Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-03

ie uine was hat-past six. He had retired to bed
laVe, and IN an i'll humor. A snecial MESSENGER
uispatcneu at midnight to Torkard station. had
returned with the news that teleqrapbic com
tLt se i1,u @ pr0ken down along the line and
ham Cutting " e
Sir Jordan made a hasty toilet. and the Nm
poeonic chairman of the Northern Central Iii.
have been seen few moments later tintooin,
stealthly towards his little grandson's room will,
the intent OF witnessing, unseen the little fellows
Joy at the many presents awaiting him But
there was bitter disappointment in his heart at Tho
thought that the model would not be numbered
among them.
Fay was also up betimes, and her destination
the same as Sir Jordan's. when she encountered
nm Inc great man, having proved his humanity
| by his manner of greeting Fay was lust about tn
lament the absence Of the model when st,anoe
and confused sounds penetrated family into the
corridor where they stood moment later Sir
Jordan's portly butler, making haste for once in
his life, and his expression mixture of bewilder
ment and terror, hurried up
"1t-something-is coming IN the drive S;r
Jordan!" he gasped.
With sharp cry of satisfaction. Sir Jordan
sprang to window and whipped back the CIR
tain. Fay was beside him a moment later.
Sir Jordan dashed hand across his eyes. and
for once In his existence lost faith in himself and
the infallibility of his Senses
Below, the carriage drive, huge monstrous
gray thing loomed out, suffused about with a red.
dish haze, almost nightmarish in the semi-dar RI.
ness of the early morning. Figures indistinct
phantoms, swarmed about the monster. and sesu,-
ed to be commanded by one phantom figure that
reeled unsteadily hither and thither in almost
intoxicated fashion.
And even as Sir Jordan stared. bereft Of sneecb
and open-mouthed, the little army of phantoms
dragged up, from behind the gray and monstrous
thing, sleepers, wood-packng, and two sixtv-foot
lengths of rail. They laid the sleepers close TO-
gether, bridge-fashion, and on them the two rails
flat and chairless. Then the phantom con-
mander swung himself up into the monster still
with the unsteady movements of drunken man
and the great, gray thing crawled forward at
snalls pace along the rails, leaving behind her a
roughly-ald track of some hundred and twenty
feet of sleepers woodpaclng and rails.
Sir Jordan and the beautiful grl-woman looked
on in silent, bewildered fascination. It was like
a Brobdingnagian dream.
"Father!" cried Fay, suddenly, with little
scream.
"Well, I'm.
A raucous blast of whistle checked Sir Tor.
dams utterance. Some gimmering of the truth
had dawned upon him. He snatched out his
watch.
1t was two minutes to seven Mammoth No. 2
was drawn up level with the fine entrance to
Magnus Hall!
When Sir Jordan and Fay reached the great
porch below, it thronged with bewildered
dumb-struck servants, and they were opening out
to make way for a reeling, greasy, bleeding man,
whose features were just eyes and CRIME.
Fay gave choking cry.
Gust to time, Sir Jordan"
But Jack Stanley pitched forward suddenly in
a dead faint-at the foot of the woman he loved
and the man who had once condemned him for
a wastrel and failure.
Sir Jordan Magnus has altogether altered his
opinion of Jack Stanley He regards with un.
feigned admiration the who brought Nam
moth No. over two hundred and fifty miles of
railway, through a snowdrift and blizzard and
over three-quarters of mile of trackless ground,
laying the track he went, picking it up and
laying it again in front of him, and going in
beeline, having knocked gap in the wall sur
rounding the Magnus estate.
Even Mr.. Hiram X. Hustle admitted at the
time that the thing could not have been more
done in the States. The Northern Cen
tral about to adopt the Mammoth type of
locomotive, and the chairman no longer objects
to the prospect of son-in-law in the shape Of
Jack Stanley.
Sir Jordan's favorite after-dnner story Is the
story of the model Atlantic locomotive ordered
for his little grandson, and the one hundred and
tenton Mammoth that arrived at his front door
at seven o'clock on Christmas morning