The weather had turned suddenly very warm. The office was sometimes
stifling. The daily routine got upon his nerves, he who had never
before known that he had nerves. There was always the aching thought
that Starr was gone from him—forever—and now he had by his own word cut
loose from her father—forever! His literal heart saw no hope in the
future.
About that time, too, another sorrow fell upon him. He was glancing
over the paper one morning on his way to the office, and his eye fell
on the following item:
LONE TRAIN BANDIT HURT IN FIGHT AFTER GETTING LOOT
Captured by Conductor After He Had Rifled Mail Bags on Union Pacific
Express
Topeka, Kan., July—. A daring bandit was captured last night a he had
robbed the mail car on Union Pacific train No. —— which left Kansas
City for Denver at 10 o’clock.
The train known as the Denver Express, carrying heavy mail, was
just leaving Kansas City, when a man ran across the depot platform
and leaped into the mail car through the open door. The clerk in
charge faced the man, who aimed a revolver at him. He was commanded
to bind and gag his five associates, and obeyed. The robber then
went through all the registered pouches, stuffing the packages into
his pockets. Then he commanded the clerk to untie his comrades.
At Bonner Springs where the train made a brief stop the bandit
ordered the men to continue their work, so as not to attract the
attention of persons at the station. When Lawrence was reached the
robber dropped from the car and ran toward the rear of the train.
The conductor summoned two Lawrence policemen and all three
followed. After a quick race, and a struggle during which the
bandit’s arm was broken, he was captured. It appears that the
prisoner is an old offender, for whom the police of New York have
been searching in vain for the past ten months. He is known in the
lower districts of New York City as “Fighting Buck,” and has a list
of offenses against him too numerous to mention.
Michael did not know why his eye had been attracted to the item nor why
he had read the article through to the finish. It was not the kind of
thing he cared to read; yet of late all crime and criminals had held a
sort of sorrowful fascination for him. “It is what I might have done if
I had stayed in the alley,” he would say to himself when he heard of
some terrible crime that had been committed.
But when he reached the end of the article and saw Buck’s name his
heart seemed to stand still.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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