Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-12-01

was smoking again. At forty-fve 1t
burst into flames. Once more 1T was
patiently cooled by bucketings OF
water drawn from the engine tank;
after which necessary preliminary
Olson spoke his mind.
"Ay tank We never get someveres Wit
dat haf-fer-damn brass, Meester Ford.
Ay yust see if Ay can't find noder
wone" And he rummaged in the car
lockers till he did find another.
Unfortunately, however, the spare
brass proved to be Of the wrong pat
tern: Pullman. instead of p. S-W.
standard Olson was trained me-
chanic and man Of resources, and he
Clipped and filed and scraped at the
misft brass until he made it serve.
But when he climbed again to the cab
of his engine. and Ford swung up TO
the steps of the car, the white head
light of an eastbound freight, left at
siding a full hours run to the rear.
came in sight from the observation
platform of the laboring special.
Those were the inauspicious begin
nings of the pursuit; and the middle
part and the ending varied only in
degree. All the way up to midnight.
at which hour station of bigness
to supply standard brass was reach
ed, the tinkered mountaineering gave
trouble and killed speed. Set once
more in running order upon its full
quota of sixteen practicable wheels.
the special had fallen so far behind its
Denver-planned schedule as not only
to be in the way of everything else on
the division, but TO find everything
else in it's way. Ford held on stubborn
~ until the lead of the train he was
trying to outrun had increased to
twelve hours. Then he gave II up,
directing his crew to turn the train on
the nearest "Y," and to ask for re-
tracing orders to Denver. After which
be went to bed in the state-roonl of
the borrowed car, and for the first
time in his experience was man
handsomely beaten by the perversity
of insensate things. The request for
the retracing orders was sent from
Coquina; and when it came clicking
into the despatcher's Office at Denver,
sleep-sodden young man with an ex-
tinct cigar between his teeth rose up
out of his chair, stretched, yawned
and pointed for the door. Going to
leave us, Mr.. Eckstein?" said the trick
dispatcher who was sitting at the
train table.
ayes If Mr.. Ford has changed his
mind. / may as well go home and go
to bed
Reckon he forgot something, and
has to come back after it?' laughed
the operator
Maybe said the private secretary,
and he went out, shutting the door be-
hind him with the batlike softness
4 uishing characteristic.
| The saunders were clicking monot-
onously when the trick man turned to
the relief operator who was checking
Darby's transfer sheet.
| what do you suppose Eckstein was
up to, sitting here all night. Jim9'
Give it up said the relief man.
'Ask me something easy
"I'll bet hen worth fifty dollars
can guess He didn't want Mr.. Ford
to make time"
The relief man looked up from his
checking:
why? He didn't do anything. He
was asleep more'n half the time
Don't you fool yourself" said the
other. He heard every word that
came in about that hot box. And il
the hot box hadn't got in the way.
I'll bet cockerel worth seventy-flve
dollars, to go with that ffty-dollar hen
that he would have tangled me up
/ somehow till had shllfiled a freight
train or something in Mr.. Ford's way
Hes Mr.. North's man, body and soul;
and Mr. North doesn't love. Mr.. Ford y
"Oh. rats, Billy!'' scoffed the relief
man, getting up to fill his corn-cob
pipe from the common tobacco bag
You're always finding niger in the
wood-pile. when there isn't any Say;
that's POI asking for orders from
Calotte. Why don't YOU come to life
and answer EN-"
Frisbie. breakfasting early at the
Brown Palace on the morning follow
| ing the night of hinderings, was more
than astonished when Ford came II
and took the unoccupied seat at ths
i tableesar-t VIC