Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-11

| SO black, so hot the blast, and SO terrific
the leap, she stuck her nose into clean air
| peIore the men in the cab could rise to It,
| there was heave in the middle like the
lurch of SeaSick steamer and with ii the
| FlVe-N1ne got her paws cool iron and
soma ground, and the Mattaback and the
| blaze-all except a dozen tongues which
licked the cab and the roof of the baggage
| car minute-were behind George Sim
clair, shaking the hot glass out of his hair
| looked ahead through his frizzled eyelids
ana gave her full head for the western
bluffs of the valley, then looked at his
watch.
1t was the hundred and ninetieth mile
post just at her nose, and the dial read
oclock and ffty-five minutes to a Sec
ond There was hour to the good and
seventy-six miles and a water to cover:
but they Were seventy-six of the prettiest
mics under ballast anywhere, and the Five
Nine reeled them off like cylinder press
Seventy-nine minutes later Sinclair VIII s.
tied for the Denver yards
There was a IRENE ndous commotian
among the waiting engines. If there was
enc there Were fifty big locomotives wait
ing to charivari the McWiliams Special.
The wires had told the story in Denver
long before and the Five-Nine sailed
ponderously up the gridiron every mogul
every consolidated. every ten-wheeler, every
hog, every ch-bumper. ever air-hose
screamed an uproarious welcome TO Georgia
Sinclair and the Sky-Scraper.
They had broken every record from Nc
Cloud to Denver, and all knew it: but as
the McWilliams Special drew swiftly past,
every last man in the Yards stared at her
cracked, peeled, blistered haggard looks.
What the deuce have you bit into?"
cried the depot master. as the Five-Nfne
swept splendidly up and stopped with her
battered eye hard on the depot clock
Mattaback bridge is burned; had to
crawl over on the stringers," answered
Sinclair, coughing up cinder
where's McWiliams?"
Back there sitting on his grief
reckon
While the crew went up to register. two
big four-horse trucks backed up to the
baggage car, and in a minute a dozen men
were rolling specie kegs out of the door.
which was smashed in, as being quicker
than to tear open the barbados
Sinclair MacElroy and Francis. with his
brakeman, We're surrounded by q crowd Of
railroad men. AS they stood answering
questions, a big prosperous-looking banker,
with black rings under his eyes. pushed IN
toward them, accompanied by the lame
fellow, who had missed the chance OF q
lifetime to die rich, and by Ferguson, who
had told the story.
The banker shook hands with each one
of the crews. You've saved u.s. bows We
needed 1t. There's a mob of JesG- ~ Tho
worst scared people in America clamortUc
at the doors; and. by tie eternal now were
nNed Tor every one Of them. Come up to
the bank l want you to ride right nm
with the coin, all of you"
1t was an uncommonly queer OCCASION
out an uncornmonly enthusiastic one. Fifty
maui the escort ana cleared the
way Tor Che trucks to pull up across the
sidewalk, so the porters could lug the kegs
OF gold into the bank before the very ewes
Of the ratified depositors
In an hour the run was broken. Rut
when the four railroad men left the bank.
after all sorts Of hugging by excited d.
rectors, they carried not only the blessings
Of the officials. but each in his vest pocket
a check, every one Of which discounted tho
biggest voucher ever drawn on the West
End for a months pay; though violate
clair's was bigger than any two Of the 9TH
ers. And this is how 1t happens that there
hangs in the directors room of the Sierra
Leone National a very creditable portrait os
the kid engineer.
Besides paying tariff on the specie, the
bank paid for new coat of paint for tho
McWillams Special from caboose to pilot
She was the lasts train across the Malta
back for two weeks