The Republican journal., 1899-04-27
speed indicator flicked and wagged to and
fro; the cinders ratified on the roof, and a
whirl of dust sucked after the whirling
Whaals The crew of the com hi n ti1,,, ~

| Wilt VI uuSl SuChcu dIIoE luO WQ1fuly
wheels The crew of the combination sat
on their hunks, painting in their shirt
sleeves, and Chyene found himself among
them shouting old, old stories of the rail.
road that every trainman knows, above
the roar of the car. He told them about
his son. and how the sea had given
up its dead, and they nodded and spat and
rejoced with him; asked after cher,
back there and whether she could
stand it if the engineer 'let her out a
piece" and Cheyne thought she could
Accordingly, the great fire horse was ''let
out' from Flagstaff to Winslow, till a
division superintendent protested.
But Mrs. Cheyne, in "a bondoir state
room, where the French maid, sallow-
white with fear clung to the silver door
handle, only moaned little and begged
her husband to bid them 'hurry." And
SO they dropped the dry sands and moon
struck rocks of Arizona behind them, and
grilled on till the crash OF the couplings
and the wheeze of the brake hose told
them they were at Coolidge by the Con-
tinental Divide.
Three bold and experienced men-cool,
confident, and dry when they began
white, quivering, and wet when they fin
ished their trick at those terrible wheels
swung her over the great lift from Albu-
querque to Glorietta and beyond Springer,
up and up to the Ration Tunnel on the
State line, whence they dropped rocking
into La Junta, had sight of the Arkan-
saw, and tore down the long slope to
Dodge City, where Cheyne took comfort
once again from setting his watch an hour
ahead.
There was very little talk in the car.
The secretary and typewriter sat together
on the stamped Spanish leather cushions
by the plate glass observation window at
the rear end watching the surge and
ripple of the ties crowded back behind
! them, and, it is believed, making notes of
the scenery. Cheyne moved nervously
between his own extravagant gorgeous
ness and the naked necessity of the com
bination, an unlit cigar in his teeth, till
the plying crews forgot that he was their
tribal enemy, and did their best to enter
tain him.
AT night the punched electrics lit up that
distressful palace of all the luxuries, and
/ they Jared sumptuously, swinging through
the emptiness of abject desolation. Now
4 they heard the swish of a water-tank, and
/ the cultural voice of a Chinaman the
| cllnk- cllnk OF hammers that tested the
4 krupp steel wheels, and the oath of
! tramp chased Oft the rear platform; now
the solid crash of coal shot into the tender
and now a beating back of noises as thev
flew past waiting train. Now they
1 looked out into great abvsses. a trestle
pulring beneath their tread. or up to
rocks that barred out half the stars. Now
Scaur and ravine changed and rolled back
4 to Jagged mountains on the horizon's S
edge, and now broke into hills lower and
lower, till at last came the true plains.
/ At Dodge Citv an unkno,rn n hand threw
in copy of a Kansas paper containing
some sort of an interview with Harvey.
who had evidently fallen in with an enter
prising reporter, telegraphed on from
Boston The ovful iournalese revealed
that it was beyond question their boy.
and it soothed Mrs. Cbevne for a while,
Her one word 'hurry'' was convened by
/ the crews to the enuineers AT Nickerson.
! Topeka. and Marceline. where the Grades
are easy, and they brushed the Continent
behind them. Towns and VILLAGES were
close together now, and a man could feel
here that he moved among people.
Il can't see the dial. and nv ewes ache
SO. What are we doine?'
The very best we can. mamma. There $
no sense in getting in before the Limited
We'd only have to watt
! Il don't care. | want to feel we're
! moving Sit down and tell me the miles -
Chevpe sat down and read the dial for
! her (there were some miles which stand
for records to this dayl. but the seventy
foot car never changed it's long steamer
! like roll movino throngb the heat with
the hum of giant bee. Yet the speed
was not enough for Mrs. Chevne; and the
heat. the remorseless August heat. was
making her eiddy: the clock hands would
not move. and when. oh. when would
they be in Chicago?
1t IS not true that. as they changed en-
gines at Fort Madison. Cheyne passed
over to the Amalgamated brotherhood of
1.ocomotive Fngineers an endovmpnt
sufficient TO enable them to figAt him and
/ his fellows on equal terms for eyermore
He paid his obligations to engineers and
firemen as he believed they deserved and
only his bank knows what he gave the
crews who had s>muatbjzed with him
1t is on record that the last crew took
entire charge of switchino operations at
sixteenth Street because s.sha,' was in
a doze at last. and Heaven was to belp
any one who bumped her,
Now the highly paid specialist who con.
vevs the Lake shore and Njchioan Sonth-
/ ern Limited from Chicaoo TO Elkhart is
| something of an autocrar and he does NOT