The San Francisco call., 1904-10-23

Callahan empted the hot asneS
from his black pipe into the open
palm.
'Tis what ye get FIR yer impidunce
an FIR layin' tongue to ould man Dur
gan, We scut. 'Tis none av his dom
the dhirty oil an the chape waste
an the jacket lamps. It's ay-conomy,
me son; an the other name fr tnat
is a rayceiyer."
rs Durgan with us?" asked Brod-
rick.
Hes wit himself, as a master me-
chanic shu'd be-" said Callahan. SOS
M'Tosh. But nayther wan mr. tother
av thim'll take thrain out whin the
strikes on. They're both Loring mln-
At the mention of Loring's name
Griggs looked up from the stick he
was whiting.
mo prospects o. the Boston folks
getting the road back again, l reck-
on" he remarked tentatively.
You should read dose Arkoos
newspapers; den you should know
something's alretty, ain'd it?" said
Fischer
Brodrick laughed.
If you see it in the papers, it's SO"
he quoted. What the Argus doesn't
say would make a 'nough sight bigger
book than what IL does. But I've been
kind O. watchin' that man Kent. He's
been hot after the major. right from
the jump. You rec'lect what he said
in them Civic League talks o. his;
said these politicians had stole the
road. hide, hair an horns"
I'm onto him." said Callahan.
Tis bird he is. Oleson was telling
me. The Scandehoovian was thryin'
to get him down to CASTOR the day
they ray-ceivered us. Jarl says he
wint mile a minut', an the little
man never turned a hair"
Is he here yet; or did he go back
to Gods country?" asked Engineer
Scott, leaning from the cab window
of the 1921.
He's here; and so is Mr.. Loring.
They're stopping at the Clarendon"
said Brodrick
Then they haven't. quit" drawled
Griggs, adding: 'I wonder If they
have a ghost of a show against the
politicals ?''
Has anybody been to see fem ?"
asked Callahan.
There's notion for you, Scott" said
Broderick. Scott was the presiding Of
ficer in the B. of L. E. local. "Get up
a committee from the Federative to go
and ask Mr.. Loring if there's any use
in our tryin' to hold on
The wiper was killing time at a win
dow which commanded view of the
upper yards, with the Union passenger
station at the end Of the three mile
vista. Being late conner in the field,
the Transwestern had scanty track
rights in the upper yard; its local
urb, where the two division main lines
proper began and ended, diverging.
the one to the eastward and the other
to the west.
Holy smuti" said the wiper See
Eicky Dixon comm out with the flyer!
How'S that for ten miles an hour In
the city limits ?"
1t was a foot note commentary on
the way the service was going to
pieces. Halkett, the political" gen.
eral superintendent, had called Dixon
his train. IF you're afraid to run, say
so, and we'll get man that isn't"
Halkett had said; and here was Dixon
coming down a borrowed track in
busy yard at the speed which presup-
poses a ninety-pound rail and nothing
in the way.
The conclaye had gathered at the
THE dunn fool!'' said Brodrick. 'If
anything gets In front of him"
There was a suburb street crossing
three hundred yards downward from
the yard limits" telegraph office,
which stood in the angle formed by
the diverging tracks of the two divi-
sions. Beyond the yard the street be-
came country road, well travelled as
the principal southern inlet to the
city. When Dixon was within two
train lengths of the crossing, a farm
wagon appeared, driven between the
cut freight trains on the sidings direct
ly in the path of the flyer. The men
at the round-house window heard the
crash of the splintering wagon above
the roar Of the train; and the wiper
on the window seat yelped like a
kicked dog and went sickly green un-
der his mask of CRIME.
There it is again. said Scott. when
Dixon had brought his train to a stand
two hundred yards beyond the lin
its" Office where he should have
stopped for orders. Were all hoo
dooed, the last one of us. I'll get that
committee together this afternoon and
go and buzz Mr.. Loring."
Now 1t fell out that these things hap
pened on a day when the tide Of re-
trieval was at its lowest ebb; the day,
namely, in which Kent had told Loring
that he was undecided as to his moral
right to use the evidence against Bucks
as a lever to pry the Transwestern
out Of the grip of the junta. 1t befell,
also, that 1t was the day chosen by two
other men, not members Of the labor
unions, in which to call upon the ex-
manager; and Loring found M'Tosh,
the trainmaster, and Durgan, the mas
ter mechanic, waiting for him in the
hotel corridor when he came in from
late luncheon at the Camelot Club.
Can you give us few minutes, Mr.
Loring?" asked MTosh, when Loring
had shaken hands with them, not as
subordinates.
Surely. My time is not very valua-
BILE, just at present. Come in. and I'll
see If Mr.. Kent has left me any cigars"
"Humph!" said Durgan, when the
ex-manager had gone into Kent's room
to rummage for the smoke Offering.
And they give us the major In the
place of such a man as rhati" with a
Jerk Of his thumb toward the door of
the bedroom.