Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-07-21
The Argus Daily Short Story
take the Siding BY Emma Archer Osborne
Copyrighted 1910. by Literary

crustations. and after distance they
were sagginS. and then some werI
broken and dragging on the ground.
There's no use talking" growled
WhaIen. 1--WE got TO slow down some
or well be blown into the middle of
nowhere. Get away from this devilish
lake. then we can make up"
He eased 500 a bit Yet she pulled
and pulled and stuck nobly TO her task.
If orders to clear the tracks didn't
get through before those wires went
down we may be all in" observed Ca
sey.
You're about right" replied Whalen
gIumly. "but the only thing | can do
is to watch for signals"
And in a drilling sleet like this
there might just about as well be no
signals" continued Casey.
They had passed Dempsey and IN
another forty minutes would reach
Radnor. Under ordinary conditions
the local was due at this point but
IF no error in orders had occurred she
should be waiting now on the siding al
Putnam. the station beyond. giving
right of way to the presidents special
The strain was beginning TO tell on
both men and on Whalen in particu-
lar.
Casey was turning away from coal
ing when he noticed Whalen lean
against the window post.
Come, take the lever for a min
ute," be called. I'm feeling bad
Before he could finish he slid to the
floor of the cab.
Casey. bending over him, saw he
was unconscious. but whether dead or
in faint it was impossible for him to
determine in the cramped space and
under the stress of responsibility which
suddenly presented itself. In n flash
he realized his position He recalled
afterward how he was planning what
to do even as he stepped across Wha-
lens PROSTATE form and grasped the
throttle lever
The fire bed would last to Putnam.
and there be would coerce some one
from the sidetracked local to finish
the run. Yes. be could do it-that is,
IL the track was clear.
Casey was leaning half out the cab
window in his eagerness to watch the
track and catch the signal. His dark
eyes pierced into the great invisible;
his head was bare and his black hair
was a disheveled mass; his neck,
which was bare also. despite the Sleet
and cold, seemed to spring out twice
its usual size from his masterful Shout
ders. His face was tense. He had
called into command every bit of hui
man vitality he had in him TO battle
with the horrible possibilities he was
facing and was facing alone.
Finally the signal came TO view-very
family. waveringly and indistinctly at
first, then q trifie palmer until he
caught its full significance.
Clear track" it indicated
He reached toward the lever to
throw on more speed. but instead, out
in the black night and just ahead
of the cab window. glided the spirit
form OF Libbie Nelson. She was peer
ing intently ahead.
"Take the siding" she motioned to
Casey, and instantly his hand was inn
PEELED to the whistle and 800 was
shrieking for the switch to the Radnor
sidetrack.
Casey felt as If a kind of insanity
had seized him, yet he slowed down
and then found himself watching for
the switch signal, and watching eager
ly, impatiently.
He brought 500 to a full stop. He
waited.
Why didn't they send the signal?
Would the siding never be openeG?
Was it ice focked? What was wrong
anyway? He asked himself a thou
sand questions as be. grew more and
more frantic with apprehension.
1t seemed that he had waited there
hundred years when he finally caught
the fash of the waving lantern.
Then he had to get 500 into action
again. 1t took only few seconds, but
those seconds seemed hours.
When the locomotive moved forward
Casey. pressing forward also as If a.
carry the great, throbbing engine with
him, looked half mad with dread of
the imminent-the imminence of some
thing terrible and near
But 500 didn't fail him. She obeyed
the commanding touch which he ap-
piled TO the levers.
And Casey was obeying the COM
mands of the recognized supernatural.