Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-04-16
WATERBURY EVENING DEMOCRAT. MONDAY APRIL 1e 1906

kIII the lrl6nm6u, or small IT! 4ull- ford's lips move. but there is no audi ble reply; and Bucks takes Danforth's
 weapon and passes quickly and alone to the forward vestibule
 The station of Agua Caliente
 swings into the field of 1,010s electric
 headlight. Callahan's tank has been
 bone dry for 20 minutes. and he is watching the glass water-gauge where the water shows now only when the engine lurches heavily to the left. He knows that the crown-sheet of the
 fire-box is bare, and that any moment
 1t may give down and the end will
 come. Yet his gauntleted hand never
 falls from the throttle-bar to the air
 cock, and his eyes never leave the bub-
 ble appearing at long intervals in the
 heel of the water-glass.
 Shovel has stopped firing, and is
 hanging out of his window for the
 straining look ahead. Suddenly he
 drops to the footplate to grip Calla-
 hans arm.
 'See!" he says. "They have set the
 switch to throw us in on the siding!"
 In one motion the flutter of the ex- ,haust ceases, and the huge ten-wheeler
 buckles to the sudden setting of the
 brakes The man standing in the
 forward vestibule of the Naught-seven
 lowers his weapon. Apparently it is
 not going to be necessary to kill the
 engineer after all.
 But Callahan's nerve has failed him only for the moment. There is one chance in ten thousand that the cir cumambulating side track is empty; one and one only, and no way to make sure of it. Beyond the station, as Cal lahan well knows, the siding comes again into the main line, and the switch is straight-rail safety" Once again the thought of his motherless child flickers into the engineers brain; then he releases the air and throws his weight backward upon the throttle bar. Two gasps and heartbeat de- eide it; and before the man in the ves- tibule can level his weapon and fire, the one-car train has shot around the station, heaving and lurching over the uneven rails of the siding, and grinding shrilly over the points of the safety switch to race on the down grade to Megilp.
 At the mining-camp the station is ;n darkness save for the google eyes of an automobile drawn up beside the plat form, and deep silence reigns but for the muf1ed, irregular thud of the auto cars motor. But the beam of the 1,010's headlight shows the small station building massed by men, score of them poising for a spring to the plat forms of the private car when the slackening speed shall permit. A bull let tears into the woodwork at Calla- hans elbow, and another breaks the glass of the window beside him, but he makes the stop as steadily as. if death were not snapping at him from behind and roaring in his ears from the belly of the burned engine.
 Be doomping yer fire lively, now, Jimmy. b'y," he says, dropping from | the box to help. And while they wres- lie with the dumping-bar, these two, he poising figures have swarmed upon the Naught-seven, and voice is lifted above the Babel of others in sharp pro- est.
 Put away that rope, boys! There's awI sheFs,e and by Godp we're going lte it."
 At this man pushes his way out ,f the thick of the crowd and climbs o a seat beside the chaffeur in the waiting automobile
 They've got him." he says shortly. To the hotel for all you're worth, iudgins; our part is to get this on the wires before one o'clock. Full speed; md never mind the ruts."