The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-04-11
TEN MINUTES LATE.

In 50 there wasn't likelier fellow on
the line than George kirke.
He was the son of a poor man, and his
mother was dead His father was a
confirmed invalid OF the rheumatic
order, and George played the dutiful son
to him in way that would astonish the
young men of to-day.
Somehow, nobody knew exactly how,
George Lad managed to pick up a good
education, aad lie had polished it off, SO
to speak, by two years course at a
commercial college.
Kirke began on the Stony Hill ra.l-
road when he was about twenty-one. or
two years old. FIRST, he was hra[c-
man. This railway business is regular
succession, and, generally speaking, a
NAH has to wcrk his way up. 1t amt
often that he rcts right mp to the dignity
of n conductor at one step, with the
chance to pocket ten-cent scrips, and with
the privilege cf helping all the good-look-
ing and well-tlressed ladies' out of the
cars, and letting the homely ones, with
babies and Eandboxes in their arms,
stumble out IS best they may.
George did his duty SO we'll that he
was soon promoted to fireman, and, after
he had learned the workings of the ma
chine. he was made engineer and givcn
all engine.
..' This engine WAS one of the newest and
best on the line, and was called the Fly
away, and George was mighty proud Of
her, you may well believe.
L tell you, sir, your true engineer
one as is out and out for the business,
and feels his responsibilities takes as
much pride in his engine as the jockey
does in his favorite racehorse, and would
sit up nights, or neglect sweetheart, to
keep the brasses and tilagrees of his
machine SOS you could see your face in
'em.
There was another man wanted
Georges chance There's generally more
than one after every paying job.
Jack Halliday had been waiting for
some time to be engineer of the Flyaway,
and when he lost it he was mad enough
to pull hair. He was brakesman, like
wise, and had been on the road full two
years longer than Kirke and would seem
that the chance really belonged to him,
yet he was a quarrelsome, disagreealle
fellow, with independence .enough to
have set an emperor up i'll business and
still have had some left.
When Jack realized that George had
got the inside track of him, his anger WAS
at white heat. He cursed Kirke, and
cursed the company and old Whately, the
superintendent, and things generally,
until it seemed Il pity that there was not
something else to curse, he was in such
fine cursing order.
There was more than one thing which
made John Halliday down on George
Kirke. George had been his rival in many
respects, and particularly where the fairc,
creation was concerned. George was Il
great favorite with the girls, for he was
handsome, and generous, and goOd-na-
: tured, and Jack was sarcastic, and always
on the contrary side, and the girls avoid
ed him, rs they always should such q
man.
. We always expected that Ill would come
to Geotge, from Jacks bad blood against
him. and We warned him more than once,
but he always laughed, and reminded us
of the old saw that "barking dogs seldom
bite, Wnlc!l is True Ill lllt lllttlIi.
And. as the time went on. until two,
three, four months had passed since
Kirke's promotion, Ind nothing occurred,
we forgot all about or apprehe4s:oas OF
evil, and if we thought of the matter at
all, we thought We had wronged Hall
day by our suspicious.
It was dark night in November, with
considerable fog in the air, and strong
appearances of rain.
1 was ut Golosha, the northern tor
minus of orr road, looking after some
repairs on defective boiler, and l was
going down to New York on the 7:5O
tra:n-kirke train.
7 About seven there came a telegram from
soll Whately, whose summer residence
was nearly midway between Golosha and
New York, and the old heather had not
yet forsaken it for the city. The tele-
graph operator came into the engine
house where Kirke was at work-for he
was always at work-and read it to him.
kirke made q, note of it In his pocket
book. - ( .rs
Pay train on the line. Will meet you
Just west of Leeds at 1915. Shunt on
to the siding at Deering's Cut, and wait.
WHATELY.
Kirke's watch hung on nail beside the
clock. It was fancy of his always to