The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1906-10-11

shall nave TO reDulIu most OF tne me,
anyway, as soon as the frost comes
out of the ground in spring"
The brown eyes became far-seeing.
II was thinking" she said, musing-
1 Iy, there is no time to make an
\ other nice little ridge. But you have
| piles and piles of logs over there
/ she meant the cross-ties-"couldnt
you build a sort of dollhouse ridge
| with those between your track and
| uncles, and cross behind the car?
| Don't laugh, please"
| But Winton was far enough from
| laughing at her. Why SO simple an
/! expedient had not suggested itself in
i stantly he did not stop to inquire. 1t
was enough that the Heavenborn idea
4 had been given.
| Down out of that, Morty!" he
/ cried Its one chance in thousand.
Pass the word to the men; I'll be
with you in a second" And when
I Adams was rousing the track force
with the bawling shout of Every
! body" Winton looked up into the
brown eyes.
/ My debt to you was already very
| great; owe you more now" he said.
But she gave him his quittance in a
whiplke retort.
! And you will stand here talking
about it when every moment is pre-
! cious? Co." she commanded; and he
/ went.
| So now we are to/conceive the mad
dest activity leaping into being in full
I view of the watchers at the windows
/ Of the private car. Winton's chilled
and sodden army, welcoming any bat
| ue-cry of action, flew to the work with
| a will. In a twinkltng the corded
| piles of cross-ties had melted to reap
4 pear in dollhouse ba]ks bridging an
/ angle from the Utah embankment to
that of the spur track in rear of the
I blockading Rosemary. In briefest
/ time the hammermen were spiking the
rails on the rough-and-ready trestle,
and the Italians were bring up the
crossing-frogs.
/ But the Rajah, astute colonel Of in
dustry. had not left himself defense
less. On the contrary, he had provid-
ed for this precise contingency by
| leaving McGrath's fireman in mechar-
ical command on the Rosemary If
/ Winton should attempt to build
was to wait till the critical moment;
the automatic air-brakes and let the
car drop back down the grade just
far enough to block the new crossing.
So it came about that this mechan-
ical lieutenant waited, laughing in his
| sleeve, until he saw the Italians COM
ing with the crossing-frogs. Then,
judging the time to be fully ripe, he
ducked under the Rosemary to "bleed"
the air-tank
Winton heard the hiss of the escap-
Ing air above all the industry clamor;
heard, and saw the car start backward.
Then he had fitting glimpse of a
man in grimy overclothes scrambline
terror-frenzied from beneath the Rose
mary. The thing done had been over.
done. The fireman had "bled" the air.
tank too freely, and the liberated car
gathering momentum with every
wheel-turn, surged around the circline
spur track and shot out masterless
on the sleeper gradient Of the main
line.
Now, for the occupants of a runa
way car on Rocky mountain line
there is death and naught else. Win
ton saw, in phantasmagoric flash
of second sight, the meteor flight OF
the heavy car; saw the Reverend Bill
ly's inelfectual efforts to apply the
hand-brakes, If by good hap he should
even guess that there were any hand
brakes; saw the car, bounding and
lurching. keeping to the rails, may
hap, for some few miles below Ar
gentine. where 1t would crash head
long into the upward climbing Ca2
Donate train, and all would end
In unreasoning misery, he did the
only thing that offered: Ran blindly
down his own embankment, hopins
nothing but that he might have ont
last glimpse of Virginia clinging t.
the hand-rail before she should be los
TO him forever
But as he ran a thought white-ho
from the furnace of despair fell int
his brain to set it ablaze with pur
| pose. Beyond the litter of activitie
tie decapod was standing, empty o
lts crew. Bounding up into the cab
ne released the brake and sent tn
great engine flying down the track O
the new line
In the measuring of the first mil,
the despair-born thought took shap,
ana form. If he could outpace tn,
runaway on the parallel line, stop tn,
decapod and dash across to the C. 6
q. X. track ahead of the Rosemary
there was one chance in a million tina