The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-04-28

the sidings drilling him. until it came
to naming the beneficiary. There he
stuck. Nobody could get cut of him
to whom he wanted his money to go.
Had he no relations back in the
mountains? Nobody up in the Spider
country? No wives or daughters or
fathers or mothers or friends or any
thing? Delaroo always shook his
head. If they persisted, he shook his
head. Maze Sampson. sitting after
supper, would ask. and Martfe, when
the dishes were side tracked, would
begin to sew and listen, ana Delaroo,
Of course. would listen. but never by
any chance would he answer, not even
when Maze tried to explain how it
bore on Is to l. He declined to dis
cuss any ratio or to name any beneh-
ciary Whatsoever The right honor
able recording secretaries fumed and
denounced it as Irregular and Maze
Sampson wore holes in his elbows
gestieulating, but in the matter OF dis
tributing his personal share of the un-
earned increment Delaroo expressed
no preference whatsoever. He paid
his dues; he made his passes; ne sat
in his place. What more could be re-
quired? If they put him in a post of
honor. he filed it with silent dignity.
If they set him to guard the outer Dor
tai ne guarded well. Tt was perilous,
rather. for a visiting frater or even
local brother to try getting past Della
roo if he was rusty in the ritual. Not
MAZE Sampson himself could work the
outer guard without the countersign.
If he forgot 1t in the hurry of getting
to lodge he had to cool his heels in
the outer air till 1t came back. Della
roo was pitiless.
In the cab he was as taciturn as he
was in the lodge or under the kerosene
lamp at SIMPSONS; he just listened.
But his firing was above any mans
who ever stocked 1854 Delaroo made
more steam on less coal than any man
in the roundhouse. Neighbor began to
hold him up as a model for the divi-
sion, and the boys found that the way
to jolly Neighbor was to say nice
things about Delaroo. The head Of
the motive power would brighten out
of a sulk at the mention of Delaroo's
name, and he finally fixed UP a sur
prise for the Indian man. One night
after DelarOo came in Neighbor, in the
bluff way ne liked to use in promot-
ing a man, told Delaroo he could have
an engine; a good one, one of the K
class, as much finer a machine than
the old 264 as Duffy's chronom eter
aroo never said aye. yes or no; he
merely listened. Neighbor never had
q promotion received in just that way:
it nearly gave him the apoplexy.
But if Delaroo treated the proposal
cooIly, not so Maze Sampson. When
the news of the offer reached him.
Maze went into an unaccountable fiut-
ter. He acted at first exactly as If he
wanted to hold his man back, which
was dead against cab ethics Finally
he assented, but his cheeks went habby
and his eyes hollow, and he showed
more worry than his creditors. Nobody
understood it, yet there was evidently
som ething on, and the majors anxiety
increased until Delaroo. the Indian
fireman and knight companion of the
Ancient Order of Druids and Fluids
completely took Neighbours breath by
declining the new engine. That was
"a West End wonder. He said If it made
no odds he would stay on the 264
The men all wondered. Then some
thing new came up, and the thing was
forgotten. MAZE SIMPSONS cheeks
filled out again. he regained his usual
nerve and swore on the money ques-
ton harder than ever.
After that it was pretty generally
understood that Delaroo and MAZE
Sampson and the 264 were fixtures
Neighbor never gave any one a chance
to decline an engine more than once.
The boys all knew, If DeIaroo didn't.
that he would be firing a long time
after throwing that chance by, and he
was.
The combination came to be regard
ed as eternal When the sloppy 264
hove in sight little Delaroo and big
MAZE Sampson were known to be be-
hind the boiler pounding up and down
the mountains. up and down year in
and year out. Big engines came into
the division and bigger. All the time
the division was crowding on the mo-
tive power and putting in the NAM
moth types until when the. 264 was
stalled alongside a consolidated or a
mogul skyscra per she looked like an
ancient beer glass set next an import
ed stein.
with the 2s4 when the 500 or the
HOO class were concerned 1t was sim
case of keep out of our way or
get smashed. Maze Sampson or no
MAZE Sampson. money question or no
money question. Benevolent dement's
fraternally proposed or anteroom sig
nails cOnfidentially put forth by the
baldheaded 264 were Of no sort of con-
sequence with the modern giants that
pulled q thousand tons in a string up a
1900 foot grade at better than twenty
miles an hour. It was a clear yet cold
You old tug. get cut Of our way, will
you ?" And the fast runners, like
Moore and Hawksworth and Mullen
and the Crowleyss Tim AMI Syme. had
about as much consideration for Majo
and his financial theories as their ma
chimes had for his machine. HIS Jim