not the hard men who had their knives drawn to fight for their financial lives put away the weapons and wished him god speed while half a dozen panic smitten tin pot roads up their heads and spoke of the wonderful things they would have done had not buried the it was a busy week end among the wires for now that their anxiety was removed men and cities hastened to accommodate los called to san and that the might know and be ready in their lonely round houses passed the word to the atlantic and pacific the captains courageous flung it the whole length of the and fe management even into an engine combination car with crew and the great and gilded private car were to be over those two thousand three hundred and fifty miles the train would take of one hundred and seventy seven others meeting and passing and of every one of those said trains must be sixteen sixteen and sixteen would be needed � each and every one the best available two and one half minutes would be allowed for changing engines three for watering and two for warn the men and arrange and accordingly for is in a hurry a hurry � a hurry sang the wires forty miles an hour will be expected and division will accompany this special over their respective divisions from san to sixteenth street let the magic carpet be laid down hurry oh hurry it will be hot said as they rolled out of san in the dawn of sunday we re going to hurry just as fast as ever we can but i really don t think there s any good of your putting on your bonnet and gloves yet you d much better lie down and take your medicine i d play you a game o but it s sunday captains courageous � � ril be good oh i will be good only � taking off my bonnet makes me feel as if we d never get there try to sleep a little and we ll be in before you know but it s boston father tell them to hurry the six foot drivers were their way to san and the but this was no grade for speed that would come later the heat of the desert followed the heat of the hills as they turned east to the needles and the river the car cracked in the utter and glare and they put crushed ice to mrs s neck and toiled up the long long past ash fork towards where the forests and are under the dry remote skies the needle of the speed and to and fro the rattled on the roof and a whirl of dust sucked after the whirling wheels the crew of the combination sat on their panting in their shirt sleeves and found himself among them shouting old old stories of the railroad that every knows above the roar of the car he told them about his son and how the sea had given up its dead and they nodded and and rejoiced with him asked after her back there and whether she could stand it if the engineer let her out a piece and thought she could accordingly the captains courageous great fire horse was let out from to till a division protested but mrs in the state room where the french maid sallow white with fear clung to the silver door handle only moaned a little and begged her husband to bid them hurry and so they dropped the dry sands and moon struck rocks of behind them and on till the crash of the and the of the told them they were at by the continental divide three bold and experienced men � cool confident and dry when they began white quivering and wet when they finished their trick at those terrible wheels � swung her over the great lift from to and beyond up and up to the on the state line whence they dropped rocking into la had sight of the and tore down the long slope to city where took comfort once again from setting his watch an hour ahead there was very little talk in the car the secretary and sat together on the stamped spanish leather cushions by the plate glass observation window at the rear end watching the and ripple of the ties crowded back behind them and it is believed making notes of the scenery moved nervously between his own captains courageous and the naked necessity of the combination an cigar in his teeth till the pitying forgot that he was their enemy and did their best to entertain him at night the lit up that palace of ail the luxuries and they swinging on through the of abject desolation now they heard the of a water and the voice of a the of that tested the steel wheels and the oath of a tramp chased off the rear platform now the solid crash of coal shot into the tender and now a beating back of noises as they flew past a waiting train now they looked out into great a beneath their tread or up to rocks that barred out half the stars now and changed and rolled back to jagged mountains on the horizon s edge and now broke into hills lower and lower till at last came the true plains at city an unknown hand threw in a copy of a paper containing some sort of an interview with who had evidently fallen in with an on from boston the joyful revealed that it was beyond question their boy and it soothed mrs for a while her one word hurry was conveyed by the to the at and where � � captains courageous the are easy and they brushed the behind them towns and villages were close together now and a man could feel here that he moved 