Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 353: what you’re looking at

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

— — _e we ee Ce 344 cred his face with his hands. Then, go- ing to a pigeonhole in his desk, that had the false back, he put in his hand and pulled out a large roll of bills, which he handed to the superintendent. The latter counted it. There was the exact amount, which added to the six hundred dollars already recovered, made up the sum taken from the safe. “ All right,” he announced. “ Now open that safe and give me the key.” Forsdyke did so, and after deposit- ing the money therein, and making sure the other six thousand dollars was still there, the superintendent shut it on a new combination. | Forsdyke. retreated, crushed and beaten, but instead of gratitude for his superior’s leniency, his heart was filled with bitter hate. But it was really the last ‘the agent or the superintendent ever saw of him. How doubly bitter would have been his humiliation could he have known Dorothy Orloff’s part in the affair, and have heard the next words of the super- intendent, as he said: ‘Dykeman, you will take charge here, and as soon as we can get a man to take your place, you can resign your position as agent. You will be my as- sistant from this date, at a salary of one hundred and fifty dollars a month.” The agent was so astonished he could say nothing for a moment, and when he found his tongue, the superin- tendent had gone out. — Later developments made the super- intendent regret he had let his subordi- nate off so easy. It was discovered that Forsdyke had been using the agent’s cash remittances, for tvhich he re- ceipted, to cover his losses in gamb- ling. When he made a winning at cards, he would replace the amount and forward it to St. Louis, which was gen- erally a week or two after the package was receipted for. Thus Dykeman’s remittances were kept continually be- hind. Forsdyke had been practicing this scheme at the time the agent received THE ARGOSY. the inquiry from the auditor about the remittances, but doubtless the superin- tendent’s clerk had got wind of the in- vestigation that was going on, or had been unusually lucky at gambling, and had promptly replaced and forwarded all the packages he had appropriated, which stopped further investigation. But later, no doubt, finding himself again hard pressed for money, he had begun to use the money packages, in- tending to replace them as before, and then the scheme of abstracting a por- tion of the ten thousand dollars in the safe, to cover the remittances he had used, and provide himself with a large sum besides, and at the same time throw suspicion on the agent as the robber, had occurred to him. It was found that he had used over four hundred dollars of remittances belonging to the company, which was never recovered, and the last heard of him was that he was in Central Amer- ica. vealed the fact that the structure had Investigation at South Bridge ree been weakened by sawing some of the ! beams in two, and the conclusion was that it was the dastardly work of train wreckers, who expected the express would be thrown into the creek, when | they could secure the forty thousand © dollars in the company’s treasure chest, and rob the dead and wounded passen- gers. The action of the three robbers at the Madrid station in securing Dash was simply a precaution to provide against a possible miscarriage of their plans by the operator sending an alarm, in case any one discovered their de- signs. But they had not calculated on such a violent storm on the night set for their inhuman work, or on a pilot being sent ahead of the regular train. _ Dorothy had indeed covered herself with glory by her daring deed—she had saved many human lives, prevented a serious loss to the express company, and vindicated the agent’s character all at the same time, but there is no doubt COMNMUCMOOKS .COLLM