The Argosy, December 1905 — page 155: what you’re looking at

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

BLOCK TOWER SEVEN. BY JARED L. FULLER. A railroad story of a signalman’s thrilling experiences in ferreting out the mystery of his predecessor’s murder. SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTERS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED. A WRECK occurs on the A. & C. R. R., from which Dr. Lester, Captain Payne Howard and his daughter Belle are rescued by Dan Crompton, an employee of the road. Captain Howard is in litigation with the railway company at this time. It is discovered that Raddigan, the signalman in Tower Seven at Coldspring, is murdered, and that the signals were changed to cause the wreck. There is no clue to the murderer. Crompton is promoted to Raddigan’s position, and takes up his quarters with Mrs. Corrigan and her idiot son, Billy, sister and nephew of the murdered Raddigan. It is not long before he receives a warning of personal danger, and while returning home at midnight is attacked by a couple of men who get aboard a slow freight. bind him and make their escape. He starts in pursuit of them and enters the car where they are hiding. They gag and At the top of a steep slope the train breaks in two. Crompton’s car, with several others, rolls backward. At the end of the slope there is a sharp turn, and Crompton lies helpless with the almost certain knowledge that the car will jump the track. CHAPTER XVI. THE LOST CAR. ISAPPOINTED in their attempt to corral the supposed tramps who had attacked Dan Crompton, Jim Sousa and his men went back to the freight caboose, fully expecting to find the wounded signalman there before them. Astonishment quickly gave place to fear when they found the caboose empty. “The man’s fallen overboard!” cried the conductor, aghast. “ Or those fellows did for him before we routed ’em out of that car,” sug- gested the flagman, who was his chief assistant. , That tramps sometimes attack rail- road men with murderous intent is an undisputed fact. After a tramp has been thrown off a moving train, or knocked down and beaten in an empty box-car by some brakeman who has a reputa- tion to sustain as a “bruisei,” the knight of the road is apt to be at daggers drawn with the entire railroad fra- ternity. Usually the *boes are cowardly fel- *This story began in the September issue of THE ARGOSY. lows; but occasionally two or three bad ones flock together; and then wo betide the railroad employee who falls singly into their hands. Sousa thought that his flagman might be right, and he set out himself and searched the train from end to end, while the freight climbed slowly up the long grade. He did not think for a moment to look into the car out of which the tramps had been driven. If they had attacked Dan, Sousa believed they had hidden in that car after wreaking their vengeance on the unfortunate signal- man. He came back to the caboose some time before the engine topped the rise, drawing its tail of cars behind it. “ He’s fallen off or been thrown off— God help him!” he declared, in much worriment of mind. “‘ We can’t run back to look for him. But Ill stop at Gridiron and report. We’ve got half a car to unload there, any way.” His men had stretched themselves in their bunks again, and Sousa sat down to overhaul his waybills. He was nod- ding over these, almost asleep himself, when the break occurred. The three back numbers will be mailed to any address on receipt of 30 cents. COMICLOOlKX (C@