The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-13
CONDUCTOR PAT FRANCIS
How the YELLOWSTONE EXCURSION ESCaPED ITS PURSUER

his train box and asked the baggageman
| why he didn't kill those dogs, and getting
no answer-for John Parker was checking
hard and stopped only 10 shift his whiskers
on the elliptic conductor got out his blue
pencil and black pencil and filed them
| away, took up his punch and his trip
checks and put them in their proper pock-
cts. shifted his timetable from the box TO
still another pocket, and picked up his Ian
tern The head-end brakeman coming in
just then with a sash puller, Francis asked
MIN to clean up the globe.
While the brakeman fished for piece Of
waste, the conductor moved his wet over
| coat a peg nearer the stove and spread 1t
I out better, and listened TO a wild rumor old
john Parker had picked up about No. Is
| being turned into a strictly Limited" and
| carrying a diner west OF Bear Dance.
| Without wasting any comment, Pat looked
at his watch and listened to the click of the
truck over the fish-plates under foot. and
to the angry. tremulous roar of the three
furnaces melting coal to push No. l up
| against the wind that curled like a cork
screw down the long, narrow gorge Then
he took the lantern from his mental, and
STROBE quickly through the vestibule into
the dirty light and foul air of the smoker.
"Ticketsr'
No please" that night; just 'Tickets!"
short and snappy as bear trap He could
talk very differently at home to the babies
but there was no suggestion of kootsying
in the tone that called for transportation in
the smoker. He passed down the aisle,
pulling, hauling, shaking the sporting
brutes, noting, punching, checking under
- 81 Ice mn IN
was passed and he walked into the chair
car. There was only one ''go-back," a
sleepy Italian who couldn't-even after he
had been jerked out Of his seat and turned
upside down and inside out, and shaken
and cursed-stin he couldn't find his ticket.
So Pat Francis passed him with the shock
ing intimation which amounted to an as
surance, that If he didn't find 1T by the time
he got back he would throw him off.
The transportation on No. was mostly
through tickets and required only ordinary
care as to the date limits; not much scalp
er's stuff turned up on the west-bound.
Pat called again as he closed the door Of
the chair car behind him a shade less
harshly for tickets, because one naturally
respects more people who ride in the chair
, garland then there are women. One speaks
more civily to women passengers, but
scans their transportation more carefully.
However, he wasn't thinking of women's
wiles as he quietly aroused the sleepers
and asked for their credentials. They were
worn, tired-looking women; haggard. a
| good many of them, from catnaps snatched
in the specially devised discomfort chairs,
while their more fortunate sisters slept
| peacefully back in the hair-mattressed
Pullmen berths. He was thinking solely,
as he mechanically went through the
checking operations, of a cattleman in a
canvas coat, smooth face and red tie, who
should by rights be now half way down
the car, just ahead of him. But the con-
ductor Francis didn't look. His eyes never
rose beyond the passenger under his nose,
for In front of company detective the hate
and the curiosity are all concealed; the
conductor is strictly on dress parade with
a sting lin his right arm that he would
like to land directly under the spoilers ear.
| A shabby travelling mana cigar man
handed up local ticket. 1t was for Ante
lope Gap. Pat Francis looked at it for a
minute before he punched it and stuck it
in his pocket
1--WE don't stop at Antelope Gap to-
night" said he shortly.
Don't stop?' echoed the cigar man, wide
awake I'm a fraction of a second Ivy,
since ven? Day told me you dit he cried
in the most injured tone on the train.
Cant help it,"
But vy-eT'
| I'm late
bud y god-do!' cried the cigar man,
raising a note of absolute horror, as Pat
Francis passed calmly on without attempt
ing to controvert the confidence of the
drummer.
"Ain't you god-do?" appealed the latter,
weakening a bit as he realized he was
against quiet man and hard.
Not on local transportation. Tickets!'
he continued TO the next.
But the cigar man happily came of race
that does not uncomplainingly submit, and
he kicked vociferously, as Pat Francis ex-
pected he would BY the time the excited
salesman had woke everybody up in his
end of the car and worked himself into a
lather, Pat came at him with a PROPOSE
tion.
wild Hat"
Whats the matter with going up to
Wild Hat tonight and I'll give you train
check back to Antelope on 2 tomorrow;
then you can get back on Il to the Bend?'
cepted speedily. Two hundred miles for
nothing. MY frienti Half cigar, aber
don forged my TRANSPORTATION back, will
you?" The conductor nodded as he took
the cigar stoicaIly and moved 1t was
one stop saved, and the Antelope stop was
a terror any time with a big train like
No. l.
Francis had reached the rear of the chair
car, when he had an impression he had
forgotten something. He stopped to think.
The cattleman! Turning, he looked back
sharply over the passengers. He even
walked slowly back through the car look
ing for the fellow. There was no cattleman
in sight, and walking back, Francis dis
missed him with the conclusion that he
must have gotten off at the Bend; and at
once the air in the chair smelt fresher
and cleaner. Into the sleepers then-that
was easy. Only to take the batch of en-
velopes from each porter or conductor,
and tear off the cupons and in the Portland
sleeper half-fare which meant only lit
tie row with the tactless man who had
gone into a bitter discussion with con-
ductor the day before away back at the
Missouri river as TO whether his boy
should pay fare Instead of gracefully
paying when called on, he had abused the
conductor, who maybe because there was