The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-04-07

BUCKS one night.
HALEY.
Either way" said Callahan, '4t will
be mostly at once"
Nay opened bleaker than April: even
the trackmen L with set faces;
the dirtiest half-breed on the line knew
now what the mountains held. At last,
while we looked and wondered, came a
very late Chinook; July in May; then
the water.
Section gangs were doubled and
track walkers put on. By-passes were
opened, bridge crews strengthened ev-
erythinE ouckled for grief. Gullies
began to ace. ulver to choke, creeks
to tumble, rivers to madden. From
the Muddy to the Summit, the water
courses sweIled and boiled-all but the
Spider; the big river slept. Through
May and into June the Spider slept, but
HALEY was there at the Wickiup al
ways n with one eye running over
all the line, one ~ turned always to
the Spider, where two men and two,
night and day, watched the lazy sur
face water trickle over and through the
~vagabond bed between Hailey's monu-
mental piers. Never an hour did the
operating department lose to the track.
East and west Of US railroads every
where clamored in despair. The hood
reached from the Rockies to the Allie
ghenies. Our trains never missed a
trip; our schedules were unbroken; our
people laughed; we got the business,
dead LOADS or It, our treasury nOWed
over, and HALEY watched, and the
Spider slept.
Big Ed Peeto. still foreman of h
bridges, hung on Hailey'S steps and
tried with his staring, swearing y TO
make it all out; to guess what HALEY
expected to happen. for it was plain he
was thinking. Whether smoking or
speaking. whether waking or sleeping.
he was thinking. And as May turned
soft and hot into June with every ditch
bellvinU and the Mountains still buried.
it put US all thinking.
On the 30th there was rouble be-
yond Wild Hat, and all our extra men,
put out there under Haley, were fight
ing to hold the Rat valley levels where
they hug the river on the west slope.
It wasn't really Hailey's track. Bucks
sent him over there because he sent
HALEY wherever the empero sent Ney.
Sunday while HALEY was at Wild Hat
it began raining Sunday it rained;
Monday it rained all through the
mountains; Tuesday it was raining
from Omaha to Eagle pass. with the
thermometer climbing for breath and
the barometer fiat as an adder-and
the Spider woke
Woke with the April water and the
June water and the rain water all at
once. Trackmen at the bridge Tuesday
night tagged No. ! and reported the
river wild and sheet ice running. A
wire from Bucks brought HALEY out
of the west and into h east and
MIN TO reckon LOT the last Time
with his ancient enemy.
He was against it Wednesday morn
ing with dynamite. All the day, the
night and the next day the sullen roar
of the giant powder shook the ice jams.
Two days more he spent there watch
ing. with only an occasional thunder
bolt to heave and scatter the Spider
water into sudden, shivery columns of
spray; then he wired, Ice out" and
set back dragged and silent for home
and for sIeep=ten hours out of two
hundred, maybe. was all he reckoned
to the good when he struck a pillow
again. Saturday night he slept, and
Sunday all day, and Sunday night.
Monday about noon Bucks sent up to
ask. but HALEY was asleep. They
asked back by the lad whether they
should wake him; Bucks sent word.
No
tuesday morning the taIf roadmaster
came down fresh as sunshine, and all
day he worked with Bucks and the dis
patchers watching the line The Sp1d-
er raced like the Missouri, and the men
at the bridge sent in panic messages
every night and morning, but HALEY
lit his pipe with their alarms. That
bridge will go when the mountains
CO." was all he said.
Tuesday was his wedding date, old
Denis told Peeto. It was HaiIey's
wooden wedding, and when he found
everybody knew they we're going to
have a little spread over at the cottage
HALEY invited the boys up for the
evenfng-just a little celebration, Hal
ley said, and everybody he spoke to
wrung his hand and slapped his iron
shoulders till HALEY echoed good cheer
through and through.
It was 9 o'clock, night, and every
star blinking when HALEY looked In
again at the office for the track walk
ers' reports and the railway weather
bulletins. Bucks, Callahan and Peeto
sat about Duffy, who in his shirt sleeves
&A-a-- Tho cf.4ff ont IF fhA z0Tndar az
It rickled in dot and dash, dot and
dash over the wires. The west wire
was good, but east everything below
Peace river was down. We had to get
the eastern reports around by Omaha
and the south, q good 1000 miles Of a
Hoop. but bad news V ever round
a Robin Hood loop.
And Wild Hat came first from the
west with a stationary river and the
Loup creek falling-clear-good night
And Ed Peeto struck the table heavily
and swore it was well IN the west
Then from the east came Prairie Port
age, all the way round with a north
west rain, a rising river and anchor ice
pounding the piers badly, track in fair
shape nd@and"
The wire went wrong. AS Duffy knit
his ayes and tugged and cussed a little
the win outside took up the message
and Whirled a bucket of rain against
the indoW But the wires wouldn'i
right, and stuff that no man could get
tumbIed in like a dictionary upside
down. And Bucks and Callahan and
HALEY and Peeto smoked, silent, and
listened to the deepening of the
rain on the roof
Then Duffy wrestled nightly YET
once more. and the long way came
word Of trouble in the Omaha yards
with the river at twenty-five feet and
cutting; rising at Bismarck n foot al
hour.
Hell to pay on the Missouri. Of
course" grow1ed the foreman, staring
single eyed at the ino1ensive bulletin
We'll. h don't run our way; let hei
boili"
keep STILL" exclaimed Duffy. lean
} ing heavily on the key. Here's some
5 thing-from-the Spider"