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For some time now the quarry had not
ting down from the wagon lifted out the
Boy Mayor and carried him into the office.
The door was promptly opened to” re-
ceive them by a rough-looking fellow and
three other men sprang up from the floor,
where they had been sleeping, as they
came inside,
- “Hello, boss! You got him?” asked one.
“Well, doesn’t it look so?” replied the
man -who had charge of Tom’s head and
shoulders. Get out of the way there.
Give me a chance to ay him down. 2
time, we'll fix His mor the may so
that he'll. jbave his hands full to Keep out
_ of Joliet
They “dropped Tom on the floor and
somebody turned on a dark lantern which
stood o the des!
e Boy Mayor had been conscious he
would have recognized “Detective” Badger
as the speaker, while the man who let go
of ag legs was no one kes than*his old
J. J. Griffin, the disgraced secre-
tary of the Northwestern Rolling Mill Co.
As for the others, they were simply a
lot of ‘Chicago toughs hired for the occa-
sion to help Griffin and Badger in their
rooked
But Tom. was absolutely unconscious. He
“neither heard nor saw what was going on
~ around him,
The next he knew he found himself sit-
. ting under a tree staring off at the branch
railroad. *
Morning was just beginning to dawn.
way were the buildings of the
old quarry.
It was right alongside of the barn that
the tracks took a curve, so Tom could not
see any great distance along the line.
is head was swimming and ached hor-
TDIy; there was something over his face
an n he put up his hand and tore it
off he found that it was a black silk mask,
which began at the nose and extended
down over his mouth and chin,
Tom tore off the mask and staggered to
his feet.
“Where am I? What has happened?
How in the world did I come here?” he
gasped. :
Then, as he recognized the old quarry,
the recollection of his capture came back
on vo. been drugged!” he thought. “This
is some ‘plot to ruin me. A mask on my
face? That sounds like: train robbers!
What in the worldi—— Hello! There's
somebody behind the barn! Good heavens!
Can this be a strike to get the Harvester
Company’s pay-roll and lay the blame on
” ‘
_ Now this is exactly what Tom Taylor
thought within two minutes from the time
he regained his senses.
It seems so strange that the truth should
have flashed upon him that we give this
fact of the story just as it was given to
“st was a plot to ruin the Boy Mayor and
Tom
Tight, :
y_ the morning train over the branch
due. at Boxford in an hour a large
remittance in’ cash was expected by the
Harvester Company,
It was to meet the monthly pays roll and
the date of its arrival was well
nly the night before Tom ha a eyeen
talking about this monthly remittance to
the superintendent of Harvester
works and had remarked to him that he
- considered it entirely unsafe to have it
come over the branch without a special
guard.
wide awake now, whatever
style of knockout enone may have rendered
him unconscious befo!
. He could distinctly “hear voices talking
over behind the big quarry barn and he
went over toward looked around
the edge of the building.
“Griffin and Badger and a lot of toughs,
by gracious!” he mutter
There they were down, by the track.
Badger had a red flag, which he was
rolling up on a stick.
“Tl give them the signal up the road
he was saying. “You fellows can
, Stay here and jump on them when they
stop, which, of course, they can’t do much
short of the barn, and as the engineer can’t
see far along the track, owing to the way
this building stands, I suppose he’ll be
willing enough to Anyway, that’s
“Oh, get along with you and stop that
everlasting jaw yours,” interrupted
fin. “We want to get this job done.
When we've dropped some of the plunder
near His Honor the mayor and they find
him sitting there drunk with his mask on,
I shall be satisfied and not before.”
panel whose scheme was it?” growled
Badger. “Isn't a man about my size the
father of the job?” aor
“You are; it’s great! We scoop in a big
plle and make for Canada and at the same
time have our little revenge on His Honor
the mayor.. But get along with you if you
are going.
utes now.’
“Better mask
marked Badger.
me on.”
