FOR ROSIE'S SAKE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 255, 11 December 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

FOR ROSIE'S SAKE.

(Copyright.)

Snow, heavy, driving snow, covered England beneath its spotless mantle !rom the Tweed to the Fal. In Scotland the railway service was disorganised. In the Midlands drifts had closed down many a branch line. On the Great Southern system it threatened to be the same. Not for years had there been so continuous a fall as tne one which now roared across the little country unction of Cray worth. "It's going to be a queer night, Joe." muttered the driver of the great engine, side-tracked on a siding, ine snow is on a level with the rails all along the line. Whats the betting we ghall be hung up before we reach Hartlingford?" The fireman laughed as, swinging open the furnace door, he swept a shovel-load of coal over the blazing maw of the fire-box. "Pretty enough in pictures. Bad \n real life. Well, there's one thing, Tom. It is that if we do havei to spend some time in a drift, we shall have the managing director of tne line for company. A sharp man, Rendell He's squared the strike at the works here. They'd have been out this afternoon if it hadn t been fo him. Lucky beggar, Rendell, aint he' No one likely to die and leave you and me a fortune, is there, mate, with never a thing to do for it but to change your name for the party s a left it to you? I'd swop mine of Jenkyns for any blessed one you liked to S on for a hundred thick 'uns. Wouldn't you?" , , , "I'd do it for fifty," muttered back Tom Hale, a heavy sigh escaping his lips. "There's precious littles i wouldn't do that was honest for fifty fireman swung another shovel load of coal over the roaring furnace before darting a glance at his mate. Swinging the door to, he touched the latter on the shoulder as ne leaned out i of the cal>. ... "How was the kid when we pulled out this morning?" "Bad." Tom Hale's strong rav,e contracted. "It was her I was thinking of, Joe, when I'sald there was precious little I wouldn't do for a fiftypound note. Got to be sent away to the South, the doctor says, South! Precious little chance a fellow like me has of sending away anyone belonging to him to foreign parts. it makes me almost mad at times, Joe, to think that a matter of fifty pounds stands between the kid and death, and I can't lay my hands on it to save her. I've just got u stand by and see her die, whilst others are able to throw away ten times that amount on the purchase of a —dog!" Jenkyns grunted back a sympathetic reply. Of late Hale had been subject to black moods. From experi.eace he knew the man was best left alone when these were on him. It required but the utterance of a chance word to fire the driver's anger. Hale's rage was too well known for its consequences for him to risk arousiug it recklessly. One of the best men on the line, he had also a temper which was ungovernable. It had been the reason of his never climbing higher the railway than he had. Brain lie possessed—education, too. Three Inventions adopted by the company were in use, even though they had brought falm but little gain. A reckless speculation had long ago swallowed the money they had won him. Still, though those In authority in the London offices admitted his power of intellect, they dared not trust him with

y responsible position which held e ruling and organisation of me.i in its train. Hale's temper was too well known for them to risk such an experiment. "If I hadn't been a fool I should have had the money a dozen times over," continued Hale, gloomily. 1" my father hadn't been cheated by his scoundrel of a manager, 1 should never have become an engine-driver. A grocer in a big way of trade was my father. Kept sixty hands, he did. When he fell ill he gave the managership of the place to Abel Tranwid. He bankrupted my father inside twelve months. There wasn't enough in the bank to pay for the old man's funeral, when he had done with the business. He paupered us exactly thirty years ago to-day—Just such a one as this, when the bailiff turned us out. For thirty yeasr I've waited to meet Abei Tranwid. I've never been able to clap eyes on trie scoundrel. though." „ . "Perhaps it's as well Jou alu 1, mate," muttered back the fireman, noting the dangerous glint in the driver's eyes. "Perhaps it is," rt#pfled Hale, heavily. "You're right, Joe. Perhaps It Is as well the blackguard has never crossed my path. I'm not as yoiint as I was, but my muscles are still like bands of steel. He'd remember the day we met." "Give him the hiding of his life, 1 reckon —eh, mate?" " 'Hiding' him wouldn't satisfy me,

