The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-03-31

rocket.
IF | could get started ra~ilroadins-
Get started easy enough
That's how I happened TO show him my
Victoria. He gave me q card to the
trainmaster, and next day / Went 10
braking for Allbers, who by the way,
VAS the biggest liar l ever knew.
But the morning I got into Medicine
Bend that first time on Number / had
another scare. | Went into the lunch
room for coffee and sandwiches and
threw my bill at the boy. He opened
it, looked at it and looked at me.
Well l growled. for I was impudent
with luck and a hot stomach. Good, amt
ito"
Smallest you got?"
l nodded as if l had a pocketful. He
hustled around and came back with a
handful Of money. said nothing. but
when he spread it out before me I sat
paralyzed. | had just assumed that
Dave had given me a dollar. Sinkers de
Quoting the price of two ~coffees and six
sandwiches from the bill counted out
s19. 80 for me.
That change kept me running for a
month and after my first pay day I hunt
ed up Dave to pay him back. | found
him in the evening. He was sitting alone
on the eating house porch his feet up
against the rail, looking at the mountains
in the sunset.
Never mind he said, as l held out a
tw~enty-dollar bill and tried to speak ray
little piece. He did not move except to
wave back my hand.
"Oh, but l can't let you do that" |
protested.
Put up your money, Tommie." He
called me Tommie.
No" he repeated, putting by my
hand; his face set hard, and when Dawes
face did set it set stony. "Put up your
money; you don't owe me anything.
stole it,
It was a queer deal out on the West
End in those day. 1t was q case of wide
! open from the river to the Rockies.
Everybody on the line, from the direc-
tors to the car thinks. were giving the
company the worst Of it. The section
hands hooked the ties for the mainten-
ance, and the painters drank the alcohol
for the shellac, the purchasing agent had
more fast horses than We had locomo-
tives, and, what made it discouraging foT
the conductors. the auditors stole what
little money the boys did turn in.
A hard place to begin r~ailroading. the
old line was then: but that's where /
had to tickle the game. and in all the
hard crowd I mixed with Dave Hawk
was the only man on the division. There
were others there who fixed the thing
w by comparing notes on their collec-
tions and turning in percentages to make
their reports look right; but Dave was
not a cOnspirator-never made a conf
dent of any man in his stealing or his
spending, and despised their figuring. He
did as he pleased and cared for no one:
no superior had any terror for Dave. He
had a wife somewhere back east of the
river, they said, that had sold him out
that's why he was in the mountains
and he lived among free-and-easy mer
a lonely life. If anybody ever got close
to him l think maybe I did, though
was still only a freight conductor wher
the lightning struck the division.
1t came with a clean sweep through
the general offices at the river. Every
body in the auditing department, tho
executive heads down to general manage
and a whole raft of East End conduc-
tors. 1t was a shake-up from top t
bottom, and the bloods on our division
went white and sickly very fast.
OF course it was somebody's gain
When the heads Of our passenger con
ductors began to drop they began settins
up freight men. Rocksby had resigned
a year earlier, and Haverly, his sue
cessor, an eX-dispatcher. and as big
knaVe as there was on the payroll, Ie
the men out right and left with the sol
idea of saving his own scalp. BY til,
time | was put up to a passenger train
the old force was pretty much clearet
out except Dave.
Every day almost We looked to see hin
go. Everybody loved him because h
was a master railroad man, and every
body except Dave himself was appre
hensiVe about his future. He moved o
just the same, calm and cold as ice wa
ter, taking the same old chances, reck
less Of everything and everybody.
never knew till afterWard, but the trut
was Haverly, with all his bluff talk, wa
just enough afraid of Dave Hawk t
want to let him alone. The matter
though, focused one day up in the oil
office in an unexpected way.
Ilaverly's own seat got SO hot that
l bedeviled by his fears of losing it an
: afraid to discharge Dave, who now sail
: ed up and down the line reckless as an
I pirate of the Spanish Main, he covered
called Dave into the little room at TIL
Wickiup and asked him to resign. In a
the storm that ragged on the division til
! old conductor alone had remained calm
Every day it was somebody's mead of
. every night a new alarm Dave alon
L ignored it all. He w cough it all tn
L shining mark, the daredevil target, We
= he bore 4 charmed life and survived ever
last associate. Then Haverly asked hii
{ to resign. Dave, bitter angry, faced hi
with black words in his throat.
Its come to a showdown muttere
the superintendent uneasily after a mir
d ute's talking. D you want to re
{ sign?"
Dave eyed the mountains coldIy. mo.
you'll have To-
"Have to?" Hawk whirled dark as
storm. Have to? Who says SOP"
The superintendent shifted the paper
weight on the desk uncomfortably.
why should | resign?" demanded tt
cid conductor, angriiy. 'Resign?" Il
rose from his chair. you know I'm
thief. You're a thief yourself. VI
helped make me one. I've carried MOI