Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1907-01-23

into the faces around as he held to the
fiery surgeon. Morgan" he added
steadily. looking at the surly wrecker,
get up your crew, quick. Doubleday,
make up all the coaches in the yard
for an ambulance train. Get every
doctor in town to go with you. Tracy,
clear the liner
The master mechanic and Benedict
Morgan clattered downstairs. Carhart,
running to the telephone, told central
10 summon every medical man in the
Bend and hurried out. Before he had
rovered block, roundhouse callers,
like flaws of wind before storm,
were scurrying the streets and from
the tower of the fire house sounded the
harsh clang of the emergency gong for
the wreckers.
Caught where they could be caught
out of saloons, beds, poker joints, Sal
vation barracks, churches, the men of
the wrecking crew ran down the ST.
lent streets, waking now fast into life.
Congregations were dispersed, hymns
cut, prayers forgotten, bars deserted,
hells emptied, barracks raided at that
/
fire bell for the Mountain division
wrecking gang
While the yard crews shot up and
down the spurs, switching coaches into
the relief train, Benedict Morgan, with
solid volleys of oaths. was organizing
his men and filing them at the lunch
counters with huge schoonerS of cof-
fee. Carhart pushed again through
the jam of men and up to the dispatch
ers' Office Before and behind him
crowded the local physicians with in
strument bags and bandages. The ON
inous baggage deposited on the office
floor, they sat down about the room or
hovered around Carhart, asking for
details. Doubleday, tall and grim,
came over from the roundhouse. Ben
edict Morgan stamped up from the
yard The Mountain division was
ready
All three dispatchers were in the
room. John Mallers, the day man,
stood near Tracy, who had relieved
Giddings. The line was clear for the
relief run. Elcho had been notified
of the impending disaster, and at Ira
cy's elbow sat the chief, looking fixedly
at the key, taking the bob of the sound
er with his eye. A dozen men in the
room were talking, but they spoke as
men who, speaking, wait on the life of
fuse Duffy, with suspense deepen
ing into frenzy, pushed Tracy's hand
from the key and, sliding into the
chair, began once more to call his
brother at Rat River.
"R, T - r, T - r, 7 - r, T -"
clicked the River call. 'R, 7 - II,
t r, T = Bob = Bob = Bob" spelled
the sender. Answer me, answer, an
swer. II, T. r, T. R, T = r, T ="
And Barnes Tracy edged away and
leaned back to where the shadow hid
his face, and John Mallers, turning
from the pleading of the current, stared
gloomily out OF the window across the
yard, shimmering under the double
relay of arc lights, and young Gid
dings, who couldn't stand it--just
couldn't stand it-bending on his stool,
shook with gulping sobs.
The others knew nothing Of the heart
breaking in the little clicks. But they
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trains would meet; knew they could not
by any possibility see each other till
they whirled together ON the curve Of
the Cinnamon cut or on the trestle west
of it, and they waited only for the
breaking of the suspense that settled
heavily over them.
Ten, twenty, thirty forty minutes
went, with Martin Duffy at intervals
valnly calling. Then, as the crack
opens on the field of ice, as the snow
breaks in the mountain slide, as the sea
gives up at last its dead, the sounder
spoke-Rat River made the dispatch
ers call. And Martin Duffy, staring
at the copper coil, pushed himself up in
his chair like man that chokes, caught
smothering at his neck, and slipped
wriggling to the floor.
Carhart caught him up, but Duffy's
eyes stared meaningless past him. Rat
River was calling him, but Martin Duff
fly was past the taking. Like the man
next at the gun, Barnes Tracy sprang
into the chair with the l, l, d. The
surgeon, Giddings helping, dragged
Duffy to the lounge in Callahan's room
his chief was more to Giddings then
than the fate of Special 1926. But soon
confused voices began to ring from
where men were crowding around the
dispatchers table. They echoed in to
where the doctors worked over the raw
ing chief And young Giddings, help
Ing, began, too, to hear strange things
from the other room.
"The noon
"The moonT'
1.-THE moonw
"Whatw
Barnes Tracy was trying to make
himself heard:
1.-THE moon! Moon! That's English,
amt it? Moon''
"Whos talking at Rat RiverT de-
manded Benedict Morgan hoarsely.
"Chick Npalq conductor of third