Joe." A vague thrill of fear coursed down Jenkyn's spine. The light of murder Btared out at him from narrowed pupils of the driver's eyes. "I'd have his life, Joe. I'd lull him, If I swung for it!" enEyns shivered, then turned up the collar of his coat as a feather* wisp of snow caught on the blast swept through the cab s opening. It was his only reply to the driver's statement, nor did he need to make one, as at that moment the express, the passage of which Hale awaited before shunting his special on to the main line, roared through the junction on its way towards the south. With grimly set jaw he watched the row of twinkling lights flash past him, then, leaning out of his cab, started at the blinking red eye of the signal standing at the commencement of tlio 6ldlng. "We'll be able to have a warm 1" the porter*' room ly a le"' ttiinuti-s, Joe," muttered Hale, recovering his lost good humour. - "We shall dra?. the old eight-ninety-eight just up outside It, I reckon. Rendell isn't due for a good half hour yet- that's tc say If he keeps to time. Enough for a pipe at any rate." Down the blizzard swept with redoubled ferocity, blotting out tho signal from view, then, clearing, revpaled its eye blinking at nlm through the tempest."

A Complete Short Story.

"Right away, Joe," smiled Hale, as, abandoning his position, he reversed the engine's gear and, starting It. commenced to move the train s length of two carriages and brake-van towards the main line. "We shall have to keep our eyes skinned to-night, Joe. The snow may crust on the arm lights. Red and green—funny. They were the only things which made the kid laugh last night." "What —signals?" smiled back the fireman. „ • No, Bengal lights," replied liale.

"Tiie things you get for a penny a box. She was never tired of striking tliem. Seeing the signal change reminded me of them." Shrugging his shoulders, Joe Jenkyns leaned out of tho cab as the spec, :, slowly pulling its length out of the siding, passed on to the main line. Watching the train's progress, the driver's words were swept from his mind; yet, though lie treated them so lightly, Fate had decided to reci.ll them to him with startling force before day dawned on the snow-mantled countryside. Jarringly the special drew up just past the points. A moment's halt followed, then once again the train moved on, this time ahead, towards the lamp-lighte'd platform of the junction. Stealthily the great engine stole on through the blizzard, then, halting at the side of the down platform, disgorged Hale and his fireman on to its snow-covered length. Oilcan in hand, the driver made his round of the locomotive, oiling every joint rnd bearing; then, rubbing his hami.' on a lump of cotton warte, filled hu- pipe. Stamping the snow from the hole of his boots, lie shouldered Ills way into the porters' room, then, sittii..; on a bench running along one side oi its wall, smoked. Steadily he sucked at the stem of his pi]>e, his thoughts with the sick child he loved a hundred miles away, while he joined in the light gossip of the inmates of that stifling room. Not for a moment did he forget the girl, for all his .augh rang the loudest. The last mai to wear his heart on his sleeve, he joked to cover the anxious worry of liis mind—the memory of the child ha had amused the night before by a burning of Bengal lights for firiworks.

"Ten-thirty, Joe," he cried, cheerily, moving towards the door. "We're due out at thirty-five. Rouse up, man."

Turning up the collar of his coat, Jenkyns for the tenth time in half an hour left the warmth of the porters' room for the bitter cold of the platform. Muttering beneath his breath, he swung himself up into the engine's cab, busying himself till such time as the traffic inspector of the section, appearing at the side of the locomotive, warned Hale that Sir John Rendell had arrived at the station.

Brisked by the intelligence, the maD looked down the platform. Doing 30, he watched the managing director's tall and slender figure enter the saloon carriage awaiting his advent, then gave the signal to his mate to start as the guard's shrill whistle rang sibilantly out above the howl of the gale.

"Right away, Tom," said he, shaking his shoulders clear of their gathered snowflakes. "It's a straight run now to Hartlingford. We ought to bo there by one in the morning. That's to say if the line's up to snuff." Slowly the locomotive's wheels revolved. skiddt j, then, taking a firmer grip on the rails beneath their flanges, the engine snorted on its way out of the junction on its race to the south. Quicker, yet even quicker revolved the driving whels. till, rocking beneath its gathering momentum, the engiile roared on its way at a steady sixtymiles in the hour. In silence Hale drove his locomotive, listening to the harsh batter of the whirling snow against his cab-sights, keeping a watchful eye on the signals as they flashed past Llm out of the blackness of the night. Station after station flickered by, an uncertain row of lights against the surrounding darkness, till, with the approach of midnight, Hale against his will, had to slacken the momentum of the engine. Thick before, the blizzard now became so impenetrable as to demand a loss of speed at his hands in the cause of common safety. From sixty he dropped to fifty. Forty, then thirty miles in the hour was reached '.n quick succession, till, with the further drop of another five, the window of the saloon carriage in his wake was lowered, to allow of a head being thrust out into the storm of that wildly raging night.

