The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-26

questioned him, Hanks watch was ex- actly right, and he stuck to his story un-
 til the superintendent believed him, and
 began to think that Matt was getting
 little too old and too careless. This
 If 1t hadn't been that he found himself
 wondering If, possibly. Hanks watch
 was right, and If he himself. was begin
 ming to show signs of failing. This is
 just what Hank was working for, for
 he had sworn that he would make Matt
 lose his nerve, providing Matt got the
 better of him with the girl,
 Then Hank took to halting his train
 on down grade, andinformed the con
 ductor that his engine wasn't working
 just right and required little repair
 ing. He would make big show of un-
 screwlng a nut here and easing a valve
 there, and then he would oil her and spill lot of oil on the rails. When the
 express came a-groaning and a-panting
 and a-puffing up the hill, her driving
 wheels would strike the oil and slip,
 and the train would be stuck long
 enough to make her come into the next station ten minutes or so behind time.
 Matt knew well enough that Hank was
 playing 1t on him, but he couldn't prove anything, don't you see, and all he could do was to swear and take the reprim- ands that he got without attempting to defend himself.
 After while the girl made up her
 mind, and she took Matt. don't blame
 her, for though he was pretty old for her, he was a good man, with consider able cash in the bank and big life
 insurance policy, while Hank hadn't cent beyond his pay, and was liable from his reckless ways to be smashed
 almost any day. Of course Matt was in
 high spirits over his success and Hank
 was correspondingly nasty. The first
 time the two met Matt says: Look
 here, Hank Stevens! I've had enough of your games, and I'm not going to give you the right of way many more times, when you know well as do that your not entitled to 1t. Some day you'll pull out of that siding ahead of time once too often.'
 What are you proposing for to do
 in the premises?' says Hank, who had
 fine command of language, and could
 be most deadly polite when he wanted to be.
 T propose says Matt, for to open
 my throttle and smash your dirty little accommodation train into 5,O00,O 900 splin- ters and you with It. That's what I in- tend to do, and what I ought to have
 done long ago, only had weak sort
 of feeling for your passengers All right says Hank. You come along with your bullyragging old ex- press and try to smash me if you like. We'll see who will come out on top of the heap. I've generally got about two car loads of coal behind my engine, and cal-late you'll have some little trouble
 driving through them
 Now Hank knew we'll enough that Matt meant what he said. Matt was as I have told you, mighty careful and conscientious man, but you could drive him too far, and he had certainly made up his mind to run into Hanks train if he kept getting in his way, and I don't blame him. However, he never did run into Hanks train, though he
 thought he did, but Hank worked lit l tie game on him that left him with no | more nerve than aTgreen horse that is frightened by a bit of paper, and thinks it's going to rise up and tear him all
 to pieces.
 About a week went by and Hank never crowded the express off the track n1 ba 5tI hot xr,har ho
 knew that Matt's girl was on the train,
 and that he naturally would scare her by a collision. The Very fact that the
 girl was there made all the more hard
 for Matt to back his train down and
 give Hank the right of way, for. of course she supposed that Matt had
 made some sort of mistake in his cal
 culatiens and had endangered her prec- ious life. So the next time the two men
 met, which was the very next day, Matt
 sings 'out, You've done that trick for the last time You do 1t again and swear solemnly, world without end that I'll run you down. n
 "'Please yourself said Hank and then he saw that the time had come
 for carrying out plan that he had de- vised for destroying Matt's usefulness A week, or mebbe ten days, or mebbe a fortnight later, the express came round a sharp curve near Antioch about o'clock at night, and precious dark it was, too, at that time of year. Matt was two hours late, owing to a freight train having got on the track ahead of him, and he had received a telegram ordering him to pass the accommoda- ton five miles east of Antioch, where he would wait for him on the siding. Matt was running at about forty-f1ve miles and hour, trying to make up a little time, and he kept wondering whether
 Hank would wait for him on that siding or would pull out and come along down the road just so as to delay the express an hour or so longer. If he does,' says
 Matt to himself, loud enough for the fireman to hear him, 'there'n be the
 biggest smash that this road has seen this year. Just at that minute the ex-
 press swung around the curve and there
 was an engine on the track not more than forty yards ahead.
 There he is,' says Matt, and he's done 1t once too often.' 4sr
 with that he pulls her wide open and stands to his post. The express en- zine gave big jump and fairly sprung
 onto 34-that is, of course, unless I'm mistaken in thinking 1t was 34, and I
 don't believe I am. Still, a man can't
 always trust his memory, and I know that mine ain't what it once was.
 "Well, the two engines come together, o~I AEo bo cbut hic oryao @,.. .