CHAPTER XII.
MYLES FALLS INTO A TRAP.
THE straightforward account that Myles and his companion were able togive of themselves and their movements quickly convinced the dapperlittle lieutenant that they were all right, but he warned them neverto do so again. He had to say this, or something like it, in order toimpress them with the importance of his position. This was the firsttime he had ever worn the wonderfully gorgeous uniform of his battalionin actual service; he might never again have a chance to exhibit itas a real commander of real soldiers on real duty, and he believed inmaking the most of opportunities as they were presented.
At the conclusion of this farce the suspected individuals were set atliberty and allowed to communicate the unwelcome intelligence thatone of the crack New York City regiments was on its way to MountainJunction. It was unwelcome news to the lieutenant, because he knew thathe would thus be speedily relieved of his command by some superiorofficer, and that his brief day of glory would be over.
“It is perfectly absurd to send more troops to this place,” hesputtered, “especially a lot of city boys. What good can they do, Ishould like to know? Why, a single night’s work such as we have justhad would break them all up, while I, for instance, am fresh as a daisyand good for another just like it. I tell you, gentlemen, you wantmen of experience in affairs of this kind, not a lot of toy soldierslike those New York chaps. We don’t need any help here, even if theywere the fellows to help us. I and my command are perfectly well ableto attend to all the strikers in this part of the country. Why, wehave cleared the town of them already, arrested their ringleader, andto-morrow, or rather to-day, I propose to run a train over the WesternDivision, and see that it goes through, too! Of course you will makeno mention of this,” he added, with a laughable expression of anxiety;“for we do not wish our plans to be known generally.”
“Of course not,” answered Myles. “We understand that you do not wishto have your proposed ride on the cars interrupted by any meddlesomestrikers. But whom did you say you arrested? I should like to have hisname for publication.”
Now this word “publication” meant a great deal to Lieutenant Easter.To get his name into the New York papers as one of the heroes of thisgreat strike would be the crowning glory of his military career. Ofcourse this reporter could not describe the arrest of one of theringleaders of the strike and its attendant circumstances withoutmentioning the important part borne in the affair by himself, thecommanding officer. So, without noticing Myles’ remark about theproposed opening of the Western Division, he proceeded to give him afull account from his own point of view of what had taken place duringthe few hours just past.
According to this account, about one o’clock that night Mr. Watkins,filled with the responsibility of his position as acting divisionsuperintendent, had been making a round of the railroad buildingsto see that every thing was all right. Near one of the car-shops henoticed a man evidently trying to conceal himself in its shadow. Mr.Watkins challenged him, asked him what he was doing there, and orderedhim off the premises. The man, answering in the well-known voice ofJacob Allen, a recognized leader of the strike, said he was only going,by the shortest way, to his home, and that he did not propose to goback and take a roundabout route to please Mr. Watkins or anybody else.Thereupon Mr. Watkins, very properly, called one of the military guardsof the building and ordered him to arrest Allen.
The guard attempted to obey this order, but the striker, exhibitinga desperate ferocity, snatched his gun from him, and, pointing it atthem, ordered both Mr. Watkins and the guard to leave or he wouldshoot. He even went so far as to cock the gun, and of course they wereobliged to do as he told them.
Mr. Watkins immediately reported this outrage to him (LieutenantEaster), and, taking a squad of a dozen of his best men, he went toAllen’s house, and arrested him just as he was getting into bed. Whilethey were doing this a fire broke out in the very car-shop near whichhe had been discovered, and there was not the slightest doubt but thatthis Jacob Allen had set it. At any rate he would be tried for it, inconnection with his other offences against the law, and he now occupieda cell in the town jail, where he was chained and handcuffed beyond apossibility of escape. In the meantime all the other strikers had takento the woods, and he (Lieutenant Easter) could congratulate the town onbeing well rid of them.
Thanking the lieutenant for the information he had given them, Mylesand the telegraph operator took their departure, the former to seek hisbed in the hotel and get a few hours sleep, the latter to hunt up someparticular friends for whom he had important news.
When Ben Watkins returned to his room, after his wicked attempt to burnthe railroad building and his struggle with Myles, he was filled withsuch a fury of rage, shame, and hatred that his sole thought was ofrevenge.