For a moment It turned its face In Hale's direction, its features clearly revealed to the driver's eyes against the electric glow of the saloon's lights. On the instant the hot blood of fury leaped to the man's temples. Leaning over the edge of his cab, Hale stai-fIU, hardly daring to believe the evidence of his own senses, then, doing so, saw red! The face meeting his was that of the man who had ruined his l'athor thirty years before. It was that of the manager who, in bankrupting his dying father, had pauperised both himself and his mother; who had ruined his career, and in so doing had forced him to seek employment In the very company iu which he now worked as driver.

The man was Abel Tranwid—aged with the passage of years, grey about the temples, yet, in spite of all this, Abel Tranwid. "Joe!" Hale snarled the name out over his shoulder. "Joe, come here."

"Yes?" echoed the tiihii addressed, as, slamming the furnace door to, he flung bis shovel into a corner of the ?ab. "What's the row?"

"Look back at the saloon carriage. You've seeu the managing director of this line. I hi"en't. Is that, him lo< k ing out cf tha k.lqdow yonder?' In a moment Jenkyns s head cud shoulders had been covered white beneath the whirling touch of the driving snowflakes as, obeying tho driver's order, he leaned out of the cab to take stock of the face peering towards tlio engine.

"Yes, that's him, mate," he replied, withdrawing his head, adding sharply, on catching sight of the unnatural expresses cu his mate's face, "Why,

