The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-05-01

something was wrong, else we would not
have paused in shoreless sea of bunch
grass 600 miles from hard timber enough
to make an Ak helve.
A bride in from Keokuk put her jew
els in her hair swiftly, and her little liz
ard skin purse and ticket went down
the back of her neck mighty cheerful,
thought.
To open a conversation with her 1
said: Madam. excuse the bluntness of
a penniless frontiersman in cavalry trou-
sers faced and reseated with buckskin,
but If it should turn out to be Indians
instead Of banditti they would get all
those priceless gems and moss agates Of
yours at the same time they took your
beautiful scalp, and they would swap
the whole thing at Antelope station or
Evans, Colo, for a liquid which we in
our untutored way call sheep dip. 1t
biteth like serpent and stingeth like
spider"
So held the Jewels for her in my
own hair till we were once more safe,
and also told her to lean on me, as the
groom did not come with her on the
wedding tour, harvesting having come
on week earlier than usual in Iowa
that year. So there was no one else upon
whom she could lean. / can still recall
the incident distinctly.
Soon the train began to back up.
Whether the road agents were doing it
or the engineer, vi ct arms, 1 could not
tell, and l hated to stick my head out,
fearing that it would be shot into and
disfgured for life. We backed for about
seven miles at low rate of speed and
stopped at a little coaling station, the
name of which have forgotten, for that
happened II years ago.
Pretty soon / nerved myself up suffi-
GENTLY to look out and see what our fate
was to be. We had also run out of every
thing to talk about, so lifted the sunny
head from my breast, where it had bro
ken the stem of my pipe, which was in
that pocket, and setting the fair one
again upright in the seat I went eau
tiously outside.
I found that, as we stopped there an
hour before on our way down, the FIRE
man had forgotten his shovel acciden-
tally, and now we had returned seven
miles to get it.
Quite different from this was the stop
ping of the train years before on the
main line and on the Green River divi-
sion. Whether Bill Allen was the engi-
neer or Aleck Wilkins or Dannie Breeze
or Fatty Harris. I'll never tell, but as
twilight was deepening into evening the
long train swayed slowly on side track
40 miles from anywhere on earth and
gently came to a standstill, with the
squeak Of brakes, the hiss of extra steam
and that culver and moan peculiar to a
long train stopping On the wide plains
in the teeth of a screaming blast.
Everybody jumped up and looked at
everybody else. The sleeping car porter
admitted that it was not a stopping place
there for passenger trains, and that as
everything was On time something else
must be the matter.
Finally six or seven young chaps dared
each other to go forward and find out
what was wrong. They found the engi-
neer standing proudly by his machine,
and to inquiring passengers he replied |
by pointing over his shoulder
down the road ahead, apparently four or
five miles, to where the line of the hori-
zon seemed to be bisected by the iron |
track of the railroad, and at that point,
evidently booming right toward us, as
though we had no rights, was blazing,
headlight.
Passengers began to breathe more free
ly and to murmur: "What an escape"
''How in the midst Of life we are in
debt" ETC., and l started purse for the
engineer. My GOODNESS and sang froid |
never desert me when there is hat to
be passed around. Icollected as went
and was meeting with good success when
an elderly man from Connecticut, with
red throat whiskers and two pairs of
5pectacles, came along and asked what
was the row.
'Side tracked for an east bound
train" said 1, collecting as 1 spoke and
rapidly changing a $40 bill so as to get
IS out of it.
"Side tracked for your mothers
aunt's cat on your fathers sider' he
calculated. Il teach school in Yale col
ege by time and get $500 for teachin as