The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1902-12-19
Cbes 11io
BY JOE cRADDocK.

= ~
said young Thaxton to the excited
and worried officials, who we're try
ing to find an engineer to pull Thu
train in on time.
i "You!" laughed half dozen men
Eyes, sir, me.
"You are nothing but a cub,
spoke up Despair, raw fireman
and who was running extra thai
night.
What do you say Mr.. Bryant!
this kid says he can pull into Har-
risburg on time" said Mr.. Stuart,
one of the officials. Hamet is too
sick to take his place and Despair
swears lie is afraid to try it."
"All right; luck is against us. The
ID take such luck" exclaimed
Bryant, the much worried conduct
or. Come here kid! you under
stand the situation l SUPPOSE"
Eyes, sir"
1--WE are 90 miles from Harris
burg, with no siding, and through
freight and express between now
and one o'clock; it is now eleven.
"Tell us what you know of an en-
gine?"
my father was Jack Thaxton."
"The dickens!" exclaimed Mr..
Sneed, one of the railroad magnates.
Hop the cab, sonny; | believe
you can do It, if your father was
Jack ThaXton."
will one of you please let me
have watch?'
"Certainly, take mine" said Mr..
Willard, the manager of the road,
handing him an elegant watch set
with diamonds.
."Fitty-fve minutes, said Con-
ductor Bryant as he swung himself
on the car.
II will put you there if old
Twenty-eight is alive" said Jack.
Then turning to Uncle John, the
negro porter of the Pineville hotel.
said: ''Let mother know tonight
where l am gone, and tell her |
will be back tomorrow.
"All right" said Uncle John,
land God bless you, lad.
"FIfty-fve minutes; father would
have asked for nothing better,
thought the young engineer, as he
put one white slender hand upon
the throttle. She heaved and shook
her self loose. With a couple OF
wild screams, the great iron horse
flew up the long serpentine track,
and those who might have been
belated surely thought her beyond
control of her master.
"Give her more coal" cried Jack.
as his blue eyes flashed along the
stretch of steel and white snow. A
fathers reputation was at stake,
he thought. keep her hot.
"She is rammed full cried the
big rawboned son of Erin.
''Slow her down, chappie, before
you hit the bend"
Reading, kid! Ye gods we are
flying"
more coal! Fire up!" cried Jack.
Faith and bedimmed, yez going
to purgatory. Bejabbers, if liver
make run if it is to buy my col
leen a wedding ring"
AS they passed Greenway, the
operator wired to Harrisburg to
catch "Twenty-Eight "-she was
wild.
"Gads boy!" said Despair, "yez
mad! slow up before we hit the
bridge; if you do not we're gone to
the Divil; you will burst the darn
thing openF'
"More COAL" cried Jack.
Como was passed like flash,
"Forty-five minutes gone, and only
ten miles more" said the fireman,
''but that grade will stop him, the
dirty spalpleen." And yet Irish
will admired the young hero, al.
though he was frightened, and
afterwards no persuasion would in.
duce him to try for higher wages
Harrisburg is in sight and the
snow-covered train pulled in or
time, amid a crowd of loungers and
railroad men. Quickly the story
was told and fifteen-year-old JACK
found himself the hero of the hour
though he declared he did only his
duty, adding, II really believe
gentlemen, it was 12l that pulled
us in-fathers engine, you know.
1--WE knew that you could do it
=