For some time he paced restlessly up and down the room, trying toconceive some plan for the young reporter’s utter humiliation andoverthrow. He felt almost sure that in consequence of the telegram hehad sent to the _Phonograph_ the night before, Myles would be dismissedfrom the paper; but that was not enough. Could he not inflict somemore serious injury upon the fellow who had just told him that he, BenWatkins, was whipped and in his power?
“Whipped, am I!” cried Ben, bitterly, “I’ll show him yet who iswhipped. I may be in his power or he may be in mine; but that questionis not settled yet, as he will find out before long.”
Then the old evil smile crept over his face. A new idea entered hismind, and he paused in his hurried walk to consider it.
“Yes,” he exclaimed, half aloud. “I believe it will work; and if itdoes it will land him in State prison, certain as fate! All I have todo is to make no mistake in my part of the programme and it will workitself out without any further effort. Why, the fool has actually goneand stuck his own head right into the trap. Things couldn’t suit mebetter if I had planned them beforehand.”
Then Ben saw that his door was locked, plugged the key-hole, pinnedthe curtains to the window-frame so that it was certain no onecould peep in, and, producing the express package that he hadtaken from the safe, sat down to examine it. One thousand dollarsin fifty-dollar bills! A careful count assured him that the sum wascorrect. Then he began to examine the bills separately and with theutmost care, studying their every detail on both sides. He even used amagnifying-glass to aid in his search.
At last his efforts seemed to be rewarded, and he laid one of thebills aside, though he did not cease his labor until every note in thepackage had been thoroughly examined. Leaving the bill thus selected,together with the express envelope in which they came, lying on thetable, he thrust the rest into the pocket from which he had taken themand buttoned his coat tightly. Next he wrote a letter. It was short,but it evidently needed to be written and worded with great care, forseveral sheets of note-paper were torn into minute fragments before onewas prepared to his satisfaction. Folding the selected bill inside ofthis letter, he placed them in an envelope which he sealed, directed,and stamped. This he also placed in his pocket.
Now, turning out his light and taking the empty express envelope, hesoftly unlocked and opened the door of his room, took out the key,and for a minute peered cautiously up and down the dimly lighted hall,listening intently at the same time. Then he removed his shoes andwalked rapidly, but with noiseless tread, to the door of the roomoccupied by Myles Manning. It was locked, of course, but, as is oftenthe case in small hotels, the key of one room would unlock the door ofevery other, and Ben’s key unlocked this door as readily as his own.
Although certain that the room was empty, for he knew Myles to be outof town, Ben exercised the utmost caution as he entered it and softlyclosed the door behind him. He did not remain there more than a minute,but when he came out he trembled so violently that it was difficult forhim to insert the key into the lock. When he had accomplished this hesped back to his own room, possessed of the miserable fear that alwaysfollows a guilty conscience. Ben was bad, and had been for years; buthe was now practising a new style of wi
ckedness, and the terror that itinspired was unlike any he had ever before known.
Having transacted all these items of business to his satisfaction heresumed his shoes, put on his hat, and, quietly leaving the hotelwithout being noticed, walked down town to the post-office, where hemailed his letter.
Then, for fear that he had been seen, and wishing to have a good excusefor being on the street at that hour of the night, he made the pretenceof examining into the safety of the car-shops, that resulted in meetingwith Jacob Allen, as Myles afterward learned from Lieutenant Easter.
The fire that followed so closely upon Allen’s arrest was set to carryout a threat made by the strikers that they would destroy some piece ofrailroad property for every one of their number who should be throwninto prison.
When Myles Manning, completely worn out with the hard work andexcitement of the night, threw himself, without undressing, upon hisbed, he fully intended to be up again and ready to go out with thetrain that Lieutenant Easter proposed to put through that day. He hadbeen told that it would start at ten o’clock, or possibly earlier thanthat hour. When, therefore, after what seemed to him but a few minutesof heavy, dreamless sleep, he awoke to find the sun shining brightlyand already high in the sky, he feared he had neglected anotheropportunity of obeying the orders under which he was working, and losthis chance of accompanying the first train sent out since the beginningof the great strike.
