Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1901-07-20
CHAPTER I.=CONTINUED.

was going on outside. With one hand
still grasping the edge of the upright
Partition between two sections near
the forward end, and the other just
letting go, apparently, of the bell
cord, the tall, slender, well-built
young soldier, with dark-brown eyes
and softly curling lashes, was lower
ing himself into the aisle. The
brakeman proceeded to rebuke him
on the spot.
''Look here, young teller. You'll
have to keep your hands off that bell
cord. Here I've been cussin' things
for keeps, thinkin' it was knotted or
raught. 1t was just you had hold of
it. Don't you know better'n that?
Amt you ever travelled before?"
The man addressed was showing
something away inside the breast of
his shirt. He did it with almost os-
tentatious elaboration, quietly eying
the brakeman before replying. Then,
slowly readiusting the knot OF q fine
black silk necktie, so that it's broad,
tapping ends spread over the coarser
material of the garment, he slowly
looked the justly exasperated brake
man over from head to foot and as
slowly and piacidly answered:
ssNot more than about half around
the world. AS for your bell cord, it
was knotted; it caught in that ring.
[ saw that some one was Juggling and
trying to get it loose, SO / swung up
there and Strengthened it. just what
you'd have done under the circum-
stances, [ fancy"
The brakeman turned redder I'M
der the ruddy brown of his sun
tanned skin. This was no raw
rookie" after all. In his own ver-
ns cular, as afterwards expressed to
the conductor, "I seen I was up ag'in'
the real ting dis time" but it was
hard to admit it at the moment.
Vexation had to have vent. The
bell cord no longer served. The sup
posed meddler had proved help.
Something or somebody had to be
the victim of the honest brakeman's
spleen, SO, somewhat unluckily, as
events determined, he took it out on
the company and that decrepit car,
now buzzing along with much COM
plant of axle and of bearing.
damn this old shake-down, any
howl" said he. "The company ought
to know 'nough not to have such
things lynn round loose. Some night
it'll fall to pieces and kill folks"
And with this implied apology for
his aspersions of Recruit Foster, the
brakeman hustled away.
But what he said was heard by
more than one, and remembered when
perhaps he would have wished it for
gotten. The delay at Ogden was sup
plemented by long halt before the
setting of that blazing SIN, neces-
STATED by the firing of the waste
in the boxes of those long-neglected
trucks. Far back as the rearmost
sleeper the sickening smell of burn
ing, oil-steeped packing drove femi-
nine occupants to their satchels in
search of scent-bottles, and the men
to such comfort as could be found
in TASKS of bulkier make.
In the heart of the desert, with
dust and desoiation spreading far
on every hand, the long train had
stopped to douse those foul-smelling
fires, and, while train-hands pried
off the red-hot caps and dumped
buckets of water into the blazing
cavities, changing malodorous smoke
to dense clouds of equally unsavorv
steam, and the recruits in the afflict-
ed car found consolation in GOSH
ing" the hard-sweating, hard-swear-
ing workers, the young officer who
had boarded the second sleeper at
Ogden, with half a dozen bipeds in
busters or frazzled shirt-sleeves, had
become involved in complication on
the shadier side of the train.
Somewhere into the sage-brush a
jack-ra bbit had darted and was now
in hiding. With dozen eager heads
poked from the northward windows
and stretching arms and index fin
gers guiding them in their inglorious
hunt, the lieutenant and his few
associates were stalking the first
four-footed object sighted from the
train since the crossing of the bald
divide.
Within the heated cars, with
flushed faces and plying palm-leaf
fans, few of the women passengers
were languidly gazing from the win
dows. At the center window of the
second sleeper, without a palm-leaf
and looking serene and unperturbed,
sat the young girl whose lovely face
had SO excited Mr.. Stuyvesant's deep
admiration. Thrice since leaving
Ogden, on one pretext or other, had
he passed her section and stolen such
a look as could be given without
obvious staring. Immediately in rear
of the seat she occupied was an aus
tere maiden of middle age, one of
the passengers who had come on by
the Union Pacific from Omaha. Di-
rectly opposite sat two men whom
stuyyessnt had held IA but scant
esteem up to the time they left the
valley of Salt Lake. Now, because
their sections stood over against
hers, his manner relaxed with his
mood. Circumstances had brought
the elderly maid and himself to the
same table on two occasions in the
dining-car, but he had hitherto felt
no desire to press the acquaintance.
rms afternoon he minded him of
a new book he had in his bag, for
literature, he judged, might be her
hobpy, and had engaged her in con-
versatlon, of which his share was
meant to impress the tiny, translu-
cent ear that nestled in the dark-