The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-17


and wanted right off.
Bucks looked the least bit uncertain
as he considered the opening request.
It wasn't much in some ways. what
they asked; in other ways it was a,
good deal. He laughed and bantered
and joked them as long as they would
stand it; then hegcalled up to Martin
Duffy, who was leaning out the dis.
patcher's window, sNNeHl see how he
talks" laughed Bucks In his great big
way. But, boys, it's up to the chief.
I'm not in it on the orders, you know.
Martin, he called, as Duffy bent his
head, they want fifteen minutes here
roasted in the alkaH aHsday. Can you
do anything for the boys?'
The boys! Big fellows in fezzes,
Shr1ner style, and slim fellows in
duck, sailor style, and bow-legged fell
lows in "chevi0t, any old style. Chaps
in white flannel, and chaps in gray,
and chaps in blue. Turkish whiskers
togs-and, between. them, Bucks, his
head most Of the time in chancery. 1t
was the first time they had seen him
since he had made our#Jim Crow line
into a system known. from the Boston
& Maine to the Mexican Central, and,
bar none, run cleaner or better. The,
first time they had seen him since he
had made a name for himself and for
his road from Newport News to
Frisco, and they meant now to kill
him, dead.
You know about what it meant and
about how it went, how it had to go.
What could Martin say to the man
who had made him all he was and
who stood, now boy again among
the boys Of his boyhood, and asked for
fifteen minutes quarter of an hour
for De Molay No. At? It threw the lit
tie chief completely off his schedule;
just fifteen minutes was more than
enough to do that. All the work was
done. the anxiety nearly past-Martin
had risen to rest his humping head.
But fifteen minutes; once in a life
t1me-Bucks asking it.
Duffy turned to big Jack Moore
standing at his side ready to pull De
Molay over the Pass, and spoke to
him low. Jack nodded; everything
went with Jack, even the turntables
that stuck with other engineers. Mar
the window and, looking down on the
turbaned and turbulent mob, spoke so
Bucks could hear
What is it," demanded the most
pu1ssant commander of De Molay, ex-
citedly. what does he say, Bucks 2"
What says the slave?" growled a
second formidable crusader; "out with
It'll"
"All we want is IL minutes"
"You wouldn't turn us down on IL
minutes this far from the oasis, would
you, Bucks?" protested a glass-eyed
Shriner.
Bucks looked around royalty. Eff
teen m1nutes?" he drawled. whats
quarter Of an hour in a lifetime,
Jackman, on the last oasis? Take
off your clothes, you fellows, and take
half an hour. Now will you be good p"
DE Moley put up a Templar yell.
They always get the good things Of
life, those Pittsburg men; things other
fellows couldn't begin to get. They
passed the word thru the sIeepers and
the women began pouring from the
vestlbules. In two quick minutes out
came the Duquesne band in red POM
pons, duck trousers and military jack
cts, white corded with black. The
crowd broke, the band marched down
the platform and, striking up the
washington Post" opened ranks on
the grass plot above the Wickiup to
receive the De Molay guard One
hundred Knights Templar in fatigue
debouched into bit of a park, and in
the purple Of the sunset gave a COM
mandery drill to the honor of Bucks
Bucks and the West End.
1t was Sunday night, and still as
August could make it. The battalion
moving silent and mobile as a steam
er over the grass, marched, deployed
and rested. They broke, to the clear
cut music, into crosses and squares
and crescents and stars until small
boys went cross-eyed, and, wheeling at
last on the line, they saluted Bucks
hlmseli past grand communicated
the railroad men yelled.
Meantime the general managers
private car had been pasted on the
tall end of De Molay's Four, and a
pusher edglng up, stuck it's nose into
the rear vest1bule. On the head end
JACK Moore and Oyster were backing
down on the olive-green string with
| the two smboothest moguls On the
division. Bucks and. Neighbor had
held back everything good all day for
DE Molay Four, down to engines and
runner and conductor. Pat Francis
| carried the punch and the little chief
sat again in the dispatcher's chair for
| De Molay Four
And while the lovely women strolled
in the cool of the evening and the
odor of mountain sweetness, and the
| guard drilled and the band pIaved.
| the chief knit his brows over his train
| sheet. 1t looked now, rearranged, re-
! ordered, readjusted and reorganized
| as II ella monster had crawled over
It without wiping his feet And when
DE Moley Four got ready to pull out.
with Moore and Oyster on the throt-
ties and old John Parker in the bag
gage, where he had absolutely nothing
to do but dring champagne and smoke
CIGARS and Pat Francis in the aisles,
and Bucks, with Mr.. and Mrs. Cal
lahan and their crowd, in private No,
! l2-there was that much shouting and
| footing and waving that Martin DUFFY
| simply couldn't think for a few sec
| onds; yet he held them all, for life
or for death, every last one, in the
curve Of his fingers. s1a,-.-4s- 49, ,.-..- ::
/ So they stood ready in the gorge
While Duffy studied YEARLY how to
handle First Second and Third Eighty
against them. z 10y
| First, Second and Third Eighty! If
| they could only have been wiped off
the face Of the rails as easy as they
might have been wiped off a train
sheet! But there they were, three
sections, and big ones of the Cali
fornia fast freight .aHigh-class stuff
for Chicago and New York that
couldn't be held or laid out that Sun
day, not for a dozen conclaves. ALI
day First, Second and Third Eighty
had been feeling their way east thru
| swell commanders rolling by impudent
as pay cars. But all the final plans
to keep them out of everybody's way,
out of the way of fez and turban and
| chapeau and Greek cross and GRIM
son-splashed sleepers, were now
| dashed by thirty minutes at Medicine
| for De Molay Four. Sc
Order after order went from under
his hand. New meeting points for
| First, Second and Third Eighty and
i De Molay Four, otherwise Special 326.