run into from behind, and it is impossible to have a head on collision, because triins going-in the opposite direction are on another track. In the old days trains were kept from colliding by sending telégrams, and mistakes of telegraph operators ofter cost many lives. Nowadays when an engineer is running his train close to another on the same track he knows it by signals placed every little way along the line, and the telegraph operator has nothing to do with it. A road on which these siganis are to be used is first divided into sections or “blocks,” each about two miles long. The rails of each blicck are separated from the rails of the adjoining blocks by some substance that will not let

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electricity through.- In a tower midway of the block is an electric indicator which is attached to both rails of the track by two wires. When a train enters a bleck at one end, the indicator, the two wires, the two lines of rails and the nearest car truck form an eleetric circuit along which travels a current from a battery. The indicator clicks as the current passesthrough it and th'e words “Train in Block” appear in a slot in front. The instant that the train passes out of the block the current stops, these words drop out of sight and the word “Free” appears. There is an arm-like signal called a semaphore at the end of the block and also at the tower, and the tower man aperates them both by levers. Engineers have orders to slow down their trains at the first semaphore if it is a danger signal, and to stop at a danger signal at the tower. When the’train approaches a block the signals are in the danger position and the tower man cannot change them without permission from the next tower man, because his levers are locked and can only be 'released by the second man. So he presses a button and rings three electric bellsin the second tower. If there is a train in that bloek the answer is five bells, but if his block is clear the second man presses a plunger at the bottom of Ris indicator and completes an electric circuit that releases: the first man’s levers but locks his own. The first man then signals that the way is safe, and as soon as the train has passed the tower he puts up the danger signal again. It is now time for the second tower man to signal to the third by ringing three bells and getting his machinery unlocked, and the third has. to ring up the fourth, and so on. The train is thus safely handed along from 'block to block, with never less than a full block section bDetween trains. On a large railroad the block signals are operated several hundred thousand times a day without a single mistake.—Little Chronicle. ° ‘ AGGY WAS AMUSING.

Filipino Monkey, Although Full of . Pranks, Was the Pet of an American Regiment. When my brother returned from the Philippine islands not'long ago, having seen service in the island of Negros, he brought with him a pet monkey named Aguinaldo. "In his native land Aggy was quite an amusing beast. If the soldiers happened to be in want of cocoanuts or mangoes Aggy would willingly go up a cocoanut or mango tree and shake down any quantity of fruit, when he would come down and look as if he was highly pleased at what he had done. Although Aggy was useful at times, he was very mischievous. For instance, he wouid hunt until he found some of the officers’ best cigars and then proceed to chew a small hole out of the middle of each cigar, making them so they would not draw well. Another favorite prank was to throw razors, toothbrushes and the like out of the window and then take refuge in the top of a cocoanut tree, where he would stay until the razor owner's wrath had sumewhat abated. . He relished spiders and moths; and would frequently burn his feet or mouth in attempting to catch the moths: who were attracted by the light of a candie. But Aggy did not thrive in this climate. He was sent to a man who took care of all kinds of animals, but in consequence of the voyage over and the unsuitableness of this climate he died about three weeks after arriving here.—N. Y. Herald. ; - ' Tommy Was Philosophiecal, ~ “Teacher says that rubber trees grow wild in Florida,” said a seven-year-old school girl. “Well, s’pose they do,” rejoined her brother, aged - five. “Nobody ever has any use for rubbers till it rains and then it’s too wet to go out in the woods and gather them.” | .~ “Say, mamma,” said four-year-old Tommy, “let's play Im an awallook‘Dback door and ask for a piece of pie and Jou get scared and glveittome.” . M g i aled Shat e atestiiiaY G RS Oy N S AN WO [ UL S e Y

