Argosy, Vol. 111, No. 1 — page 134: what you’re looking at

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

124 way, but his eyes were weak from several months of dissipation, and the glare of the sun upon the snow had nearly blinded him. Blinking, as he gained the gloomy inte- rior, he spread out the papers upon the table with trembling hands and _ started ereedily to read the news of the accident, under black head-lines. Myriad gruesome incidents were given. It was not till he was conning the final news- paper that some paragraphs under a sub- head rewarded his anxious search. ROBBER AND BOOTY BURNED. Tragic Fate Claims Man Alleged to Have Stolen from Concern in Alberta. Among the corpsts found in the wreckage of one of the burned cars in the Mohican tragedy was one that apparently tells the last chaptet in a robbery recently reported from Laidlaw, in the province of Alberta. It will be recalled that the Alberta Forest and Development Company, the largest of its kind in the Dominion, conducted a banking annex in its office for the benefit of its great force of employees. One night the safe was opened, and notes and negotiable papers to the amount of seventy-five thousand dollars were taken. ; Simultaneously disappeared the superinten- dent, Herbert Mason, a trusted employee who possessed the combination of the safe. Mason was supposed to be headed for: the American border, and the authorities on both sides were on the alert for him. It appears, however, that instead of this he was headed east, in the Dominien, and was then swinging north to lose himself in the wilds of the mining country. In this clever ruse, however, fate intervened. In the wreck of the forward sleeper, where ruin was the most complete, was found a man’s body, charred to a crisp. By it was found the remnants of a leather bag and the burned fragments of notes and some scraps of paper. One only could be identified suffi- ciently to reveal the name of the Alberta Forest and Development Company. By the unrecognizable head of the body lay a woolen hat that had not been consumed. The band bore the name of “ Herbert Mason.” The loot was burned beyond redemption. It is evident that fate prevented one of the slickest “getaways” in the criminal an- nals of the Dominion. Where Mason was headed for is problematical. Con Bagley, who had read while sitting rigid, with staring eyes, finished the ac- THE ARGOSY. count. Then he reread the last line. His tension visibly relaxed. ‘Where Mason was headed for is prob- lematical.”’ Then he began to curse, with mingled feelings. There was that. of rage for his cunning plan thwarted by fate; with thought of the stolen money, destroyed beyond redemp- tion, that his fingers would never clutch. He had meant to take it al/; to decamp with the portion of his double-crossed partner in crime as well as his own. He did not know that a third scoundrel, Henry Meigs, was to be reckoned with. And he cursed with relief, too. No scrap of paper, no shred of evidence had been found bearing the name of Con Bagley. He had always played safe; it worked yet. _ Gloomily he looked out of the window. The sun had passed under a bank of clouds; the gray austerity of the northern open was depressing to his spirit. His dream of ill-gotten wealth was done. He was too much the coward to plan another such ex- ploit for his own hands to do. And he had little money left. ‘“T’ve got to get a lumberin’ job,” he muttered dismally. ‘“ An’ in the spring I’m goin’ to start gold prospectin’ again. I ain’t never had much luck at it, but I’ve got to try it again. It’s all there is left.” He cursed again, staring out into the gray haze of December, now spreading from banks of leaden clouds that canopied the sky. The new year found the shaggy, surly fellow doing odd jobs about Furney to make his livelihood. Nobody knew him there. But this did not especially matter. Nobody “ had anything ” on him. He had always ‘ played it safe.” With the spring break-up he purchased a prospector’s outfit and struck forth alone into the rugged ranges to the north. The arrival of winter found him back in Furney, doing odd jobs. Again he tenanted the lonely cabin. He muttered much to him- self, of unearned riches that had been de- stroyed by fire. He cursed a man for having died. He cursed the rock-bound riches that had eluded him through the summer, while GOMIIGIOO S (CO