The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-15
! Our Daily Short Stories
I'M BRADFORD'S PROMOTION.
BY. MRS. MOSES P. HANDY.
Copyright, 1901, by Authors syndicate.)

great house. Jim always declined when
he could, his business was an excuse
and he would have died sooner than
make love to Miss Constance, and have
people calling him a fortune-hunter
Bradford was on a main line, and all
the express trains on the road passed
US. 1t was one evening in October;
night had fallen early because of
cloudy weather. Jim was at the tele-
graph, and the instrument was click
ing away, when suddenly it stopped
snort, and / saw him go white. Then
1t clicked again, and he started up in
hurry. Miller" he said, 1.-The wires
have been cut between here and Wes-
ton, and the Flyer is due in half an
hour. The line is clear to Easton, but
there's mischief the other way. Here,
Frank" he called my boy, a bright
chap 10 years old, who was wild about
telegraphy, look out for the wire.
Come on Miller, you and must hurry,
Jones can stay here" And before I
knew where 1 was we were off on a
hand-car down the road.
L knew what was to pay; there had
been some daring train robberies in the
state, and Jim was uneasy. / didn't
feel safe myself. We made good time
on that handcar. Jim had been stroke
of his college crew, and 1 have some
came to stop. The wires were dang
CLING, the rails pulled up, and big
tree was lying across the track all
this, where sharp curve around a
steep hill hid the whole thing from
trains coming in the opposite direction.
We climbed down, Jim on one side,
on the other. He had the lantern, and
was nearest to a clump of bushes not
far off. There was a flash and a ping,
"a 1T
went out Jim drew his revolver and
fired at the flash. More than one re-
port answered, and 1 saw him stagger
and put his hand to his side. 1 wanted
to help him, but no. Take the lam
term" he said, land run for your life,
man; stop the train; don't mind me-"
and seeing I hesitated, he said: IT'S
a hundred lives to one, hurry, man;
hurry!" and he swore at me, thing
1 never knew Jim to do before, nor af-
forwards. 1 took the lantern, though
didn't see what use it was, and believ-
ing in discretion, when possible, I slid
down the embankment so as to have a
breastwork between me and the train
wreckers. l made the fastest time of
my life around that curve, and as soon
as I passed the hill climbed upon the
track where there was a clear stretch
of mile.
1 flew around, lively, and piled UP a
lot of deadwood, poured the oil out of
the lantern over 1t, and as soon as l
heard the first sound of the train 1 set
fired to the head. In spite of the damp
ness it made a great flare, and stand
ing behind it waved the red flag with
all my might.
Well, / stopped the train. The en-
gineer asked what was up, and / told
him there was tree down across the
track around the curve. 1 didn't want
to scare anybody. Then, when the
conductor showed up, 1 told the
whole story.
When we got back to Jim he had
tainted from loss of blood, and /
thought he was dead. There was a
wound in his arm as we'll as one in
his side, and some bullet holes through
his hat He had done some execution
himself, for we tracked the train
wreckers by the blood and came up
with two of them, badly wounded.
They took Jim back to town as If
he had been a railroad president. Mr..
Simms was a director of the road, and
he and two or three others were, on
the train in special car, coming down
to spend Sunday at his house.
One of the directors had married
PARKWAY cousin of Jim's and was
proud of the connection. So when
Jim got well, which was sooner than
might have been expected, they said:
Friend, come up higher" and gave
him a good place in the city.
But the best of it all is that he and
Miss Constance are married. 1 can't
tell you how that came about, only
she heard the report that he was dead.
instead of wounded, and tainted dead
away In the depot, where she had come
to meet her father. So 1 suppose Jim
thought that was all the encourage
ment a man could want. Mr.. Simms
made no objections to the marriage.
Why should he?
Me? oh, yes, they made me station
master in Jim's place, with my boy,
Frank, as telegraph operator.