The Argosy, November 1908 — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

626 was not free from certain lingering ap- prehensions that the train-robbers might still be in the vicinity. ; By a stroke of luck, however, as he guided his uncertain course with the little pocket-compass on his watch-chain, he chanced to stumble on the trampled spot where the bandits had picketed their horses, and from this their line of flight led him through the more or less broken- down underbrush out to the trail. Even there, though, his difficulties were far from over. A man familiar with the country could have reached Ver- dee, no doubt, in a couple of hours; but Behan was a stranger, seeking his way in the dark, and obliged to study out every foot of his road with map and compass. ‘A trail!’ he groaned more than once, as he stumbled over huge logs or floun- dered knee-deep in quagmires. ‘I won- der what these people would call a by- path!” He lost himself more than once, too, and had to wander around in the dark, ‘ fearful every moment lest he stumble into some unsuspected pitfall or risk an encounter with a predatory grizzly or mountain-lion. Nevertheless, all things must come to an end in some way or another, and eventually he reached the edge of a hill- side, from which he could see down below him, in the gray dawn, the chimneys of a smelter, while a mile or so off to the left appeared a cluster of houses which he rightly took to be Verdee. As he sat down to rest, watching the rosy glow of morning flash from peak to peak, and the whole east become suffused with a glory of orange and gold and crim- son, he realized that there was an activity of some kind in progress at the smelter. His curiosity aroused, he bent forward eagerly to peer in that direction. The distance was too great, however, and he was about to give over the at- tempt, when he suddenly bethought him of the tele-photo lens in his camera-case. Ah, that little long-distance annihilator would solve the difficulty! Hastily screwing it into place, and holding the camera in front of his muf- fled head like an opera-glass, he had no trouble in making out upon the ground- glass screen exactly what was taking place. THE ARGOSY. From the big dump-heaps of ore beside the smelter a half-dozen men were busily engaged in shoveling the stuff into cars. which, when full, received a starting push and then traveled by gravity down a little track a short way into a wooded ravine, where they were lost to view. This struck Behan as a bit peculiar, for he had always supposed that ore brought to the smelter remained there to be treated. But he was too ignorant of mining operations to become suspicious, had it not been that just as he was about to give over his inspection a young man, evidently in authority, came riding up and, pointing toward the sky, gave a quick order. Instantly the shoveling was discontin- ued, the cars pushed as they were into the ravine, and the track leading down to it—rails, sleepers, and all—was taken up by the men and carried in after them. In ten minutes’ time there was no more sign of a railroad running away from the smelter than if it had never existed. “Well,” gasped the ‘astonished Dick, “there is a transformation scene for you that has got Kiralfy beat to a standstill! It may be all right, of course—I am not enough of an expert to say—but, speak- ing as a mere greenhorn, I have an idea that my investigation has struck pay-dirt first dash out of the box.” Then, partly because he did not wish to appear in Verdee until he had had a chance to explore that wooded ravine, and partly because he was dog-tired and worn out by his adventures, he curled himself up under a convenient bush and went to sleep. CHAPTER VI. THE TRACKER TRACKED. WHEN Behan awoke, the sun was well up in the heavens, and a glance at his watch showed him that it was after ten o’clock. He was stiff and sore as a result of his night’s exertions, but he knew that the best cure for this was a little wholesome activity, so he forced the sluggish flesh into submission, and after he had per- formed his toilet at a neighboring brook, with his watch-case for a mirror, his handkerchief for a towel, and_ his comicloooks.conn