Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-08-14

safe to try it toe often with the same gang.
mat night when the band had retired
10 safe place among the hills over
aealnst the rarge they held important
nee citing.
Manitestly, the leader did not know his
busress, and his resignation was called
tor He refused to surrender. and the gang
voted to disband. He had been a poor pro-
, WIDER at best. The gang breakfasied Liz hit
| ly. lunched lighter still, and in the twi-
light stole away. Only one man rrnained
loyal to the old leader, and while the others
headed for the hills these desperate des-
peradoes rode back to Solitude.
At flag station they robbed section
house, secured red light and a spike
maui. and determined to take one more
fall out Of the midnight express.
1t was Ed Maloney's run Gut that night
and when he armed himself with a brand
new six-shooter the trainmen gave him the
laugh The traiRmaster said sonnet hing
about locking an empty barn, hut Maloney
| took the gun, showed it into the bosom OF
bis engine jacket, and pulled out for Grand
| junction.
Almost every engineer has his hobby.
| ard Maloneys speciality was the book of
| rules, small volume printed by the COM
| pany for the guidance of its employees IL
| he wanted to clean a headlight or take a
| pill he would first consult the book and IL
ne tailed to find anything printed on that
subject, he would then proceed. deliber-
ately, to do the very best he could without
! instructions.
With Book and Gun.
1T is much better he used TO say. ito
! rely on a good book than a bad memory"
He had often declared to his fireman that
he expected that little book TO save his life
/ some day.
However, upon this particular occasion he
elected to fortfy himself with a ~. re-
| CARELESS of what the trainmen might think
about 1t. 1t was a dark. drizzling night,
and although the yain was light, Maloney
1 .1,,-..-
ming time. The helper he had up the hill
was makeshift in the shape of leaky
OLD work engine and they gained the sum-
mt thirty minutes late. Now, however, he
had them on his side of the slope and was
slammlilg them up against the curves
where the road wound around among the
SAND nils in way that convinced the
passengers that he was not afraid of being
tagged
number of the passengers had remain
ed in the smoking rooms of the sleepine
cars, determined to keep awake until they
nad passed the point where the train had
been Ragged the night before. The con-
ductor had assured them that they would
be able TO see nothing but silence at SoiI-
tude, but they were curious as most men
are. and refused to go to bed
flnally, there was long, mournful blast
VI .he whistle, and VIXEN the sound had
dieu away IN the desert the conductor pick
ed up his white light, said Solitude" and
stepped out on the rear platform Three or
four men followed him. but all they could
see was the dripping railing, the chain
a sti ,ne rear end of the car, the wet bell
rope fastened 10 the chain. and the dark
ness closing rapidly around them.
But what Malcney saw would have turn
ru their mar gray. 1t was a regula ton red
hght but il was not being handled by .
car hand, and Maloney determlned. 70 dis-
regard H. AT any other time he would have
stopped, but precedent had been estab-
~ hi An engineer had run past signal
al TINS very siding the night before. and
haa been voted great head; so Nalonev
only whistled. looked sharp and let rben
go. N'A
The robbers had expected this an, .,.
Is why they had broken the switch bridie
ana opened the switch at the far end az
me SIDING. Maloney half expected this. ana
the moment his headlight shone ,,nor ~.
leanlng target he shut off Reversed -
applied the air brakes, full upon the wbir-
ring wheels. ' WHIT
when the Emergency Arose.
"A moment later the big. black engine
shot on In the desert turned half ovar
on her left side, caught the fireman ana
crushed him to death. Maloney. throun
through the cab window. fioundered in the
ADOBE mud for a few seconds and was ON
Ills feet again. So well had he performes
MS duty that all the cars except the mail
express and smoker remained upon the
ran. Inc express car was what the rob-
GERS wanted, but 1t was driven high upon
e'1S AiiaA Sei, WHICH was resting the
tail Of the tank. Maloney. boiling win
rage. felt for his book of rules i, Was
fere all right but there was no light to
read by, and like enough there was N,
rule to cover urgent emergencies. such as
now confronted him
The only rule he could call to mind was
the one at the bottom of the time card.
In case OF doubt take the safe side AMI
Maloney felt for his gun In the general
confusion II Lad dropped down into HIS
overalls, but he fished IL out and apnroacb-
ed the wreck. The oil box, in which the
supplies We're carried, had been Jared
loose and driven up against the furnace
door. When il had been there a few seq
onds the oil ignited, and instantly the
whole interior of the wrecked engine cab
was af1ame. When The flash came Il show
ed Maloney face to face with the two rob-
bers. Being quick and cool, the engineer
raised his revolver and blazed away al one
OF the men. and the robber chief was left
without follower But, even as Maloney
pressed the trigger, the desperate held his
own gun close 10 the engineers breast and
let go. The conductor and passengers who
were now hurrying up from the rear saw
the murderous weapon pointed straight at
Maloney's heart and made doubt but
that he would be dead I'm an instant. But
when the gun went off the big engineer
only staggered, clapped his left hand over
his heart and blazed away at the robber.
The spectacle of man shot through the
heart still showing fight seemed TO ill the
bandit with terror. and being a coward, as
many Of these fellows are. he turned and
dashed away into the darkness. while Ma
loney, still holding his hand to his left
breast, sent stray bullets over the desert
where the robber ran.
In the glare of the light Maloney ope3-
ed his shirt to look for the bullet hole.
and there was only a big red spot over his
heart. Closing his shirt he examined his
Jumper. pulled his book of rules out. and
found deep furrow plowed across the
cover.
That did the business" said the en-
gineer as the conductor approached. II
told you that book would be the saving
Of my life some day." And then they
started to put out the fire.
A Wnrm Retention.