The train ia due in two min-
first, hadn’t you?” ro-
“Of course I don’t put
had been shrewd enough to read it
Griffin thought they bad and then each
man donned a similar mask to the one
Tom had just torn off his face, after which
Badger took the flag and started up the
track.
nent Tom did not wait to see quite all
“fe flew back to the tree, clapped on the
rejected mask and sumed his former
position as near as he could.
He had made a great discovery and if
ever a boy was determined on anything he
was determined that the plot against the
Harvester Company and the train should
not succee
Badger will come to see if I’m all right,
thats sure,” thought Tom. “I’ll be ready
r him when he Sets there, you ”
Badger came slouching along the track
with the red flag in his hand.
Just as Tom anticipated, he turned
aside and came up to the tree and stood
, them knockout drops are the
sed!” he muttered. “Only
thing is will ‘they think the boy is drunk
when they find him? Guess I better stick
a revolver in his pocket; it will make the
thing look a little more natural. I might
wake him up, though, and that would
spoil it all, I'll just lay it alongside of
im here on the
He drew a revolver: ‘thor his Pocket and
areppes it on the ground besi
same instant the whistle ‘of the
trath ws heard in the distan
Badger turned away and was about to
walk off when suddenly Tom, who had si-
lently risen, jumped on him with tremend-
ous force.
“You scoundrel!” he breathed.
you foul now!”
“T’ve got
CHAPTER XXI.
THE BOY MAYOR IN A BAD FIX.
m was no light weight, as on Peter
tive Badger very speedily fou
Down vet Badger on his woe and Tom
on top o!
A Panes bat. brief struggle followed.
It was absolutely necessary to silence the
man.
Tom did it in the most effective way pos-
sible,
He had picked up the revolver and he
knocking him out as completely as a dose
of his gwn knockout drops would have
lone.
Then he seized the flag and ran with all
speed up the oes caving the villain un-
conscious on the
There was not an "instant to be lost if
the train was to be saved. .
Tom ran like a deer, anxious enough to
accomplish his object, but more anxious
oe to avoid being seen by Griffin and his
ve it had been broad daylight he would
have been seen to a certainty, but in the
gray of the morning he escaped notice and
was soon around the curve and safe.
Twice the whistle had sounded. He
could see the headlight of the approaching
locomotive beaming like a great eye across
the prairie.
Tom planted himself alongside the track,
unfurled his flag and began waving it
vigorously.
e was very doubtful about the engi-
neer being able to see it and the thought
worried him terr!
n his excitement he totally forgot anoth-
er thing of still greater importance.
ought was to stop the train.
On it te ame,
The engineer swung himself well out of
the cab and peered forward into the gray
shadows of the
“Thunder!” he « exclaimed to the fireman.
aes a, masked mau! He’s trying to hold
“Sie took out a heavy navy revolver and
slackened speed.
“Tm going, to shoot that skunk if I die
for it, Terry!” he exclaimed. “Look out
for the lever. You can stop her by the
barn and I'll go back and get the body.
This is my third hold-up and I swore last
time that if they ever struck me again I'd
shoot.”
The engineer was a determined fellow.
‘He had been ten years on the Alton and
had been twice held-up in the days of the
James boys.
.in short, he knew what he was about.
Tom, never dreaming that in his ex-
citement he had forgotten to remove the
mask from his face, stood there ready to
shout out his warning as the slowing train
g
3
“Look .out!” he yelled. “Don’t stop
They, mean to hold you up by the anne
onBang Bang!”
Two Shots rang out and the Boy Mayor
dropped like a
“That fixes him “growled the engineer,
who had not understood the words. “Sto;
her, Terry. I want to find out who he is.
He’s after the express car, I suppose, but he
had a deuce of a nerve to try it alone.”
Terry shut off steam and the train
stopped just short of the barn.
ver there was a surprised engineer
there was one in the cab of old 69 that
ay.
A gang of masked men were upon him in
an instant.
