The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-23

where Bossuet was telling the fright
ened women of the plan to send them
ahead on the engine, and scrambling
over the tender to the footplate of the
laboring 256. The fireman was shovel
! ing the coal os one who tolls for dear
life, and Bronco Pete was standing at
his levers, his angular jaw set and the
i sleepy eyes ablaze for the first and only
time in my seeing of them.
1.-The water!" 1 shouted, coming close
to his ear to make myself heard above
! the Gathering din of the engine.
/ Gone" he answered; "she sucked
dry at the foot of the hill"
What are you going to do?"
Make Summit Siding if l have to
| burn the crown-sheet out of her" he
| said.
1 passed the line over the mountain
/ in quick mental review. In its climb
in skirts the spurs and heads the
| gulches in alternate loops. Rounding
the last of the shoulders it describes a
huge u" in passing around the final
! and most abyssmal of the gulches. In
the bend of the ~" the borrowing
chasm is spanned by a light bridge OF
the overhead" type, and the approach
to this bridge from either direction is
downgrade. The southern end of the
great loop is the summit of the noun
tain and just beyond the cutting in
the summit shoulder through which
the line passes in Summit Siding.
We were skirting the shoulder of the
northern approach when Bronco Pete
sprang to his box and leaned far out
for a look to the rear. Our three pay
car rifles barked sharply and they were
answered promptly by a dropping vol
10y from the $40. Pete ducked inward
and gave his engine another notch OF
the throttle.
"'Tain't no use," he said, soberly;
I'VE amt goin' to have no time 10
transfer them wimmen.' Then ne call
ed sharply to his fireman andi gave
the boy an order which L did not hear,
and a moment later we were on the
inner curve of the "U," racing down
TO the bridge at a speed which prom
ised anything but a safe passage
over the spidery structure.
Nevertheless, before l could gasp
second time we had stormed up the OPP
posite grade and were numbering
through the cutting at the precise mo-
ment that the believing freight en-
gine came in sight on the northern
shoulder.
Once more Pete yelled to his fire
man.
.Get a move nowr he commanded,
and the boy shot out of the gangWay
and raced ahead to the switch. AS
1 learned afterward, the superintend-
ent's order had ben to make flying
switch at the siding; this to bring
the car and engine side. by side for
the quicker transfer of the women
Savage was on the forward platform
to pull the coupling pin, but at the
last moment his nerve failed him and
he countermanded the order
GO on" he shouted; 1--WE can't make
/ it-they're too near!"
But now the man became the master.
Il know what I'm a-doin'!" he yelled
back, with fierce oath to cap 1t. ou
pull that PIN" and, when the engine
1erked the car for the kick it was the
superintendent who obeyed.
The pay car was scarcely over the
switch when Pete sent the engine spin
ming back into the cutting and brought
it to a stand.
.sMistah Graves" he said, "the rev.
enuer allowed you-all d pay me an
other month; take that and thls-
showing the blue envelope with It's un-
broken rouleau of gold pieces INTO my
hand-"and send 'em to Squire jack
son. Tell him that squares him and me,
and say I'll new trouble him no more.
Now git off-quick."
But you-what are you gong 10
do?" I cried.
81 figger to hit them Ku-Kluxers
right about the middle O that bridge.
! Git OH, Will ye! Anu with lh1N AAS
hurled me out of the gangway
was half stunned by the fall, but
I was alive enough to see the last act
in the tragedy. The freight engine had
passed the bridge in safety when Pete
launched the 256 like stone from
catapult out of the cutting. There was
a veil of terror from the robber crew.
A collision on the steep mountain side
meant death to every man involved,
| and the only possible chance for escape
lay in flight. The big freight puller
buckled and heaved as the man at the
levers stopped and reversed her, but
she was no more than fairly on the
| bridge in the backward motion when
| the flying passenger engine overlook
| her There was a wild shrek, crash
that shook the very mountain, and the
| thing was done.
! 1t was late in the afternon, and the
! wreck train crew had been toiling for
| hours in the tangle of twisted bridge
! girders and crushed and battered ma
| chinery at the bottom Of the canyon
when we came upon all that was left
| Of Bronco Pete. Blenkinsop and were
both among the toilers, and it was the
| secret service man who helped lift the
poor torn body to the waiting stretcher.
You know his story" said 1, when
we were following the stretcher out of
the gulch; what is it?"
You spoke better than you know"
said Blenkinsop. briefly HE was
moonshiner, and he killed a man; not
an officer, but the spy who betrayed
/ him. An old fellow, Jackson by name.
went on his bond, and he ran away.
J For years he has been paying the bail
l. bond for a little at a time, and that is
! how l got on his track"
Did he know you were after him?"
yes; l arrested him just as he was
getting on the engine at Gold Hill. He
begged for time to make this run-said
! he owed it to you; and he gave me his
word of honor to go back to Tennessee
with me when he had done your turn"
And you trusted him?"
| The detective nodded. You see, l
| was a revenue officer once in the Ten
nessee mountains, and 1 know the
breed 1t will kill man at the drop
/ of the hat, but it won't lie.''
Yet l don't understand why he
didn't take his chance. He might have
! pulled the throttle open and sent the
] engine back alone"
Blenkinsop smiled gravely
Don't you?" he said; its plain
| enough; it was the blue envelope in
either case, and he chose to take it
here instead of on gallows in Ten
! nessee."