The Democrat-sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1906-1935, 1907-01-31

| pace 10 hngnt alOOpslue tnc trHck.
say I'll drop out right here. don't
mind train robbers. hut l don't tackle
burning bridge--not f know IT,"
and lie jumped off.
well. Peaters," asked Ferguson OF
the second man cooly, "do you want to
stay?"
"MeT echoed Peaters, looking ahead
at the mass of flame leaping upward.
"Me stay? We'll. not in a thousand
years. You can have my gun, Mr. Fer
| guson, and send my check to 489 Mil
waukee avenue, If you please. Cen
tlemen, good day" And off went
Peaters.
And off went every last man of the
valorous detectives except one lame
fellow, who said he would Just as lief
he dead as alive anyway and declared
he would stay with Ferguson and die
rich.
Sinclair, thinking he might never get
another chance. was whistling sharply
for orders. Francis, breathless with
the news, ran forward.
"Coinp How much? Twelve hun
dred thousand. Wheww cried Sinclair.
"Swing up, Pat. We're Off"
The Eive-N Nine gathered herself with
spring. Even the engineers heart
quailed as they got headway. He knew
his business, and he knew that il only
the rails hadn't buckled they were per-
fectly safe, for the heavy truss would
stand lot of burning before giving
way under a swiftly moving train.
Only as they flew nearer, the blaze
rolling up in dense volume looked hor-
ribly threatening. After all, it was
foolhardy, and he felt it, but he was
past the stopping now, and he pulled
the choker to the limit. 1t seemed as IL
she never covered steel 80 fast Under
the head she now had the cracking
bridge was less than five hundred,
four hundred, three hundred, two hun
dred feet, and there was no longer
time to think. With stare, Sinclair
shut off. He wanted no push or pull on
the track, The NIcWilliams Special
was just tremendous arrow, shooting
through truss of fire and half dozen
speechless men on either side of the
river waiting for the catastrophe.
Jerry MacElroy crouched low under
the gauges. Sinclair jumped from his
box and stood with n hand on the
throttle and n hand on the air, the
glass crashing around his head like
hail. A blast OF fiery air and flying Gin
ders burned and choked him. The en-
glne, alive with danger. flew like a
great monkey along the writhing steel.
So quick, so black so hot the blast and
SO terrific the leap. she stuck her nose
into clean air before the men in the
cab could rise to it,
There was IA heave in the middle like
with it the FiveNine got her paws on
cool iron and solid ground, and the
Mattaback and the blaze, all except a
dozen tongues which licked the cab
and the roof of the baggage car min
ute. We're behind. George Sinclair,
shaking the hot glass out of his hair,
looked ahead through his frizzled eye
lids and gave her full head for the
western bluffs of the valley; then look
ed at his watch.
1t was the one hundred and nine
tieth milepost just at her nose. and
the dial read 500 to a second. There
was an hour to the good and seventy
six miles and water to cover, but
they We're seventyslx of the prettiest
miles under ballast anywhere, and the
Five-Nine reeled them off like a cylin-
der press. Seventy-nine minutes later
Sinclair whistled for the Denver yards.
There was tremendous commotion
among the waiting engines. If there
was one there were fifty big locomo-
tives waiting to charvari the McWil-
lians Special. The wires had told the
story in Denver long before, and as
the Five-Nine sailed ponderously up
the grdiron every mogul every con-
solidated, every ten wheeler, every
hog. every switch bumper, every air
hose screamed an uproarious welcome
to George Sinclair and the skyscraper.
They had broken every record from
McCloud to Denver. ard all knew 1t,
but as the McWilliams Special drew
swiftly past every last man in the
yards stared at her cracked, peeled,
bllstered. haggard looks.
What the deuce have you bit into?"
cried the depot master as the Five
Nine swept splendidly up ard stopped
with her battered eye hard on the
depot clock.
'Mattaback bridge is burned Had
TO crawl over on the stringers," an
swered Sinclair, coughing up Gin
der.
"Where's McWiiliams?"
Back there sitting on his grief, |
reckon"
While the crew went up to register
two big four horse trucks backed up TO
the baggage car, and in n minute
dozen men were rolling specie kegs
out OF the door, which was smashed
in, as being quicker than to tear open
the barricades.
Sinclair, MacElroy and Francis with
his brakeman We're surrounded by
crowd of railroad men. As they stood
answering questions big prosperous
looking banker with black rings under
his eyes pushed in toward them, ac-
companled by the lame fellow, who
had missed the chance OF a lifetime TO
die rich, and by Ferguson, who had
told the story.
The banker shook hands with each
one of the crew. you've saved us,
boys We needed 1t. There's mob
OF 5000 of the worst scared people In
America claInoring at the doors, and,
by the eternal, now we're fixed for