The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-12-30

what he'll get. That's Doubleday, and
don't you forget it."
Bucks wants the stuff hustled put
in the freight conductor, weakening.
Everybody knows that
.Uncouple there" cried Jimmie, climb
ing into tho mogul cab. I'll pull the
bags, Kingsley; you needn't take any
chances. Come back there, every moth
er's son of you, and help on the trans
fer
He carried his point with a gale. He
was conductor and engineer and general
manager; all in one. He backed the boxes
to the curve below the spill, and set
every man at work piling the mail from
the wrecked train to the freight cars.
The wounded cared for the wounded.
ard the dead might have buried the dead;
Jimmie moved the mail. Only one thing
turned his hair gray; the transfer was
so slow. AS he stood fermenting, q stray
party of Sioux bucks on a vagrant hunt
rose out of the desert passes and halted
to survey the confusion. Jimmie had the
blanket men in council in a trice. They
talked for one minute; in two he had
them regularly sworn in and carrying
second-class. The registered stuff was
jealousy guarded by those of the mail
clerks who could still hobble. The mail
crews took the registered matter; the
freight crews and Jimmie handled the
letter bags: but second and third-class
were temporarily hustled for thc Great
White Father by his irreyerent children
Of the Rockies.
Before the disabled men could credit
their senses the business was done, they
11ro,a made &c comfort b1a &c n0ccih1a
and with the promise Of speedy aid back
to the injured, the yellow Mail, somewhat
disfigured, was heading again westward
in the box cars. This time Jimmie Brad
shaw, like a dog with a bone, had the
throttle.
Meantime at Medicine Bend there was a
desperate crowd around the dispatcher.
1t was an hour and twenty minutes after
PonCa Station reported the Yellow Mail
out before Fort Ruckcr, eighteen miles
west, reported the box cars and Jimmie
bradshaw in, and followed with a wreck
report from the Crockett siding. Double
days face turned hard; fate was against
him, the contract gone glimmering, and he
didn't feel at all sure his own head and
the roadmaster's wouldn't follow it. Then
the Rucker operator began to talk about
Jimmie Bradshaw, and who's Brad
oih oo1lltDOuy, dld kucIcT
went on excitedly with the story of the
mogul and of three box cars. and of a
war party Of Sioux; it came so mixed
that Medicine Bend thouht everybody at
Rucker Station had gone mad.
While they fumed Jimmie Bradshaw
was speeding the mail through the
mountains. He had KingSley's fireman,
big as an OK and full of his own enthusi-
asm. In no time they were flying across
the flats o. the Spider Water, threading
the curves of the Peace River and hitting
the rails Of the Painted Desert. with the
mogul sprinting like a Texas steer and
the box cars leaping like yearlings st the
Joints. 1t was no case of scientific run
nings, no case of favoring the roadbcd,
Oh easing the strain on the equipment: it
was simply a case Of galloping to a
Broadway fire with a Silsby rotary on a
Ill call. Up hill and down, curve and
tangent, it was all one; while frightened
operators and paralyzed station agents
all the way up the line watched the fear
full train, with Bradshaw's red head stick
ing out of the cab window shfvcr the
switches.
Medicine Bend couldn't get the straight
OF 1t over the wires; wires went bad in
me midst of the confusion. They knew
there was q wreck, and understood thorn
was mail in the ditch, and with Double
day frantic the dispatchers were irving
TO get the track to run a train down TO
Crocketts. But Jimmie Bradshaw had
asked at Rucker for rights to the Bend.
and In an unguarded moment they had
oeen given. after that it was all off. In
thirty minutes the operating department
were wild to kill Jimmie. but he was
making such time it was concluded bet
ter to humor the lunatic then to hold
hlfc up for a barley. When
th's was decided Jimmie and his war
party were already reported past Bad
Axe, fifteen miles below the Bend. with
every truck on the box cars smoking
w Bad Axe and the Bend fro
llne IS modelled on the curves of a rams
norm, but Jimmie with the mopul found
every twist in eleven minutes; that mar
tlcular record is good yet. Indeed befor,
doubleday, then in a frenzied condition
got MS cohorts fairly on the platfory, TO
look Tor Jimmie the hollow scream IF
the Dig freight engine echoed through the
mountains and down the Bend a monster
locomotive flew from a trailing horn Of