Bart Keene's Hunting Days Part 30

The man turned south on the main street, and began walking rapidly away.

At that instant Fenn caught sight of a package in his hand. It was a paper bundle, but, as the stout lad looked, he saw projecting from it the long, snake-like neck of a mud turtle.

"He's got a turtle!" cried Fenn, excitedly. "Let's chase after him! We must solve this mystery now or never!"

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE PURSUIT

Fenn darted forward, and would have taken after the man on the run, only Bart put forth a restraining hand. Fenn looked at his chum in surprise.

"Easy, Stumpy," murmured the tall lad, as he drew his fleshier companion out of hearing of the crowd in front of the animal store. "Do you want to give the whole thing away? Several times we've lost trace of this man because we were in such a rush, and I don't want it to happen again. You nearly spoiled everything, Stumpy."

"I'm sorry," faltered Fenn, "but I want to get at him, and have him explain."

"So do we all," went on Bart, "but we can do it better by going slow and easy. He hasn't seen us, and we can trail him and see where he goes."

"Did you notice what he had in the paper?" asked the fat lad excitedly.

"What was it?" asked Frank, who had not caught Fenn's first exclamation.

"A mud turtle. That's what he got in the store."

"Say, you had better talk lower," cautioned Frank, for Fenn had spoken loudly. "People in the crowd are beginning to notice us."

"Oh, I guess there's no danger," decided Bart. "There are lots of strangers in town to-day, and we won't attract much attention. But we must take after this fellow. We'll trail him carefully now. He's still on this side of the street, and he's going slowly," Bart announced, after taking an observation over the heads of the crowd still in front of the store window. "Fenn and I will take this side of the street, and you and Ned can take the other side, Frank. If either of us miss our man we'll meet later at the hotel. Go ahead now, and keep out of his sight.

Go slow, as if you were only looking at the sights, but keep your eye on the man. We'll try and find where he belongs, who he is, and why he collects turtles."

Through the crowds that were constantly increasing in size the four lads threaded their ways, two on one side of the street, and two on the other. Ahead of them was the mysterious man. He seemed to have no idea that he was being followed, and appeared only to be looking at the sights. At times the boys found difficulty in keeping within the proper distance of him, and once Ned and Frank lost him, but they soon picked him up again, and kept on. He wore a light-colored cap, which made him conspicuous in the press of people.

The man seemed to be in no hurry to get anywhere. He strolled leisurely along, looking in store windows, or pausing to observe the linemen stringing the wires. The boys were after him, and their experience in the woods, trailing game, now served them in good stead. Though they looked carefully, they could not see any package in the man's hand now, and they wondered what he had done with the turtle.

The pursuit led to the outskirts of the town, and, as the streets became less congested there was danger of the boys being detected in their chase, but fortunately for them the man took a notion to swing down through a side street and retrace his steps, back toward the centre.

Then the pursuit was rendered less likely to be observed.

Reaching the middle of the town the man paused to look at a lineman who was on top of a particularly tall pole, making some final adjustments to the wires and lamps. As the boys halted, not to come too close to their quarry, they saw the lineman signal to have the current turned on. The lamps glowed, but something seemed to be wrong, for he called for the power to be turned off while he adjusted a switch. There seemed to be some delay over cutting off the current, and the lineman waited.

The crowd was thicker near the pole, and, not wishing to let the mysterious man escape, Bart and Fenn, who were on the same side of the street as he was, drew nearer to him in the throng. Frank and Ned were on the other side of the street. The former chums could observe the object of their pursuit more closely now. He did not seem to be a hardened character, but on the contrary, his face was refined, and his manner seemed gentle, though there was a curious, cunning air about him.

While the lineman on the tall pole was waiting for some of his fellow workmen to change the switch, he looked down into the press of people.

He seemed to recognize some one, and waved his hand. To the surprise of Bart and Fenn the mysterious man waved back to the man on the pole.

"Did you see that?" exclaimed Fenn, and in his excitement he had spoken aloud. The next instant he regretted it, for the man, turning, saw him.

He gave a start of surprise, and then a look of fear seemed to come over his face. He gave one glance up at the lineman on his tall perch, waved what seemed to be a farewell, and darted away through the crowd.

"After him, Stumpy!" whispered Bart, excitedly. "He'll get away, I'm afraid!"

The lads started to make their way out of the throng of people who were all about them. The mysterious man, too, was at this same disadvantage.

Suddenly, amid the stillness that seemed to settle over the crowd, as they watched the lineman reach far over to make a distant connection, there sounded a cry of fear and pain. High up in the air there was a flash of bluish fire, a sizzling, as of red-hot iron plunged into water, and then a shower of sparks.

"The lineman! The lineman!" screamed several. "He's on a live wire!"

Pausing in their efforts to get out of the crowd, and take up the pursuit, Bart and Fenn saw the lineman leaning over in a dangerous position. He was in a net-work of wires, and all about him seemed to be long, forked tongues of blue flame, while vicious sparks shot from one wire to the other. The unfortunate man had caught hold of the outer end of a cross-arm on the pole, and, while his feet were on one lower down, he was thus held in this strained position. Around his waist was a leather belt, pa.s.sed about the pole, and this also retained him in position.

His cry of alarm had brought several other linemen to the foot of the pole.

"Are you shocked, George?" called one, anxiously.

"No," came the faint reply, "not yet, but something has gone wrong. One of the wires has broken, and has charged all the others. I'm safe as long as I lean over this way, but I can't get back, and I can't get down."

"Unhook your belt and slide down," suggested one.

"I can't. If I let go with my hands I'll come up against the wires carrying the main current, and, if I do----" he did not finish, but they all knew what he meant.

The crowd was horror-struck. The man was in the midst of death. He could not move to come down, for fear of coming in contact with wires, which, though previously harmless, were now dangerous because the broken conductor, carrying a heavy charge, had fallen over them, making them deadly.

"Hold on, and I'll come up to you!" shouted a lineman, preparing to ascend the pole.

"No, don't," cried the unfortunate man.

"Have the current cut off at the power house!" yelled a voice in the crowd below.

"Yes! That's the thing to do!" echoed a score of others.

A man ran out of the crowd to the telephone--the same telephone over which word had been sent to the power station to turn the power on for the preliminary test. In a few seconds central had given the frantic man the main electrical station.

"Cut off the power--cut off the power!" he cried. "One of the linemen on the pole is in danger of being shocked to death."

Anxiously he waited for the reply. None came.

"Ring again, central!" he called frantically. Over the wire he heard the distant ringing of the bell in the power station. The delay seemed like an hour, though it was only a few seconds.

"Why don't they answer? Why don't they answer?" cried the man desperately. "Ring 'em again, central. Ring hard!"

"I am ringing hard," responded central. "There doesn't seem to be any one there."

"There must be!" insisted the man. "It's a matter of life and death! The current must be shut off!"

He waited, moving about nervously, while holding the receiver to his ear. Those near him could not imagine what was the trouble. Then came a click in the receiver that showed that some one was at the other end of the wire.

"h.e.l.lo! h.e.l.lo!" cried the man who was trying to have the power cut off.

"Why didn't you answer before. Why don't you shut off the current?

There's a man being killed--what's that?"