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v " "Keeps away the hunger, see.?" he
said, bracing comfortably on the top
step now.
i "You're that, eh?" questioned "the
passenger.
"Well, when you get to Crescent
use my contribution for a genuinely
square meal," and the speaker hand-
np ea uan a nail aonar.
"Strike wood! I'm blind or dream
ing!" cried Dan, and he joyously
tapped the welcome coin against the
car door. "Say, I'm in rare luck!"
The young man smiled and went
into the coach. His charitable act
pleased him. He was, in fact, filled
with pleasant thoughts. -Well might
that be, for inside his breast pocket
was a long, fat wallet. It contained
$1,200, the savings of tw years,
which would "enable -him to go to
Crescent, marry' Mary Lane, the girl
of his choice, enjoy a rational wed
ding trip and have enough left over
to furnish a neat httle flat
So he dreamed fond visions of bliss
reclining in the car seat, and Dan,
outside, extracted the last atom of
warmth and flavor from the dimin
ishing cigaret stump and closely
clasped the half dollar, gloating over
an anticipated, satisfying bill of fare
in the near future,
Dan lolled over the entire platform
now. There would probably be no
more interruptions and no stops un
til Crescent was reached. He dozed
and must have ben on the verge of
dreams for fully two hours iwhen
there, came a shock. Dan just
grabbed the brake rod in time " to
evade a topple over.
"What is it?" he grumbled. "This
isn't Crescent. I don't like that!" he
. added, swinging sideways, clinging
A with one hand and peering ahead.
A red light showed the stop signal
just ahead of the engine. The head
light of the locomotive revealed more
than one figure scurrying about. Dan
had good eyesight Suddenly he
leaped to the ground with the star
tling words:
. "Gipger it's a holdup!"
' Dan ran to the side of the track.
He made out at least six men armed
with revolvers lining or aboard of the
train. Two had clambered aboard
the locomotive; two had boarded the
express car; two others were coming
down the tracks.
"They'll take my 50 cents, may
be!" half joked Dan to himself. "And
say, it isn't six miles to Crescent
They've detached the engine."
. Dan glanced about to find a hiding
place. None offered, for there was
no brush along the sides of the track,
which were sloping and confined, the
track in a sort of cut, open only
ahead, where there was a crossing.
There were, however, telegraph
poles. ,
"It will sure be more comfortable
aloft!" mused Dan.
Scurrying up a pole, with or with
out climbers, was a familiar task for
Dan. He reached the crossbars
scarcely breathless. "Regular free
movie show!" he soliloquized, as
some pistol shots echoed out. "Gin--ger,
again! Why, it would make me a
hero."
A suggestion had come to Dan's
mind that stirred him mightily. He
saw that two of the train robbers
were going through the train and re
lieving the passengers of their money
and jewelry. Ahead, two others were
battling at the doors of the express
car.
"It's a lonely spot and they'll have
to take time to get the safe open. I'll
make the try."
Dan wound one leg about the cross
tie of the pole. He' whipped out his
nippers. He snipped the main wire
in two and drew together the sev
eral ends.
"Early education comes back to
me clear as crystal what!" he
chuckled. "Now then, have they got
an intelligent operator at the other
end of the wire or a bunkhead?"
What Dan had done was simple
and scarcely original. He tapped out
a slow but startling message and
some one at the other and of the line
