The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-10-10
THE MASTER MECHANICS STORY


that Barnes Tracy, dispatcher that did it,
Cold Democrat, but this proved.
1t was nearing dark when the crew of local freight
Twenty nine heard the dull roar the Moulton spec-
III speeding through the of the Rat A
senger train running through the canon at night
through with the far roll Of thousand drums,
deepening into rumble Of thunder. Then. out and
over all come the threatening purr of the strainng'
engine breaking into storm OF exhauss, until like
a rocket the headlight bursts streaming from the
black wall, Moore the sl1 Mullen with the
s1s Hawksworth in the lilo, tear with fury of
alkali and sweep Of noise over the Butte switch.
past caboose and flats and boxes and the 2e4 like
fading light. Just sweep of darkened glass and
dead varnsh whirl of smoking trucks beating
madly fspates, and the last train is up, and
out, and gone
Twenty -nne local used to all this. Used
to the vanishing lights, the measured sinking
sullen dust the silence broodng again over the
desert with, this night fifteen minutes more to wait
the easbound stock train before they dared open
the switch. MAZE Sampson killed the time by going
back to to talk equities with the conduc
tor. It was trick for him to put away fifteen
minutes discussing the rights Of with himself;
and with an angel of fireman to watch the cab why
not? The 264 standing the side chewing her
cud as sweet as an old COW, with may be hundred
and forty pounds of steam to the right of the DIAL
may be hundred and ffty-I say may be- because
no one but Dearoo ever knew-when the sheep train
whistled.
sheep-nothng but sheep. Car after car after car,
rafting from the Short line behind two spank
ing big engines They whistled, hoarse as pirates,
for the Butte siding, and rising the hill mile west
of it, the grade throwing Dannah coal
from both stacks like hydraulic gravel
No knew ever will know how it happened
They cat-hauled the carpet week about that
switch. The crew Of the Moulten Special testified:
Of the stock train testified; Maize Sampson
testified; his conductor and both brakemen testified;
the roadmaster and the section boss each testified
and their men testifed-but however whatever it
was-whether the Moulten Special fractured the
tongue whether the pony Of the lead engine flew
the guard, whether the switch had been opened,
whether, in closing, the slip rail had somehow
failed follow the rod-the doubt-headed stocker
went Butte switch, into that Butte siding,
into the peaceabe old 264 and the Twenty nine local.
like lyddite shell. crashing, rearing, ripping scat
tering two whole trains into blood and scrap. De-
struction madness, throes, death, silence; then a
pyre Of dirty smoke, wall Of sckening beats and
a of kissing steam thousand sheep
caught in the sudden SHAMELESS
was frightened crawling out Of the shattered
cabooses, a. hurryng Up OF the stunned crews and a
beWdering count of heads. Both engine Of the
stock jumped their train split the switch
The train badly shaken; the head brake
of the sheep train lay torn in the barbed-wire
fencing the right Of way but only man was
missng-the fireman of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Second 80 track
went into train 20, engine 264. Bad spill. Dearoo
fireman the 264, missing" wired Sugar Buttes to
Medicine Bend few minutes later.
Neighbor got there by ten o'clock with both road
masters and the wrecking outfit. 1t dark
the desert that night. Benedict Morgan's
tore splintered timber from the debris, and
the knobs back the siding lighted heaping bon
fires that threw light all night on the dread pile
smoking the desert They dug by the fame OF
the fires at the CHASTITY heap till midnight then the
moon rose, extra arrived from the Bend
got he a wOr Vel wit
all the toll when day broke the confusion looked
COMPOUNDED. The main line hopeessly
blocked that at daylight special with ties and
steel was run in to lay temporary track around
the wreck.
what do I think of it," muttered Neighbor, when
the local operator him report
Il think there's two engines for the in sight
and the 2e4, if find anything of her-and
about million sheep to pay for Neighbor paused
to give order and survey the frightful scene
"And Delaroo" repeated the operator HE wants
to know about Delaroo-''
'Missing.'
At dawn hot coffee was passed among the wreck
ers, and shortly after sunrise the Mccloud gang
arrived with the second derrick. Then the Of
the night took hold with grip to get into the
heart of the pile; to fnd-if he was there-Delaroo
None of the McCloud gang knew the the,
hunting for, but the men from the Bend were
telling them about Maize SIMPSONS Indian. No
a mute nod he ever gave; not piece of tobacco hi
passed: not brief word he spoke to on<
of the battered old hulks who and cut ant
slashed and stormed and drank and cursed Will
SleWed
twisted, her-beaten, crippledup gn-shvered ole
a wrecker-they hard nen-had some
thing to about Delaroo And with their hail
matted and their faces streaked and their shirts
daubed and their elbows in blood, they said it-what
ever it was, much lttle-of Delaroo.
The picks swung, the derricks creaked, and al
day with the heaving and the calling they toiled
the sun was sinking before they got to the mid
die of it. Benedict Morgan, crawling under thu
drivers of the hind mogu1 partly uncovered, edged
with set face; he swore he heard breathing
It alcohol to the veins of the double gang
Neighbor himself went in and heard-and stayed t
fasen grapple to pull the engine truck off the
of box car that was damned over and against thu
mogul stack ~~: -. go. ~ l.: -
The big derrick groaned the slack: drew ant
the truck crashed through tier Of stays and