Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-04-18
CHAPTER x.
WITHOUT BENEFIT OF CLERGY.

At 10:4S on the Saturday morning
Kent was standing with the general
manager on the Union station track
platform beside the engine which was
to make the flying run to CASTOR.
Nine hours of sharp work lay be-
tween the hurried conference in Lor-
ing's bedroom and the drive to the
station at a quarter before II. Boston
had been wired; divers and sundry
friends of the railway company had
been interviewed; some few affidavits
had been secured; and now they were
waiting to give Boston it's last chance,
with clerk hanging over the opera
tor in the station telegraph Office to
catch the first word of encouragement.
eff the advisory board doesn't send
us something pretty solid, I'm going
into this thing lame" said Kent, du-
biously. 'Of course, what Boston can
send us will be only corroborative;
unfortunately we can't wire affidavits.
But it will help. What we have Sc
cured here lacks directness."
Necessarily" said Loring. But
I'm banking on the board. If we
have to start, l can wire it to you at
CASTOR. That gives us three hours to
go and come on"
eyes; and if it comes to the worst
if the decision be unfavorab1e-it can
only embarrass us temporarily. This
is merely the preliminary hearing,
and nothing permanent can be estab-
lished until we have had a hearing on
the merits, and we can go armed to
that, at all events
The general manager was looking
at his watch, and he shut the case with
a snap.
Don't you let it come to that, as
long as you have leg to stand on,
David" he said impassively. can in
terregnum of ten days might make it
exceedingly difficult for us to prove
anything" Then, as the telegraph office
watcher came to the door and shook
his head as sign that Boston was
still silent: "Your time is up Off
with you, and don't let Oleson scare
you when he gets 219 in motion. He
is good runner, and you have a clear
track"
kent's after-memory of that dis,
tance-devouring rush was a blurred
picture of plunging, rocking, camor-
ing engine gounding over mile after
mile of the brown plain; of the end
less dizzying procession of oncoming
telegraph poles hurting like great
side-fung projectiles past the cab
windows; of, now and then a lonely
prairie station with waving semaphore
arms, sighted, passed and left behind
| in a whirling sand-cToud in one and
| the same heartbeat. And for the
central figure in the picture, the one
constant quantity when all else was
| mutable and shifting and indistinct,
the big, calm-eyed Norwegian on the
opposite box, hurting his huge ma
chine doggedly through space.
But at Juniberg, 81 miles out of Gas
| ton, there was delay. Train No. II,
the eastbound time freight, had left
Juniberg at one o'clock, having ample
time to make Lesterville, the next sta
ton east, before the light engine could
| possibly overtake it. But Lesterville
had not yet reported it's arrival: for
which cause the agent at Juniberg
was constrained to put out his stop
signal, and Kent's special came to a
stand at the platform.
| Under the circumstances, there an
peared to be nothing for it but to wait
until the delayed No. II was heard
from; and Kent's first care was to re-
port to Loring, and to ask If there
were anything from Boston.
The reply was encouraging. A COM
plete denial of everything, signed by
the proper officials, had been received
and repeated to Kent at Gaston-was
there now awaiting him. Kent saw
in anticipation the nicely calculated
scheme of the junto crumbling into
small dust in the precise moment of
fruition. and had a sharp attack of
ante-triumph which he had to walk
on in turns up and down the long plat
fern. But as the waiting grew longer
and the dragging minutes totaled the
quarter hour and then the half, he be-
gan to perspire again.
Half-past two came and went, and
still there was no hopeful word from
Lesteryille. Kent had speech with
/ oleson, watch in hand. Would the en-