The San Francisco call., 1904-10-30
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Night of Alarms.


IL Editor Hildreth had said nothing
ii his evening edition about the i'm
pending strike on the Transwestern, IL
was not because public interest was
waning For a fortnight the news
papers in the territory tributary TO the
road had been full Of strike talk, and
Hillreth had said his say, deprecating
the threatened appeal to force as fear
lessly as he condemned the mismanage-
ment which was provoking il.
But il was Kent who was RESPONSE
bic for the dearth OF news on the eve
of the event Early In Abe morning Os
the last day of the month he had
sought out the editor and begged him
TO close the columns Of the Evening
Argus 10 strike news, no matter what
should come in during the course OF
the day.
Il can't go into the reasons as deep
ly now as I hope to a little later" he
had said, his secretive habit holding
good 10 the final fathom Of the Slip
ping nawser Of events. But you must
bear with me once more. and whatever
you hear between now and the time
you go TO press don't comment on il.
have one more chance to win out. and
1t hangs in balance that q
feathers weight might tip the wrong
way. III be with you between 10
and II tonight, and you can
safely save two columns OF the morn
ing paper for the sensation I'm going
to give you.
1t was in fulfillment of this promise
that Kent bestirred himself after he
had sent wire to Ormsby. and M'Tosh
had settled down to the task OF
smoothing Callahan's way westward
over division already twitching in the
preliminary riSOr Of the strike cOnvul-
sion.
Il am going to set the fuse for the
newspaper explosion" he said TO his
ally. Barring accidents. there is no
ure definitely upon the result, is
there?"
M'TOsh was leaning over Dispatcher
Donohue's shoulder He had slipped
Donohue's fingers aside from the key
to cut in with a peremptory ~G- s" or.
der suspending, in favor OF the fast
mail the rule which requires a station
operator to drop his board on a follow
ing section that is less than ten min
utes behind it's file leader
The fun IS beginning" said the
train-master- Fischer has his tip
from Durgan to keep Callahan's tall
lights in sight. With the mail treading
on their heels the gentlemen in the
naught-seven Will be chary about pull
ing Patsy down too suddenly IN mid
career They have just passed Morning
Dew. and the operator reports fischer
for disregarding his slow signal"
Cant you fix that?" asked Kent.
"Oh, yes; that is one of the things I
can NIX. But there are going to be
plenty OF others"
Still We must take something for
granted. Mr.. M'Tosh- What I have to
do uptown won't wait until Callahan
has finished his rum ! thought the
main difficulty was safely overcome"
'.Umphi" said the train-master: the
troubles are barely getting themselves
born. You must remember that we
swapped horses at the last minute. We
We're ready for the race TO the east.
Everybody On the prairie division had
been notified that special was TO go
through tonight without stop from
Lesterville to A & T. Junction
~Well?''
.'Now We have It all to straighten out
by wire on another division; meeting
points TO make, slow trains TO side
track, fool operators to hold down; all
making every man on the line lose his
balance. But you go ahead with your
newspaper business. III do what a
man can here. And II you come across
that right-0f-way agent, I wish you'd
make it a case OF assault and battery
and get him locked up I'm leery about
him."
Kent went his way obviously ref7ec-
tive In the moment OF triumph, when
Durgan had announced the success OF
the bold change in the programme. he
had made light OF Hawks escape. Bur
now he saw possibilities. True. the
tunta was leaderless for the moment.
ants But Hawk would give ths
alarm; and there was the rank and file
Of the machine to reckon with And