Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-08-31

through the gloom. When she was almost
| within range of the big headlight, she SAW
a half dozen armed men swarning around
| the engine, she heard fierce oaths and
| then the engine started up again. She
saw in an instant that it had been cut
| free from the train. In the cab window,
| where her father usually stood, there was
| big, unfamiliar figure managing the
lever and throttle. Terrified Polly sprang
| to one side into clump of bushes. As
| the locomotive passed her on its way up
| the track she saw that the man in the cab
| wore black mask on his face, and then
| she knew what had happened. She under
| stood why Piifckney had tried to warn her
and failed. Robbers had held up the train
and we're preparing to rob the express car.
For moment Polly was torn with
doubt and terror. Had they shot her ia
Their? She knew that he never would sub
init to have his train captured without a
struggle. Should she go to him? Then
she remembered her station and the tele-
graph, and, without a moments delay, she
was flying down the track toward the
depot. She would send for help to Mer-
Ger, but squarely in front of the little
depot the locomotive stopped, and the
black masked man sprang from the cab
window and darted across the platform.
Hardly thinking what she was doing, Pol
ly ran up on the other side, the fireman s
side of the engine, and, raising herself up,
peered into the cab She had half expected
to see her fathers dead body lying on the
floor, for she had heard much about the
In 1ot, ,f
Through the cab window she could see
the robber sitting at her own little desk in
the depot sending message. 1t flashed
over her all at once that he was wiring
Mercer that the express was delayed, thus
preventing any alarm. The robber had
pushed up his mask, and she saw him
plainly.
What should she dor She dared not en-
ter the office, and she, mere girl, could
be of no service where the robbers were
making their attack ON the train. If only
she had the little revolver that lay in the
drawer of her desk She set her teeth as
she thought what she would do with it,
At that moment three shots rang out,
clear and distinct, from the detached train.
The man at the telegraph instrument
sprang to his feet and ran to side win
dow in the waiting room and looked up
the track
Now was her chance Hardly thinking
what she did, Polly sprang to the en-
gineer's side of the cab threw back the
reverse lever and opened the throttle stead
lily. The big steel wheels began to turn,
very slowly at first. Farther and farther
the throttle opened and faster and faster
tI1p1 Wv nd uot nov, n
half fast enough to suit Polly, who was
now glancing fearfully over her shoulder
Suddenly the depot door was thrown
open, and she saw the robber darting up
the track. He had his pistol in his hand
He was pointing it at her and shouting
for her to stop, but the engine was now
going at good speed, and, run as he would,
the robber could not catch it, but he stop
ped and fired, the bullet ripping through
the cab cover above Polly's head
The engine was now tearing down the
track at full speed. Polly knew that it
must be fired, or it would not go far, and
SO, leaving the throttle open, she sprang
to the coal pit, flung open the frehole, and
with the heavy shovel in her small white
hands threw in load after load of coal.
When she returned to her place, sho could
see the first signal light of Mercer already
blinking into view. She pulled down on
the whistle cord, and the engine shrieked
its Distress
Five minutes later Polly strained at tho
heavy reverse lever, turned hard on the
airbrake and brought the great iron horse
to u sudden standstill. How she ever man
aged to stammer the story she never knew,
but in few minutes the engine was head
ed back with half dozen armed men
aboard of her. Behind them came another
load of men on a switch engine and two
men were racing up the street of Mercer
calling the alarm.
They heard firing before they reached
Kane Greek, but it ceased soon afterward
The robbers had gone. They had taken
with them much plumber from the passen-
gers, but they had not been able to get
into the express safe, although they were
at work drilling it open when relief came.
From the time that the engine stopped
Polly was missing. When the rescued
and excited passengers and express mes
sengers began to crowd around and in
quire, the Mercer men remembered her. A |
party of them went out to find the girl |
who had brought help to the beleaguered |
train.
In little clump of bushes they heard u
man moaning, and an instant later they
saw Polly kneeling in the sand with her
fathers head in her lap, crying bitterly,
and they gathered up the brave engineer
and his daughter and carried them down
to the train, cheering all the way.
Engineer Marshall was not badly hurt,
and he was able to be in Mercer when the
general manager Of the road thanked Che
blushing Polly officially and offered her
new and better position in Mercer, and, of
course, all the passengers and express mes
sengers heard about Polly's brave deed
and said great many pleasant things
about her, but Polly, being sensible girl,
only blushed and. said that she had to do
it, and that any other girl would have
done the same under like circumstances.
Which no one believed of course
Later, when the robbers were captured,
Polly was able to identify one of them
one who had run the en-
yine-and through him the entire party
was convicted and sentenced to the peni-
5entiary. -Chicago Record.