Instinctively feeling for his watch, that he might see what timeit really was, he was for a moment puzzled to account for itsdisappearance. Then the memory of the use to which it had been putthe previous evening came back to him, and again he flushed with hotindignation as he recalled the mortifying position in which he wasplaced.
“Oh, what a fool I was—what a fool I was!” he cried out in hisdistress. “To gamble away money that I needed so badly, and which,at the same time, was not my own. That I am in this fix is all myown fault, though, and I am well paid for my folly. It is a bitterexperience that I shall remember so long as I live, and it has at leastcured me of gambling; for never again will I risk one cent upon a gameof chance. No, not one cent,” he repeated earnestly, as if registeringa vow.
He hated to go down stairs with the chance of meeting the proprietor ofthe hotel.
“Though why should I?” he thought. “He holds security worth twentytimes the amount of his wretched bill. Oh, for a few dollars with whichto pay him and demand the return of my watch, with an apology for hissuspicions! I almost wish I had accepted that operator’s offer of aloan. He’s a good fellow, and I wouldn’t so very much mind being underan obligation to him.”
Thus thinking, the young reporter went down to the hotel office, wherea glance at the clock showed him that it was already past ten. As hewas hurrying out of the front door the clerk at the desk said:
“Here is a letter for you, Mr. Manning.”
Stepping back and getting it Myles thrust it into his pocket, feelingthat he had no time to read letters just then, and set out on a run forthe railway station.
There, to his great relief, he found the train that he feared had gonewithout him. It stood on the main track, and consisted of two cars, butno locomotive. The men of Lieutenant Easter’s command, who were to gowith it as a guard, stood in small groups near it, and everybody wasevidently waiting for something. Myles soon learned that the difficultywas with the locomotive. One had been got ready for the trip, but,with the first revolution of its great wheels, their connecting rod hadfallen to the ground, and a serious injury to the machinery resulted. Asmall steel pin was missing, and could not be found. Upon examinationof the other engines in the round-house it was discovered that the sameimportant little pin was missing from every one of them. Each engineerupon leaving had drawn this pin and taken it with him. Now, therefore,the train could not move until a new one of these pins could be madeand fitted to its place. Under the circumstances this was a slow anddifficult undertaking, and it would be at least an hour yet before astart could be made. This being the case Myles thought he might as wellreturn to the hotel for the breakfast of which he stood so greatly inneed.
Going to his room, to wash his face and hands before sitting down totable, he suddenly remembered his letter. It was post-marked MountainJunction, and the post-mark bore the date of that very day.
“That is curious,” thought Myles.
His surprise was greatly increased when, as he opened the letter, afifty-dollar bill fell from it, and he turned eagerly to its contents:
MY DEAR MR. MANNING:
Having accidentally learned of your temporary embarrassment, and knowing your unwillingness to accept pecuniary assistance from strangers, I take this method of forcing a slight loan upon you. Do not hesitate to make use of the enclosed $50 for when you are again in funds I will call upon you for repayment. Say nothing of this little affair, but use the money as your own, and believe me to be
A FRIEND IN NEED.
“Well, if that telegraph fellow isn’t a trump!” thought Myles, as hefinished reading this friendly note. “He has sent me the exact sumthat I asked the office for in that dispatch, and sent it in such adelicate, generous way that I don’t see how I can very well refuse totake it. He is, indeed, ‘a friend in need,’ and one whom I won’t forgetin a hurry. Yes, I will use the money, now that it has actually come tome, for I shall certainly soon be able to pay it back.”
With a lighter heart than he had known since arriving in this town ofincident and adventure, and with the bill in his hand, Myles ran downstairs and called for the proprietor, to whom he said:
“I’ll thank you, sir, for my watch, together with a receipted bill formy board to date, and here is the money to pay it. If there was anyother hotel in town I would not spend another minute in yours, you maydepend upon it. Now make the change quickly, if you please, for I am ina hurry.”
The landlord did not deign to reply to this little speech; but, takingthe proffered bill and satisfying himself that it was genuine, hehanded out the change, the watch, and a receipt without a word.
Myles ate his breakfast, or, rather, his lunch, for it was now nearlynoon, with a hearty appetite, and then started off briskly and happilytoward the railway station, prepared to encounter any adventure thatthe day might bring forth.