The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1906-02-23

G ~
Blackburn aCdS stretched on his EueeS.
and Salt Rocks somewhere. Callahan.
take the key" he cried of a sudden.
There's a call now. Dispatcher, Don't
speak; ask no questions. Get that mes,
sage" he exclaimed sharply. pointing to
the instrument. 1T may be news"
And it was news-news from Ames
station reporting the Irving special in
at 1:52 a. m.-out at 81. We all heard
it together or it might not have been
believed. The Irving special. east
bound safely past No. /, wcstbound,
on a single track when their meeting
orders had Tapped! Past without a
word of danger or Of accident or even
that they had seen No and stopped in
time to avoid a collision? Exactly: not
a word; nothing In at -; out at Oh
And the actors hard asleep in their
bcrthS. and on about its business the
Irving special ~ that's what we got
from Ames.
Callahan looked around Gentle
men. what does this mean? Somebody
here is insane. l doa'f know whether
it's me or YOU. Blackburn Are you
horsinG 'geE" he exclaimed, raising his
voice marily. III you are, l want to
say l consider it mighty shabby
joke"
Bucks put up hand and without
word of comment repeated Black
burns story just as the dispatcher
had told it. In any event there's
nothing to do now; its on us or we're
past it. Let us wait for No 1 to re-
port"
Callahan pored over the order book.
Maybe" he asked after awhile
didn't you send the orders right and
copy them wrong in the book, Black
burn?'
The dispatcher shook his head. "They
went as they stand The orders Tapped,
Callahan. Wait till we hear from No.
l. feel sure she is safe. Wait"
Bucks was pacing the floor. Gala
han stuck silent to the key, taking
what little work came, for | saw nei-
ther Of the chiefs wanted to trust
Blackburn at the key. He sat looking,
for the most part, vacantly into the
fire. Callahan meantime had the orders
repeated back from Ames and Rose
bud. 1t was as Blackburn had said;
they did lap; they had been sent just
as the order book showed. There was
nothing for it but to wait for Rosebud
to hear from No. l. When the night
operator there called the dispatcher
again it brought Blackburn out of his
gloom like thunderclap.
Give me the keyw he exclaimed
There is Rosebud" Callahan pushed
back, and Blackburn, dropping into
the chair, took the message from the
night operator at Rosebud
NO l in, 2:03 a. m"
Blackburn answered him, and, strange
ly, with all the easy confidence of his
ordinary sending He sat and took and
sent like one again master of the sit
uation.
"Ask Engineer Sampson to come to
the Wire" said he to Rosebud. Samp-
son, not MAZE, but his brother Arnold,
was pulling No. that night.
Engineer Sampson here" came from
Rosebud presently.
ASK Sampson where he met Special
POP tonight"
We waited, wrought up, for in that
reply must come the answer to all the
mystery. There was a hitch at the
other end of the wire; then Rosebud
answered:
Sampson says he will tell you all
about it in the morning"
THAT will not do" tapped the dis
patcher. This is Blackburn. Superin-
tendent Bucks and Callahan are here
They want the facts. Where did you
meet Special 202T'
There was another wearing delay.
When the answer came it was slowly,
at the engineers dictation.
My orders were to hold at O'Fallon's
Tor Special 202," clicked the sounder
repeating the engineers hating state
ment. when we cleared Salt Rocks
siding and got down among the Quak
ers | was cutting along pretty hard to
make the canyon when | saw or
thought | saw a headlight flash be-
tween the buttes across the river. 1t
startled me, for / knew the POP special
could not be very far west of u.s. Any
way, | made a quick stop and reversed
ana backed tight as l could make it
Tor Salt Rocks siding. Before we had
got mile l saw the headlight again,