The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-03

peating that to himself to put the pic
ture Of what 1t meant before him. He
putting out his light, and No. 80
was gone; against No. Ia head
end collision staring the freight and the
belated passenger in the face. No.
80, running hard on her order to
make Sackley for the meeting, and
running furiously, as she always ran
tonight worse than ever.
He lifted his head, enraged with him
self; enraged He thought about the
rules, and he grew enraged. Only him
self he blamed nobody else-studying the
rules for a lifetime and just when it
would mean the death of a tratnloads OF
people forgetting his red signal. He
lifted his head 1t was sick, deadly sick.
But up It must come, 80 gone, and 1t
wabbled, swooning sick and groggy as
he stared around and tried to locate him
SELF One thing he could see, the faint
outline of the station and his lamp blaz-
ing smoky in the window. Builhead fig
ured second; then he began to crawl.
If he could reach the lamp before his
head went off again, before he went
completely silly, he might yet save him
self and No. i. - -
It wasn't in him to crawl till he thought
Of his own mistake; but there was a spur
in the sweep of that thru his head. His
brain, he knew, was wabbling, but he
could crawl; and he stuck fainting to that
one idea, and crawled for the light OF his
lamp. r'
! It is a bare hundred feet across to the
Y. Bullhead tapped every foot of the hun
dred with blood There was no one to call
on for help; he just stuck to the crawl,
grinding his teeth in bitter self-reproach.
They traced him, next morning when he
was past the telling of it, and his strug-
gle looked the track Of a wounded bear.
Dragging along one crushed leg and half
crazed by the crack on his forehead, Bull
head climbed to the platform, across, and
dragged himself to the door. He tell
yet about rolling his broken leg under
him and raising himself to grasp the
thumb latch Not until he tried to open
it did he remember it was spring lock
and that he was outside. He felt in his
pocket for his keys-but his keys were
gone.
There were no rules to consult then.
No way on earth Of getting into the Of
flee in time to do anything; to drag HIM
self to the lunchroom, twice farther than
the station, was out Of the question. But
Z, there way to reach his key in spite
) of all bad things and Bullhead knew the
way. He struggled fast around to the
window. Raising himself with a fright
full twinge on one knee, he beat at the
} glass with his fist. Clutching the sash.
l. he drew himself up with a hand, and
with the other tore away the muntin,
stuck his head and shoulders thru the
opening, got his hand on the key, and
|CdlloQ the urSC STATION east, BlalSQel WIN
' the 49,, - Life and death that call meant;
t the 10, the dispatcher's call-hanging
t over the key, stammering the - over the
wire, and bapt1ztng the call in his own
j blood-that is the way Bullhead learned
t to be railroad man.
: ing, and had No. l on the siding just
It as the freight tore around the west curve,
d. headed for Sackley. While it was all go
d ing on. Bullhead lay on the wind-swept
: platform at Goose River with hole in
= his head that would have killed ANYBODY
n on the West End, or, for that matter. on
! iearth, except James Gillespie Blaine Lyons.
! Afer No. 30 had passed so i'm
pudently, No. 1 felt her way rather
It cautiously to Goose River because the dis
$ They decided, of course, that Bullhead
e was asleep, and fixed everything at the
n Wickiup to send new man up there on
s 8 in the morning and fire him for good.
It But about o'clock Number One rolled
e bad tempered, into Goose River juno
a. ton, and Bat Mullen, stopping his train.
II strobe angrily to the station. It was dark
o as a pocket inside. Bat smashed in the
y door with his heel, and the trainme
l. swarmed in and began looking with their
=. lanterns for the nightman. The stove
20 was redhot but he was not asleep In
~ the m-chair, nor mapping under the
~, ~ counter on the supplies. They turned to
y. 20 his table and discovered the broken win
II, dow and thought Of a hold-up. They saw
a where the nightman had spilled something
that looked like ink over the table, over
the order book, over the clip, and there
a was hand print that looked inky on an
" open letter addressed to the superin-
or tendent-and a little pool of something
III like ink under the key.
-, Somebody said suicide; but Bat Null
9, len suddenly stuck his lamp out OF the
broken, window, put his head thru after
" it, and cried out. Setting his lantern
I'd down on the platform, he crawled thru
or the broken sash and picked up Bulhead.
Id Next morning 1t was all over the West
TX End. ....-- -.i
x "And Bullhead" cried everybody.
#. ''That's what gets me. Who'd have
m thought it Of Bullhead?"
1T When they all got up there and saw
70 what Bullhead had done, everybody
er agreed that nobody but Bullhead could
ae have done it.
n. The pilot bar Of the short line mogul,
1e in swiping Bullhead numerically, had
err really made railroad man Of him. It
had let a. great light in on the situation.
Is Whereas before every. one else on the
IS line had been to blame for his failures,
,e Bullhead now saw that he himself had
st been to blame, and was man enough to
id stand up and say So When the big fell
a. lows, Callahan and Kenyon and Pat Fran
IN els saw his trail next morning, saw the
1e blood smeared over the table, and saw
his own blood manual, and heard his
u straight-out story days afterward they
said never a word.
q. But that morning, the morning after
Callahan picked up the letter and pu
ot it just as it was between the leaves O
ID the order book ard locked both in hi
Nv grip. It was some weeks before he hat
Ia a talk with Bullhead, and he spoke thel
- only few words, because the night mai
- tainted before he got thru. Callahan
. made him understand, tho, that as 500
81 as he was able he could have any key OF
-. -e that division he wanted as long as h
- =. was running it-and Callahan is runnin
~ that division yet.
1t all came easy after he got we'll. In
~ ~ stead Of getting the worst of 1t fron
!, ~ everybody, Bullhead began to get tn
ne best Of it, even from pretty Nellie Cas-
~ sidy. But Nellie had missed her opening
\, She tried tenderness while the boy wa
gu being nursed at the Junction. Bullheay
- looked grim and far-off thru his bulgin
bandages, and asked his mother to pu
ey the sugar in his coffee for him. Bullhea
ne was getting sense.
ne Besides, what need has young ma
n with a heavy crescent shaped scar on hi
mt forehead that people inquire about an
who within a year after the Goose Rive
ne affair was made a train dispatcher unde
'e- Barnes Tracy at Medicine Bend-wha
Dol need has he Of coquette's smiles? Hi
ISL mother, who has honorably retired fror