.. PRANKS OF MONKEYS. - Little Simians of India Indulge in Al} . Sorts of Sport in an Almost - Human Way, ' “When I was traveling in northera India,” said a gentleman who had recently completed a journey around the world, “I was constantly impressed with the almost human ways of the monkeys there. You see, they are never molested, which is also true of the birds, and they are as tame and impudent as spoiled children. “] remember that one morning while we were sitting at breakfast on the veranda of our hotel suddenly we heard the mnoisiest chattering, and down the main street of the town came a crowd of long-tailed monkeys, runing a race, evidently. They shrieked and -chattered at every leap, tripping each other up, pulling each other’s tails, and seemed to be having a generally hilarious time. While we left the table to watch their antics some Indian crows that had been solemnly lined up on the veranda rail watching us eat made a dash for the food, and had quite a fight with the native servant” before they were finally driven away. ' “But the monkeys of India are surely the most irresponsible in the world,” continued the traveler. “I can call them people, because they are such ludicrous counterfeits of human beings. In many of the old temples there are monkey settlements. I remember one in particular which was sacred to the simians.. There seemed to be thousands of the creatures, and I was told that 5,000 had recently been taken to the woods to -get rid of them. But in this temple I saw little simian mothers nestling and rocking their babies in their arms for all the world like Christian mothers. I ventured to pick up one of the infants that was running about, and instantly the baby gave a typical infantile squeal and the excited mother came to me, chattering angrily. I put theinfant down and the mother, her eyes still blazing with anger, carried the little one to a corner and petted and rocked it, frequently turning to give me a scornful look. - “It is not uncommon for the monkeys in the trees to reach down and seize thg traveler’s hat as he passes. ~ “Perhaps the most remarkable sight in connection with the monkeys in India I witnessed early one morning. We were riding in the highway and by a vacant field. . Suddenly from the neighboring forest a troop of monkeys entered the field and began a, regular May ‘dance, taking hold of hands and form'ing a large circle, then dancing round and round and chattering gleefully.” - WESTERN EPISODE. Widow of Gen. Custer Describes How a Horse Killed an Ugly and ; Vicious Rattlesnake, Few of us have ever seen a horse kill a snake, but Mrs. Custer describes the performance in her story of “The Kid” in St. Nicholas. - : As they were pushing out of a jungle on foot one day the colonel said: “Samanthy is a little too attentive, Alf; "he shoves himself alongside of me, and when I remonstrate he backs a little, but keeps so close he almost treads on my heels.” 2 “Well, father, I suppose he thinks nothing: can go on without him. He’s been in everything I ever did yet.” As_they came to a narrow defile, ~with the branches of the trees festooned witnh moss and the ground tangled with vines and thick underbrush,

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Samanthy forgot his. manners and crowded to the front. The colonel, peering into the thicket for birds, heard what he took to be the whirr of pheasants’ wings, and he lifted his gun to take aim. The Kid, pressing on, saw with his keen eyes that it was nothing so harmless as the rising of a covey of birds. A huge rattlesnake, overlooked by the colonel in his intense concantration on the thicket,lay coiled directly in front of him, the vicious mouth hissing, the eyes gleaming with fire. Alf was in agony. de could not fire, for his father or the pony would have received the shot as they were placed. - But a more vigilant pair of eyes than even the Kid’s had aiscovered the reptile, and with a spring in front of the colonel, and with the nicest exactitude, down came the pony with a buck jump, his hoofs close together on the head of the snake, crushing in the deadly fangs and flattening the skull into the soft soil! s ~ Still there was an ominous rattle of the tail, and the little nag gathered ‘himself again, bowed his supple back and drove his hoofs into the mottled skin of the Geadly foe of mankind. Cast Away Among Friends. On a voyage from Australia to Panama the bark Monontum sprung a leak, -and although all hands worked at the pumps the vessel continued to settle, and the captain had to make for the nearest land, which was Easter island, off the coast of Chili. As luck would have it, the vessel struck a reef, and the crew just succeeded in getting ashore with their lives. The inhabLo e but simple minded and kindly. They number about 180, and are ruled by & is w cabi af KiiSks aad eld mutl, and ‘everybody lives on yams, fruit and pork —the pigs being - many an ﬁﬁf 2 On this little island the sailors had te A e ’;‘-&..’;'Z -},,.‘% e g .;}: N = ;,‘;-‘ e e e S aal L iallad atbte.. Tt WOE T )