The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1907-10-11

4
| half an hour or more, and so might have
| been the fireman. | could not afford to
say anything for fear he would give me
away. | took out my running card and
looked it over carefully, intending to ask
what the next station was so as to get my
bearings and figure out whether | was
making time OF not. The fact that | had
behind me the President and Board of
Directors, who were going to make mil
lions for the company Or 90 into bankrupt
CIV, made nv position almost intolerable.
Now, in my youth | was much blamed
for my volubility. always said too much
and was apt to be sassy, but of late | had
kept my tongue because did not want my
name known as one who had left on "A
strike in the East for scab' place in the
West | kept looking nervously at the
fireman, expecting him to call out signals
of some sort as usual but he was not only
silent but he seemed to have been suddenly
taken with the Jim jams or the cerebro-
spinal meningitis. He would look out of
his window, utter grunt or a groan, throw
in lot of COAL wipe his eyes, and once
more look out at the landscape, as if he
expected to see lot of spirits. But worst
of all, | could see his shoulders jiggle:
The thought flashed across me that he might
have gone insane for want Of sleep, though
I could scarcely blame him for that.
Finally demanded OF him where we
were, and he replied that we were just
coming into Walton. That was satisfactory,
because Walton was just our side of the
junction at Aberdeen with the Southern
branch of the VANDERBILT road. Our own
road bore off to the West and it was forty
miles to the Mason City junction we were
to make by four o clock, though the Wan
dervelt plug line here, as they called it,
would have taken us to the main line in
less time. had suggested to the master
machinist that we get running rights over
this plug line, which was principally milk
and coal route, but our folks found that
the other people would not get mixed up
in the strike situation, and so considered
we must make good speed, as we had lost
a lot of time We had only little over an
hour to make the nearly forty miles and
that was the very best we could possibly
do, and feared we could hardly fetch it,
AS we were getting into rising grade see
ton.
Some minutes went by and we should
have reached Aberdeen junction, but saw
no signs of it, and asked the fireman, who
said we were just there, and that it was just
around the curve. Then he slapped the
sides of his head and put on some coal and
began to mutter In three miles more we
passed through little hamlet, but there
was no sign of a junction, and [ got mad.
Where in the deuce are we now p [ |
demanded.
The fireman looked at me with face
which, in spite of the coal dirt, looked
ashen in the light of the open furnace door.
''We're all right he said ''the june
tion is twomiles ahead. The shadows de-
ceived me. -
i did not like this bit 1t was bad
enough to be rushing through space be-
hind battered old teapot with the Presi-
dent and directors in tow, but not to know
where on the globe we were situated was
too much for nerves like mine which had
been kept up to the highest pitch by over
work. However, [ saw the dim glimmer
Of lights ahead, and waited to see what
town it was. There was no junction and
no stop signal, so | let her go, and as we
passed through could easily see that it
was Mallon. The headlight showed the
sign on the little wooden station, and be-
sides there was a big warehouse with i'm
mense letters on it showing the name, as
well as on brewery and a coal yard. So
got out my running card and looked for
Mallon. [ did not find it at first glance,
and thought must be nervous looked
at my watch to see where we should be,
and as | live there was no such town as
Mallon on the card, and it was evidently
fair sized town.
Now, under other circumstances would
have called that fireman more names than
he could have appreciated, but it struck
me that as he knew had been asleep
had better play safe. So | remarked cas-
ually:
II don see Mallon on the time card. -
dumping cats = he yelled, ''did you
see that, too p
''See what, you idiot p
"Mallon
eyes" [ replied rather grutfiy, 81 can
read letters four feet high when the head
light is dead on them. Where is your
old town, anyway ?
Just then we struck a curve and grade
and we had both as much as we could do
to keep up her speed But I noticed that
between every shovelful the fireman would
look out with wildness in his eye that
made me creep. When we got to decent
stretch | turned on him rather fiercely,
thinking that perhaps [ could bluff him
down from ever telling on me
''See here, | took this run because they
said you had been on it for twenty years
and knew every inch of the road Back
East, where came from, could tell every
fence corner in three counties. Now,
blink blink you, where the bubblety blunk
are we? | must calculate on our time.
should have said more, but looking out |
saw a freight train ahead of us just coming
out of siding gave the "hoot hoot,
put on some air, but the freight backed In
time, and we went by at a good speed,
while the train men on the other side looked
at me as if we were crazy.
"What siding is that p | yelled. awe
nearly got the dump
turned to look at the fireman and he
Was the picture of terror. He picked up
his shovel in way that made me think he
was going to attack me. Then he dropped
it and looked out the window. At that
moment we passed Saunders. l looked at
the card, and there was no such place.
By this time you can believe that | was
alarmed. [ knew. of course, that we must