“Shoot him. He's killed Badger!” ered
Griffin, yhoo wes too big a coward to d
murder him:
ia lia dozen shots flew into the cab
The engineer got one just over the heart
and fell all in a heap.
The fireman escaping, sprang out of the
ca and ran for his life across the prairie.
a moment Griffin was hammering at
the door of the express car demanding ad-
mittance, which was speedily granted by
Dick Rhodes, the agent, who happened to
be as big a coward as could be found in all
Mlinois,
He little dreamed that it was. the once
noted “high-roller,” J. J. Griffin, who
planked the revolver at his head and de
manded the Harvester Company’s money
package.
And Griffin got i
out of the car Bad-
cut and bleeding,
“Where's that boy?” he gasped. “Gad
blame him, where is he?”
“Gone?” cried Griffin.
“Yes, gone, and he, vai me up in fine
shape before he went.
‘Hello! abet was the firing, then.”
“No it wi I—'
“No time t to atk now,” broke in Griffin.
“We have got the dough and that’s enough.
Pollo low. me, -boys! We light out right
now
They all ran toward the barn, where a
horse for each man was concealed.
It was but a minute’s work to mount,
for the horses were ready saddled.
Keeping the barn between them and the
stalled train, they dashed off over the
prairie like ma
Meanwhile the conductor, the express
agent and others hurried forward to see
what was the. matter with the engineer.
The unfortunate man was almost in a
state of collapse, as his wound was bleed-
ing badly.
“Yes, they got me this time,” he groaned,
“but I did up one of ’em, gol bust the
whole blame gang! You’ll find him dead
up the track with two shots into him if
you'll look.”
y this time all the passengers were
ou
There were not many at that early hour,
but as it happened Mr. Turner ai 1
Cooper were among the number.
All hurried back to meet poor Tom, who
came staggering foward them holding the
fatal mask in his
“Good heavens! “Tom
never have believed me!”
Cooper, recognizing him.
mayor a thief!”
Taylor! I could
eried Colonel
“Boxford’s boy
TO BE CONTINUED.]
————_-.+__.
“Three Chums’? No. 5 is out to-day:
“Three Chums Aroused; or, Squaring
Accounts with Seabright,” by Harry
Moore.
—_ +
A Gigantic Octopus.
Never before has it fallen to my lot to
witness the terrible monster we encoun-
tered on the last passage from San Fran-
cisco toward Nanaimo in the bark Will
scott, of Honolulu, says Captain Thomas
Peabody, of the bark Willscott.
We knew that the octopus grew to an
immense size, as Banks and Solander, who
accompanied Captain Cook in his first voy-
age around the world, found the dead car-
ass of one floating in the water to the
westward of Cape Horn. It was supposed
to be twenty by thirty feet, the body only;
the tentacles were hanging under the
vater, It was surrounded by myriads of
birds, which were feeding greedily on its
remains.
Pliny also mentions a similar monster
having eight arms thirty feet long and a
corresponding girth and many other writ-
ers, too numerous to mention, have certi-
fied ie its actual existence.
it I did not believe that anything sim-
ilar to the terrible “devil fish” described by
Victor Hugo was really in existence | patil
I had ocular demonstration of the
I will quote our log book in ee to
the monster we saw: Saturday, May 18,
latitude 39:30 north, longitude 136:40 west.
Light breeze from north by east; dry, cloudy
weather; smooth sea, except for the usual
slight undulating swell from the north-
west. Ship under all sail, braced sharp
upon the starboard tack, going five knots
per hour, but scarcely making a ripple on
the water.
m. my attention was called by
the quartermaster, Frank Bastast, of San
Diego, Cal., to a terrible commotion in the
water about three points forward of the
lee beam. Our first thought was that it
must be breakers in an uncharted reef, but
while we were watching the breaking of
the water.ceased. Then we could distinct-
ly see the outlines of two objects on the
surface, one much larger than the other.
