Francis Lynde

“ Then comes the news of the bizarre hold-up in Cromarty Gulch. Instantly the reasoning mind, the laboratory mind, if you prefer, goes to work, with the two foreknown facts—the heavy-dead-man fact, and the fact that your chief clerk is on that train with his valuable papers—clamoring each for its hearing. ”

“ We can never make it in this world!"
"You bet we can!" shouted Tarbell. "Help Mr. Calmaine, and pile into the car—quick!"
The short race to the near-by mining-camp was a sheer break-neck dash, but Tarbell made good. When the four of them leaped from the car and stormed into Allen's office, the Fast Mail had already whistled for the "clear" signal, and the operator was reaching for the cord of his semaphore to give the "go-by" wigwag. They yelled at him as one man; and a few seconds later the fast train slid to a shrieking stop at the station. ”

“ Later he had drifted into the Washington bureau as an expert, taking the job, as he explained, because it gave him time and frequent leisurely intervals for the pursuit of his principal hobby, which was the lifting of detective work to the plane of pure theory, treating each case as a mathematical problem to be demonstrated by logical reasoning.
"You ought to drop everything else and take up the man-hunting business as a profession," laughed Maxwell, when the hour-long talk had come around to the big man's pet among the hobbies. ”

“ Maxwell saw a few men whom he knew, and many who were well known to the Brewster police. Under the archway dividing the red-and-black wheels from the faro table Sprague whispered in his ear.
"I'm looking for a man whose New York name is 'Tapper' Givens," he said. "He has a red face, black hair and eyes, and weighs about one hundred and eighty pounds. He may, or may not, be wearing a heavy black mustache, and——"
Maxwell looked up with a puzzled frown. "Say, Calvin; you're describing the dead man," he broke in. ”

“ For five full seconds the black-haired man kept silence. Then he spoke as the spirit moved him.
"It's where you won't get it—you n'r them make-believe crooks up at the Molly Baldwin!" he rasped.
"Oho!" Sprague laughed. "So you planned it to give your side partners in this little game the double-cross, did you? It's like you. Take them away, Archer."
"And—and hurry back!" whispered Calmaine hoarsely. "We've simply got to catch Number Six, I tell you!"
Thus urged, Tarbell expedited matters with the night jailer and came running back to take his place behind the steering-wheel. ”

“ If they had anything as heavy as Murtrie's body to tote, that's about the way they went with it."
Maxwell had been absently marking little squares on his desk blotter as Harding talked. The sheriff's theory was ingenious, but it failed to account for all the facts.
"There's more to it than that," he said, at length. And then he appealed to the silent guest. "Don't you think so, Sprague?"
"I'm waiting to hear how Mr. Harding accounts for the raid on the passengers," said the big man modestly. "One would think that a gang of body-snatchers would have been willing to do one thing at a time." ”

“ Tarbell nodded. "A couple o' forty-fives. I'd hardly go huntin' train-robbers without 'em."
"Of course not. Suppose you divide up with Mr. Maxwell here, and then go and find us an auto; just the bare car; we'll manage to drive it ourselves. And, Archer, get a good big one, with easy springs. If there is any one thing I dislike more than another it is to be jammed up in a little, hard-riding car. I need plenty of room. I guess I grew too much when I was a boy." ”

“ One of the most difficult things to prefigure—you might say the only one which refuses to come under the test-tube formulas—is just what a given man will do under certain suddenly sprung conditions. It is the only problematical element which ever enters into these puzzle-solvings of mine. I haven't the pleasure of an intimate acquaintance with your chief clerk, but from the little I've seen of him I should say unhesitatingly that he is a young man for an emergency, quick to think, and fully as quick to act. ”

“ He will probably need your Western proxies, and need them bad."
"I've got them right here," said Maxwell, tapping a thick bunch of papers on his desk. "And believe me, I've had a sweet time rounding them up. Every moneyed man in this country is a friend of Ford's, and yet I've had to wrestle with every individual one of them for these proxies as if I'd been asking them to shed their good red blood." ”