what's the matter with you, Joe?" "That man is the scoundrel I was tolling you about." The words-left Hale's lips almost in a shout. "The Sir John Rendell of this company is the man who swindled my father, paupcred me and my mother —Abel Tranwid." "Tom, you must be making a mistake." "A mistake! D'you think I'm a fool, Joe? I tell you he is the man I've been waiting to meet all these | years, the man I've sworn to kill on sight. Fate 1 has played into my hands at last. He has been surrendered to me on the anniversary his blackguardism drove my poor mother and myself out of our home. I've got him—got him!" Reckless, a wild and uncanny light blazfng in his eyes, Hale, springing forward as he spoke, dragged the speed lever forward on its ratchet. Shuddering beneath its contact, the c:; replied to the power of the i pressure of steam in its cy* Like an arrow it darted forff along the line, rocking little in rrlble strength of the density of olizzard through which it hurled 'Tom, you're mad!" yelled the lireman, making a dash for the regulator. "You're stark staring mad. What in the Fiend's name is yoar round on his hs?\ Hale caught the fireman In his spring. Griming him by the waist and ae.-k, he hurled him back across the footplate to send him sprawling on to its level. Half stunned by the fall, Jenkyns picked himself up. In his turn he had become desperate. That Hale was one the black fits for which he was renowned, and consequently irresponsible of action, he was fully aware. That he would attack the infuriated man at his peril ne also knew, yet he never hesitated to do so. The safety of the train itself was at stake. It was sheer madness to race ahead through that smother at the speed they were then travelling, suicidal to risk an inevitable missing of signals. Bravely he flung himself at his burly antagonist, shouting at him as lie did so, to calm down and drive the locomotive like a sane creature instead of after the manner of a maniac. Laughing wildly, Hale struggled with the desperately fighting man, to snarl in his ear as he uid so: "What's my game? I'll tell you, Joe. It's to wreck this train—to smash it and the scoundrel it carries into one unrecognisable mass. I'll drive this engine clean through the terminus at Hartlingford. if so be I cannot smash her up before, and neither you nor any other man in the universe shall stop me." To and fro the two men swung across the rocking foot-plate in that desperate duel for the master)-, one of the other. A dozen times the tide of battle changed in as many seconds, till at last victory rested with the maddened Hale. Back-heeling unexpectedly, he tripped the fireman. An instant later he had sprawled sideways of to the Iron of the foot-plate, to lie stanned and motionless. Dashing the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand Hale, leaving his mate where he had fallen, opened out the engine to her fullest extent. The humming thrum of the ■ driving wheels Increased to a roar as, rocking from her very speed, the giant locomotive hurled her weight through the driving smother. Madness held Hale in its grip, then, slowly, sanity returned to the man's Infuriated brain. Other lives were at stake in the swaying train. Others besides that of the man he hated. With the strength as of a sudden blow the knowledge was borne in on his mind, and with it the sight of a smashed signal-post flitting past his '■•ab awoke another thought within his soul. His child! The flitting glimpse of those twin signal-posts, wrecked by the force of the driving blast, reminded him he was within eight miles of his home. For the past six months there had been a talk of replacing them with others. Situated on one of the most exposed and desolate sections of the line, their being accidentally put out of order might spell the worst of disasters. . Involuntarily his hand fcliot out to reduce speed. "A murderer!" he gasped, hoarsely, the light of reason suddenly illumining his eyes. "Good heavens! Not that—if only for Rosie's sake." Beneath the quick impetus of his ;:aud the lurching locomotive lost way as from the distance amid a lull of the blizzard a sudden dull glare of ruby light illumined the darkness of the night. For a. moment It 6hone clearly through the weather-glass in front of Hale, faded, then anew sprang into prominence. A dozeu times iu rapid 6uooe&sion the gUue sprang into being and died away. With a speed of barely five miles an hour to propel it, the great locomotive passed the hedge at the bottom of the cottage occupied by himself when off duty. With straining eves Hale caught sight of a girlish figure clearly outlined agalust the glare or the train, and doing so recognised the figure to be that of his child. By the side of her mother she stood, the fading stick of a Bengal light in her fingers. Startled by the unexpectedness or the sight, Hale slackened speed yet further as, rounding the sharp curve in tho line, the lights of the little station beyond flashed into view. For a moment ho stared at them, then stopped his engine as a glitter of flame near at hand fell upon his sight, together with that of a man running towards him through the snow of the permanent way, frantically waving a red light as he came. Lurching, the special came to a halt, not a quarter of a mile from the mass of debris littering the line. Ten minutes before the London express colliding with a goods had added yet one more horror to the toll of the iron road. "Heavens, man," gasped the runner, saining tho side of the locomotive, "we had forgotten all about tho special till we heard your whistPfe in the five- mile cutting. The 6ignal6 ar& wrecked there, ain't they? ''Yes,' Hale laughed, weakly; ' if It hadn't been for my girl remembering it and warning me of tho danger with Bengal lights, I'd have ploughed through that wreck yonder with tho whole caboodle." Hale's voice trailed away in a kind oT sob, as. spinning round on his heel, lie fainted for the lirst time in his life. It was an hour beforo :lip driver recovered cousclousueti. When b»

did bo, it was to find the tall, slight figure of Rendell by his side. Starting at tho unexpected sight, he was about to 6trugj. lo to his feet when the baronet pushel Mm slowly back against his couch.

"Hale," said !"\ "I know you nave a heavy grudge l .Ist me. I want to make amends. You needn't say anything. 1 have heard the whole story of what yofl Intended to do from the lips of your fireman, Jenkyns. He won't talk, I can nssure you. I've seen to that. This being the case, there are only two other people in 1 the world, besides yourself, who know your secret. 1 am managing director of the line. I can make you, man. I can drag you up into a well-paid positon 011 the system. More than all, 1 can give your child the change she requires for the recovery of her hoalth. Won't you forgive the wrong 1 once did you? As 1 live, I swear I did the best 1 could to find you when I made my money. I have suffered, Hale. You who have never felt what remorse can never realise how much. The chance has come to mo to repay the debt I owe you. Won't you let me do so?"

Staggering to his feef, Hale looked at the white-faced man meeting his scrutinising gaze so boldly. There was an honesty in the managing driector's eye he could not deny. Impulsively he held out his hand.

"Readily, Sir John," said he, as he felt the grip of his companion's fingers round his own. "All the more willingly because my child's hand, in saving your life, did yet more for me —she rescued my soul from the stain of murder. Thank Heaven, I can still look my fellows in the face—look them in the face without being afraid they should see the brand of Cain upon my brow,"