We at once got our telescope to bear on
them and discovered the smaller of the two
was a very large sunfish, a curfously shap-
ed fish—all head and no body—having no
tall, but an upper and lower fin, with
which it propels itself about in a very lazy
fashion, It appeared to be fully twelve
feet in dfameter, and, judging from smaller
ones we have caught, must have weighed
three thousand pounds. It appeared to be
endeavoring to keep face on to its adversa-
ry, which turned out to be a huge octopus,
the length of whose body was certainly
forty feet and the breadth about twenty-
five feet, with eight tentacles.
We at once ordered the quartermaster to
keep the ship away four points so as to
approach the objects more closely, and to
our delight and surprise they remained
stationary, regarding each other curiously
for fully five minutes, by which time we
had advanced sufficiently close to make an
accurate examination,
Its eyes were large, of a greenish tint,
and somewhat protruding; its mouth, how-
of a grayish color, covered with spots.
appeared to possess the chameleon-like
ower of changing the color of these spots
in a most extraordinary manner as fast a3
the eye could detect the changes, no doubt
indicating the high state of excitement un-
fee which the creature was laboring at the
tig adenly the octopus discharged a huge
jet of dark colored fluid full into the eyes
of the sunfish, and then, rushing forward»
with the rapidity of an arrow, it encircled
its prey with ihe long tentacles, and in an-
other moment the victor and vanquished
had disappeared below the surface.,
moments more we had sailed
right over the scene, and found the water
was colored almost black for a space of fur
ly two hundred feet in diameter, and w
noticed an ‘odor slightly resembling iodine
rising from the water; our patent log line
of snow white cotton, which was towing
astern, was colored almost black, and it
has not yet assumed its white freshness, al-
though it has towed in the water fully
eight hundred miles since the above epi-
About twenty minutes after we had pas:
ed over this spot we saw the huge creature
again on the surface enjoying its meal in
a very leisurely manner, rolling the body of
the unfortunate sunfish over and over and
biting off large mouthfuls with its cruel
looking beak.
knew before that these huge octopods
and their relatives, the decapods, were not
altogether mythical, as they have at the
Yaited States National Museum in Wash-
ington a papier mache cast of one of the
latter, which was found stranded on the
north shore of Trinity Bay, Newfoundland,
on September 22, 1877. The total length
of this specimen, including tentacles, was
only sixty feet, so it is quite safe to infer
at it pad not become of age when it was
wrecke
i
A Mexican Bean Clock.
A few years ago public curiosity was ex-
cited by the curious beans called the “devil
which shopkeepers
They somewhat
resembled roasted coffee beans in shape
bush
conjectured that they belonged to the order
Euphoribijacez. The bean really consisted
of three similar pods which formed a single
bean. It was usually a third of the bean
which was exhibited as a curiosity. On
opening the pods it was found that it con-
tained a small larva something like that
frequently found in chestnuts. It is this
little occupant which gives motion to the
nm by its jerks and thumps against the
side of its home. If the bean is slightly
warmed, it begins to turn from side to side
and perhaps, with a sudden jump, turns
completely over and stands on one end,
and then, by successive jumps, moves quite
a distance,
Those who are not in the secret are often
greatly puzzled by this strange bean. An
enterprising jeweler devised a scheme of
utilizing them to make a magic clock. He
accomplished this by imitating the shape
of two of the beans, making the dummy
beans out of soft iron; one he gilded and
f a clock, but devoid of the hands. This
dial was located over the works of a large
clock which was placed face upward on
the floor of the store window. He fas-
tened small magnets to the ends of the
ands, @ works were, of course, care-
fully hidden from view. All that was in
evidence was the cardboard clock dial and
the jumping beans, among which were the
gold and silver plated iron beans. These
were placed on the cardboard over the con-
cealed hands with the magnets attached.
The magnets were moved by the hands of
the clock so that they were almost. in con-
tact with the cardboard. As they. moved
around, they carried the iron beans with
them, thus telling the time of day, and the,
public was greatly Uulerested by the in-
telligence shown by the two beans, which
distinguished them from “he lively asso-
ciates,