The Savannah morning news., 1901-10-20

following preface 70 the homeward run,
the superintendent sat on the firemans
box and said nothing.
But when Abel climbed aboard at
Arroyo with his running orders for
Grand Butte, Pettigrew shook himself
awake.
what are the orders, Griscom?" he
asked.
Run to meet II at Guerney."
Pettigrew glanced at his watch.
Pretty narrow margin, isn't it? Let
me take her to Guernsey" And there
with he swung himself up to Girls
CONS box, dropped the reversing lever
into the corner, and took the slack of
the long, loose coupled train as gently
as if he had had an eye on each one
of the chain toggles that were doing
duty, for missing draw bars on the
"cripples."
Say. boys; he's been givin' us the
laugh all along" said Abel, recounting
1t for the benefit of the round-house
contingent the next day. What he
doesn't know about gettin' the last
hair kink out of an engine amt worth
fiindin' out. By Jacks! the way he tolled
that string O. cripples' around the cor
ners to make time was a caution to
sinnersl Knowed right where he had
to ease off, and right where he could
turn her loose for every jolt of speed
them 'cripples' 'ud stand. Maybe, as
you say, he amt no railroad man; but
I'm tellin you, when it comes to run
MIN a played out scrap heap like the
III, he's Old Man Science hisself."
Pettigrew was at his desk as usual
the morning after the wrecking trip,
and when Miss Gray came in to take
l. l,a md
rank and file etiquette lay between
them again. If the man were grateful
he was too we'll trained and well bred
to show it, And if the young woman
were curious to know what had come
of the momentary breaking down of
the barrier, ii served only to make her
little more precise and machine-like
in her attitude toward Mr.. Arson Pet
tigrew.
For fortnight after this the epidem-
ic paused There were STnashes enough
to show that the microbe was still with
us. but the casualty report was shorter
and less frequent. Also, there were
signs of returning loyalty, as when
some of the older men began
to speak of the superintendent
as "Old Man Ans" and to ad-
nit guardedly that in exceptional
instances a college man and gentle
man might likewise be good railroad
man.
But the sick division went back to
health positive one moonlit night IN
December when all the dun plains and
heaved-up mountains lay stark and
| glistening under a mantle of frozen
snow, and the main line of the Western
| division was lost to sight save for the
| endless procession of ice-encrusted tel
egraph poles and two black streaks in
the snow to mark the parallels OF the
| rails.
Train No 6, the eastbound Overland,
| Farnham conductor and Jack Mccain
engineer. was fifty minutes late, and
! it carried a freight precious to many,
not least of all to the black-browed
man who crouched on the engineer s
box of the flying locomotive. BLACK
Jack" as the men called him, had been
alternating between two moods all the
way from Lone Pine. When he
thought of the wife and baby girl
riding on a pass in the rear sleeper
"as good as anybody. by Cod" the
grimness went out of him and you
might have smitten him without fear of
instant death But when he thought OF
the superintendent car added to the
already overburdened train at Lone
| Pine. he swore viciously.
Just like hint" he growled, adding
a string of the vicious expletives.
failing his blank blank car on to me
a night like this! And like as not he'll
have me on the carpet tomorrow for
not making time with him" (more UNI
printable adjectives) "blanked private
sleep wagon"
But if the rear sleeper of No. car
ried two women-souls priceless to the
black browed engineer, it also carried
another lately grown very dear to the
SIperintendent. For Agnes Gray as
| one of the sleeper passengers, return
| ing from visit to her cousins in Salt
| Lake.
| No word save of business had passed
between them since that evening OF
barrier breaking, but in some indefin-
| able way, Pettigrew knew that he was
fighting his battle and winning it, part
| ly for sheer manhood's sake, to be sure,
| but also because the high ideals of this
clear-eyed young woman were holding
| him to the mark.
So, while Mccain, sending the big
| engine headlong at the grades, was
thinking of his wife and child, Petit
grew, at the other end of the train
was thinking of the blow in store for
| Miss Gray-thinking of it and cursing
the hard fate that would make him
! deal the blow with his own hand.
But fate, lying in wait at the foot
Of the Jack mountain grade in a FROST
| fractured rail, had another word to
| saw. and it was said with terrible en-
! phasis.
Mccain felt the broken rail when
the engine shot over it, and what a
man may do to stop a train going at
45-mile gait was done in a half
| leaned far out of his window to look
hack. with all the blood in his veins
turning to ice One after another OF
the cars in the slowing train lurched
| over the break, righted itself and trun-
dIed on securely until the rear sleeper
came That lurched, like the others,
and for fitting instant Mccain
thought it would pass the break In
safetv He was mistaken. While he
locked the Pullman swung out of line
,,,Sth q humping crash, broke its cou.
Ming and plunged down the empank-
ment, dragging the superintendent
| car with II.
Mccain was off in a flash, yelling
ii<e a demoniac and racing back while
vet the brakeshoes were grinding
snarks from the moving wheels. But
o,ick as he was In the fire in the
puIlman's heater was quicker, ana by
| tbe time he had run half the train
length the wreck was vomiting lame
and smoke from the broken windows
There was help a-plenty at hand
and what was more TO the purpose
leader of approved temper. Pettlgrew
bsd come out Of his overturned car
with nothing worse than a rev cuts
and bruises, and he took command al
once. 49, -. s,.,. 1900