Red River prospector. (Red River, Taos County, N.M.) 1900-190?, 1901-11-14
A Real Test Of Nerve

ballast roadbed was as level as a bill
lard table. and Australian Jack had
struck the schedule gait before the Of
hcers realized It. At a tiny station,
ten miles northwest of Paris, the su-
pe~rintendent noted his watch. With
in ten minutes the roar Of the rushing
express train started the echoes in the
drowsy county seat Of Missouri's dem
ocratic Gibraltar, Monroe county, and
a minute afterwards the red lights on
the rear car were disappearing in the
direction of the Mississippi. There
was but n more stop until the Mis-
souri, river was reached, and the SUI
perintendent knew Jack would make
the run Of his life to Old Monroe.
The next ten miles was made In
eight and one-half minutes. Then the
engine settled down to work. The
rate was Increased to ten in eight
minutes; then in seven; then In six,
which was the limit, and which was
held without deviation. The president
dropped back in his chair. He knew
the man in front was doing everything
humanity could accomplish. Out of
every ten miles traversed he was plac-
ing four minutes against the ffty-1ve
on the debit side, and II the gait was
kept up to the city limits the train
would back into Union station exactly
on time.
AS the early dawn of the June morn
ing crept over the Mississippi, the
limited crossed the line Of Andrain
and invaded the soil of old Pike, the
starting point of so many Of Missouri's
worthy sons Some of the passengers,
seeming the approach to the river,
walked out into the vestibules to look
at the scenery in the twilight. Then
they noticed something of which they
had been naware while lying in their
chairs-that the mileposts and other
objects were whizzing past them at a
rate they had never before expert
enced in all their lives. 1t was hard
to believe that that gently rocking
train was a~nnihiiating distance at the
rate of eighty miles an hour, but that
is the story the mileposts told.
At Old Monroe there was a wait.
The dispatcher had calculated on a run
Of only sixty miles an hour out of
Macon, and had permitted a north
bound train to leave West Alton on
the limited's supposed lost time. The
president and directors frowned and
began to look anxious again. Ten
minutes were placed on the wrong
side Of the ledger. The officials from
their observatory glared at the limo
cent freight engineer. and the presi-
dent said something the Sunday school
books don't approve of.
1t seemed so long this time before
$50 struck the maximum that the
president thought the engineer must
have abandoned the task. He sug-
gested that the superintendent go for
ward and see what the matter was, but
that gentleman said:
Eve are on a gradual grade and
have an unusually heavy train. He's
doing the best he can. l think he'll
make it."
Along the river before striking the
bridge is a level stretch of road, about
the best on the system. When $50
reached it she Jumped like a race
horse. 1t was the first jar felt by the
passengers during the trip from the
central Missouri division. Along here
the speed Of the train was little short
Of a hurricane. The section was COW
cred before the passengers hardly real
lied they were on it, and the train
leaped over the bridge without diminu-
ton Of speed. Then a smooth road, a
few turns, and the heavy fog Of the
city obliterated the appearance Of day.
The officials looked at their watches.
There's only one way he can make
it." said the president. Twill there
be much travel over the streets this
early, do you think?" he asked the SUI
p~erintendent.
"There'l be some" that officer re-
piled. but they'll open the bell valve
and take the chances. II we don't
strike anything you'll reach the sta
ton to the second"
Along the winding, wriggling track
around the lumber-yards, warehouses,
glue works and factories the nerve
racking rate was held with death-like
tenacity. At one crossing a team es-
capped humiliation by hardly a hairs
breath, and the men who looked out
of the glass windows in the rear could
see the driver and several people ges-
t~iculating and shaking their fists in
their direction. A policeman standing
In a saloon door scowled and wrote
something in his notebook With a
roar and a rush the train shot up on
the elevated, few past the ancient
levee warehouses, around the tene-
ments in the southern district, and
then took one strand of the web south
Of Union station and followed It to a
given point; then stopped and slowly
backed into the sheds.
Gentlemen" said the superintend-
emit, "the Iron Mountain Is over on the
tenth track. You have three minutes
to reach IT," He then hurried to the
front OF the train. Australian Jack
leaped from MS cab and waited. His
face was as pale az death and his lips
twitched. Soldiers tell us the bravesi
men loss their nerve after the battle.