Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1904-03-24
"OLD MAN
SPECIAL
Bx cuRRAN r.. GREENLEX

Copyright, 1905. by Daily Story Pub. Coz

I T HE DIVISION superintendent udu
( stretched out a few inches further
on the leathern lounge in the smoker as
Jake, the porter, reported: Shell De
here in about two hours, Capn. The
fireman of % done come from the sta
ton above, an he say that am de latest
wire"
Here's kettle of fish" growled BraX-
ton, the travelling auditor. Here's both
OF us that ought to be in Denver to-mor-
row morning, tied here by one leg like
Widow Malones COW. No telling
what ducks and brakes those G. II. d
7. L. fellows will make of that bill II
they happen to get old man Padget IN
their clutches. Trust Jimmy Atkins ior
making hay while the lobby is clear
and here we are, penned up in our own
cars, the wrecking crew 40 miles away
and ten carloads of cattle and God only
knows what else, piled up on the track
Get out of here! You'll! A black face
vanished through the crack of the door,
and BraXton collapsed into the deep
chair opposite the division superintend-
ent, who pulled away at his cigar and
watched him between shut lids, and
drawing, in his lazy, good-humored
voice: Quiet down, BraXton. We ain [
the whole road. You've got your bones
left and all your skin, and Jimmy At
kins doesn't own the legislature. If the
old man did call us in to assist in pull
ing wires, that doesn't mean that they
won't be pulled without us"
He sat up and looked out Of the win
dow. On one side, the granite wall OF
the mountain went up and up behind the
mere shell on which the track lay LIE
a silver ribbon; on the other-far beioi 2,
blue trail Of water wound between
ochre gorges, and already, where the
fragments of Wreckage had been hurled
down, heavy winged buzzards tapped
to and fro, and the sun poured flood
of gold through the clear, thin air. while
from the smoking wreck, the noises OF
hell went up and rent the sacred quiet OF
the mountain as men toiled and sweated
amid the means of tortured animals
imprisoned in the burning wreckage.
Fifty yards away stood the Limited
Mail, trapped between the wreck IN
front and the landslide two miles in the
rear, that had made it risky question
getting through on the upgrade, and
backing down an impossibility.
The division superintendent yawned
| IIo bod hooY oo11ad from his
berth in the dead of night to stand six
hours in the bitter mountain wind di-
recting the demoralized train crew.
The fast freight had been making time
to Barry's, where they would switch
TO let the Limited through; when sud
denly the great engines reared, snorted
like a wild thing and plunged head
foremost into the mountainside, and
with the recoil went over and over
carrying poor Tom Donohughe down
with her The fireman had gone back
on the tender just before the shock
came.
Crash! Crash! A binding hor-
ror filing earth and sky as the death
cry of man and beast went up to God
The division superintendent haC
+ worked like mailman, and now that The
5 wrecking crew would soon be on the
spot, and the searchers that went ou'
with the dawn, had brought Tom DOnO
hughe up the mountain and laid him il
> the superintendent own berth, he fell
s at peace with the world, and inclined t.
!. be just a little impatient with Braxton
There was something familiar abou
- the crag that doomed above him-anC
# then it all came back. "BraXton!" hi
9 turned to where the travelling auditor
sulked behind a day-Old newspaper, "
thought this place felt natural. Herei
where met "Old Man Special" Brax
E ton dropped the paper. "You don't meal
{ to say that you share in that nonsense?'
- he growled.
mo nonsense about it. l mean ever.
b. word of it. You have heard the boy
= tell how, when this line was new, ant
: things went haphazard generally, MAI
Murphy was running the Fast Mail
The Benson gang wrecked it one night
:, and Mad Murphy was killed at his post
u He was to have been married the nigh
n that they buried him, and his girl wen
crazy and had to be shut up in mad
- house down there in Denver. 1t WASH
i more than few months after, when tn
n bows began to talk of seeing things, an
it did look like Mad Murphy's old en-
= CINE, No. &c, was completely hoodooed
She never went over the road but some
= thing happened to her, and finally sh
broke her neck and carried Jim Care
with her off of Dead Mans trestle, an
from the day that old engine made scra
3 iron of herself, the queer things bega
to happen, and just as sure as a ma
- was warned, there was some good rea
V, son back of it. Tom Baynes went on
a. with No. % one night, and just befor
r. he got to Grants Crossing, there wa
a danger signal. He put on all tn
- brakes and brought her to a standsti
not ten feet from two rails spiked acros
the track; but there was never sign c
token of the man that set that DANCE
signal. and there was no lantern there
though Tom said he was near enoug
to it when it went out to see it shine o
the rails. The strangest Of ALL was til
night when Bill Manners was taking tn
Special" through with the presider
aboard.
"They had the road; but just befol
they got to Big river, red light flare
I'D on the track just ahead of them, an
Bill pulled the brakes down hard an
4 stopped her. There was nobody ther
no light at all, for it faded out to notl
: ing as the wheels quit grinding. Ri
q climbed back in the cab, but jill
Hughes, his fireman, suggested that the
= had better see if the bridge was a
right-thinking Of Baynes and Graz
. Crossing. Sure enough, Big river hS
carried away the middle span OF Il
Al n