“ Five minutes farther along the two-car special train had been made up and was clanking out over the switches in the eastern yard. As the last of the switch-lights were flicking past the windows, a big bearded man came in from the car ahead and Maxwell introduced him.
"Sprague, this is Sheriff Harding. Harding, shake hands with my friend, Mr. Sprague, of the Department of Agriculture, Washington, and then sit down and we'll thrash this thing out. You've heard the story?"
The sheriff nodded. "I've heard what Tarbell could tell me. He says the biggest part of the haul was a dead man. ”

“ First, I see a dozen men loading a coffin into an express-car. I note the extreme weight, and wonder how a dead man, any dead man who doesn't have to have his coffin built to order, can be so infernally heavy. ”

“ As you know, I have a mine up on the Gloria that beats railroading out of sight. But I'd fight like a dog for Ford, and for my own rank and file here on the Short Line. Of course, Transcontinental control would mean a clean sweep of everybody: there wouldn't be baskets enough this side of the main range to hold the heads that would be cut on.
"I suppose not. But, as you say, you have the 'come-back' right there under your hand in those proxies. How will you get them to New York?"
"My chief clerk, Calmaine, will deliver them in person. ”

“ A man does his best work as an amateur—in any line. As long as the man-hunting comes in the way of a recreation, I enjoy it keenly. But if I had to make a business of it, it would be different." Then he changed the subject by asking about Tarbell, Maxwell's ex-cowboy division detective, who had served as his understudy in the "wire-devil" case a few weeks earlier.
"Archer is all right," was the reply; "only he'd like to break away from me and go with you. He thinks you are about the one only top-notcher ”

“ Jehu! what a 'back' he'd make under the new rules!"
"Vaudeville is my guess," chimed in the next-to-the-prettiest girl mockingly; "the strong man who puts up the dumb-bells, and all that, you know. If you could break into his luggage, I'd wager a box of chocolates that you'd find a perfectly beautiful suit of pink tights with spangled trunks and resined slippers." ”

“ Maxwell turned back to the window.
"Yes; he's coming. He's pulling up on the other side of the plaza—doesn't want to run afoul of these mining friends of ours, I suppose."
"Archer has a head on him, all right, and I like him. You want to swing onto that young fellow, Dick. He'll make a good man for you some day. Let's go down and join him."
Tarbell waited when he saw the boss and his guest coming across the plaza, and when his two fares were stowed in the roomy tonneau of the big car he let the clutch in for the short run to the western suburb. ”

“ It was Sprague who discovered the thick packet upon which so much depended. It was lying cleverly chance-hidden under a clump of the greasewood bushes. "Found!" he announced. And then he gave the young chief clerk his due meed of commendation. "You're a young man to bet on, Mr. Calmaine. What we've been able to do, thus far, wouldn't amount to much if you hadn't kept your head." Then he turned quickly to the superintendent. "How do we stand for time, now, Maxwell?" ”

“ By Maxwell's direction, Tarbell drove first to the railroad head-quarters, where the superintendent and his guest got out. At the office entrance another dusty car was drawn up; and in the upper corridor they found the two young men from the Molly Baldwin mine, still seeking for information. Sprague disposed of them, and he did it with business-like brevity.
"Your dead man has been found," he told them crisply. "He is at present in the county jail, with one of his accomplices; and when he is given the third degree, he will probably tell all he knows. ”

“ Connolly glanced at his train-sheet.
"She's due at Arroyo in eight minutes. It ain't a stop, but I can have the operator flag her down."
"Good. Do it, and send this message to McCarty, conductor. Are you ready?" And when the despatcher, quickly calling the station in question, signalled his readiness, Sprague went on, dictating slowly: "‘Hold your train and have Calmaine, chief clerk, come to the wire.' Sign Mr. Maxwell's name—that's all right, isn't it, Maxwell?"
"Anything you say is all right," was the quick response. ”

