News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1906-05-16

could see, the faint outline of the sta
ton and his lamp blazing smoky in the
window. Bullhead figured a second;
then he began to crawl, If he could
reach the lamp before his head went
off again, before he went completely
silly, he might yet save himself and
| No. /.
| 1t wasn't in him to crawl till he
thought of his own mistake, but there
| was a spur in the sweep of that
| through his head. His brain, he knew,
was wabbling but he could crawl, and
he stuck, faintng, to that one idea and
crawled for the light of his lamp.
1t is a bare hundred feet across to
the Y. Bullhead tapped every foot Of
| the hundred with blood There was
| no one to call on for help; he just
| stuck to the crawl, grinding his teeth
| in bitter self reproach. They traced
him, next morning when he was past
the telling of it, and his struggle look
ed the track of wounded bear. Drag
ing along one crushed leg and half
crazed by the crack on his forehead,
CllIllOCN W llC pldllOLll,
across and dragged himself to the
door. He can tell yet about rolling his
broken leg under him and raising him
self to grasp the thumb latch. Not I'M
til he tried to open it did he remember
it was a spring lock and that he was
outside. He felt in his pocket for his
keys-but his keys were gone.
There We're no rules to consult then.
No way on earth of getting into the
Office in time to do anything; to drag
himself to the lunch room, twice furth-
or than the station, was out of the
question. But there was a way to
reach the key in spite of all bad things,
and Bullhead knew the way. He strug-
gled fast around to the window Rails
ing himself with a frightful twinge on
one knee, he beat at the glass with his
fist. Clutching the sash, he drew him
self up with hand and with the other
tore away the muntin, stuck his head
end shoulders through the opening, got
his hand on the key and called the first
station east, Blaisdell, with the 10.
Life and death that call meant; the 10,
the dispatcher's call. Hanging over the
key, stammering the 10 over the wire
and baptizing the call in his own blood
that is the way Bullhead learned to
be q railroad man.
For Blaisdell got him and his warn
ing and had No. / on the siding just as
the freight tore around the west curve.
headed for Sackley. While it was all
going on Bullhead lay on the wind
swept platform at Goose River with a
hole in his head that would have killed
anybody on the West End or for that
matter, ON earth except James Giles
pie Blaine Lyons.
After No. 30 had passed so impudent
" No. 1 felt her way rather cautiously
10 Goose River because the dispatchers
couldn't get the blamed station. They
decided, of course, that Bullhead was
asleep and fixed everything at the
Wickiup to send new man up there
on No. 3 in the morning and fire him
for good.
But about ! o'clock No. 1 rolled, bad
tempered, into Goose River Junction,
and Bat Mullen, stopping his train,
strobe angrlly to the station. 1t was
dark as a pocket inside. Bat smashed
in a door with his heel, and the train
men swarmed in and began looking
with their lanterns for the nightman.
The stove was red hot, but he was not
asleep in the armchair nor mapping I'M
der the counter on the supplies. They
turned to his table and discovered the
broken window and thought of hold
up. They saw where the nightman had
spilled something that looked like ink
over the table, over the order book,
over the clip, and there was hand
print that looked inky on an open letter
addressed to the superintendent and a
little pool of something like ink under
the key.
Somebody said suicide but Bat Null
len suddenly stuck his lamp out of the
broken window, put his head through
after it and cried out Setting his lam
tern down on the platform, he crawled
through the broken sash and picked up
Bullhead.
Next morning it was all over the
West End.
And Bullheadw cried everybody. |
"That's what gets me. Who'd have |
thought it of Bullhead?"
When they all got up there and saw
what Bullhead had done everybody |
agreed that nobody but Bullhead could |
have done it,
The pilot bar of the short line mo |
gul in swipng Bulhead Numerically |
had really made railroad man of |
him. 1t had let great light in on |
the situation. Whereas before every |
one else on the line had been to blame |
for his failures, Bullhead now saw that |
he himself had been to blame and was
man enough to stand up and say so.
When the big fellows, Callahan and
Kenyon and Pat Francs, saw his trail
next morning, saw the blood smeared
over the table and saw Bullhead's let
ter of resignation signed in his own
blood manual, and heard his straight
out story days afterward, they said
never a word.
But that morning, the morning after,
Callahan picked up the letter and put
it Just as it was between the leaves of
the order book and locked both in his