animal, was less than five
feet from the derailer! He saw the engineer of the train lift his cap
from his head and scratch his forehead with a finger as he contemplated
how close his engine had been to destruction.

Turning he found Gibson on his feet, pale and haggard, his hair tousled,
his arm bandaged to his side, posing in the center of a group of
detectives for Benton and his camera. The flashlight boomed and a
ghastly white light lit up the scene for the briefest fraction of a
second.

He followed Gibson and the detectives to where "Red Mike" lay sprawling
on the ground. Electric torches held by other detectives put the
desperado's prone figure in an arc of light.

Gibson looked down at "Red Mike" in silence.

The wounded man--John could tell that "Red Mike" was fatally
wounded--turned over on his back, groaning. His face, covered with a
stubble of red beard, was drawn in pain and his eyes seemed dulled.
Groaning again he lifted his head and his eyes fixed on Gibson.

"You ---- ---- ---- ----!" he snarled. "You crossed me, you ---- ----
---- ----!"

Then he dropped back into unconsciousness.

Six of the detectives lifted his limp body and, staggering under the
load, started toward the road and the automobile Gibson had driven. They
paused only long enough for Benton to snap another flashlight.

By that time the passengers--who, when the train pulled to a sudden stop
that was followed by a fusillade of shots, believed it had been halted
by bandits--had recovered from their confusion and were pouring out of
the coaches, swarming toward the locomotive. A stout woman, whose short
hair straggling to her bare shoulders indicated that she had been
preparing to retire, screamed and fainted into the arms of a little man
who struggled desperately to save her from falling to the ground. Benton
set up his camera on the track and his flashlight boomed again as he
made a photograph of Gibson standing beside the derailer, the locomotive
in the background.

With much pointing of fingers and nodding of heads it was whispered
through the crowd that Gibson was the man who had prevented the wreck
and shot "Red Mike," who had been rushed away to a hospital in the
machine in which he and Gibson had driven to the scene. Men and women in
various stages of dishabille, unconscious of their appearance, pressed
around him, shaking his hand. A girl threw her arms around his neck and
kissed him. To John it was strikingly similar to