“ Maxwell laughed. "That was what the New Yorkers seemed to think. They secured a court order allowing them to put an expert of their own on the job. And nobody seems to enjoy the watch-dog stunt. They've had to send in a new man every few weeks."
"Do the Cripple Creekers kill them off?"
"No; they buy 'em off, I guess. Anyway, they- don't stay. Murtrie was the last."
"And apparently he hasn't stayed," said Sprague reflectively; and just then a long-drawn wail of the locomotive whistle announced the approach of the train to Brewster. ”

“ You can manage that, can't you, young man?" turning short upon the operator.
Allen said he could and proceeded to do it; after which, under Sprague's direction, the case was trundled out to the platform, and the three of them, with Maxwell's private-car porter to help, loaded the coffin upon the front platform of Maxwell's car.
"We'll take it back with us," said the Government man, with a sober twinkle in his eyes. "It's a passably good coffin, you know, and with a little repairing it will do to use again—say, when we have found the man it belongs to." ”

“ If you're taking the case, you are very pointedly the only doctor there is in it," Maxwell asserted. Then he called to the sheriff: "O Harding!" and when the county officer came up: "I'm going to take the train and run on to Corona after Galt. We'll stop here for your orders when we come back."
During the short run around the hills to the small mining-town station, Sprague sat quietly in his chair, puffing steadily at his cigar, and saying nothing. When Maxwell announced their arrival he got up and followed the superintendent into the Corona office. ”

“ While the young people were debating among themselves as to whether or no there might not be an apology due, the big man who had dined alone passed quite through the string of vestibuled Pullmans and went to light his cigar on the rear platform of the combination buffet and observation car. ”

“ Sprague. You can take my word for it, all right."
The man whose recreative hobby was the application of scientific principles to the detection of crime, smoked in reflective silence for a minute or two. Finally he said: "You are a much better spotter than you think you are, Archer. It is a pity that this man Murtrie is dead. If he wasn't, I'd like to have you shadow him a bit more for us. Where did you say he kept himself chiefly—in Brewster, I mean?" ”

“ It's Murtrie; a mining engineer who has been doing a sort of weigh-master's stunt at the Molly Baldwin mine. Died pretty suddenly last night, they say."
"Large man?" queried the Government chemist, half-absently; and Maxwell looked up quickly.
"Beefy rather than big, yes. How could you tell?"
Sprague waved his cigar as if the question were childish and the answer obvious. "It took a dozen of them, more or less, to put him into the express-car."
Maxwell turned back to his desk. "Metallic casket, probably," he suggested. "They had our agent wire Brewster for the best that could be had. ”

“ But never mind the whys and wherefores just now; they can come later. Tell me how long we're going to stay here losing time on Follansbee and his dogs. "
"Not a minute longer than you care to stay. What do you want to do?"
"I want to see that crippled express messenger who was put off the train at Corona. Also, I'd like to have a look at the dead man's coffin." ”

“ It's off time now and running on orders, anyway."
"Then we can sit down quietly and wait to hear from the exceedingly capable-looking young man who has the honor to be your chief clerk," said the Government man, and he calmly planted himself in the nearest chair.
"Calmaine will probably be abed and asleep in the Pullman," Maxwell suggested. "I suppose your call is important enough to warrant his getting up and dressing?" ”

“ It was; and when the train shrilled to a stand at the station the company ambulance was waiting to take the wounded express messenger out to the hospital. Also, there was a young man from The Tribune office, who was anxious to get the latest story of the sensational hold-up of the "Flying Plainsman." Tarbell was detailed to give the reporter the facts in the case, so far as they had developed, and Maxwell and his guest climbed the stair to the despatcher's room in the second story. ”

“ There is doubtless a stock-holders' meeting looming up in the near future—say on the day after the all-important fifteenth—and the Wall Street people are going after Ford's scalp again, this time in a strictly legal way. ”

“ Maxwell's smile was grim.
"It seems to me we're just about as far off as ever," he commented; "unless you can carry it along to the body-snatching in some way. Why should they——"
"Hold on," Harding cut in; "I wasn't through. It's one thing to kill a man, and another to get rid of the body so it won't show up and get somebody hanged. Murtrie was sick ”