Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-20
"Hello" he exclaimed. Got

nra neiho. ne o. exclaimed. Got a new
The superintendent nodded. IT have
one in the making. Dawson wanted to
come along and try his hand
Did Gridley send him.
| No; Grfdley is away somewhere
| so Fred's your understudy, is he?
Well, I've got one, too. I'll show him to
you after while
| They were walking back over the ties
, toward the half-buried 1875. The ten
wheeler was on its side in the ditch, mug
cling the opposite bank of low cutting.
Dawson had already divided his men
half of them to place the huge jack
beams and outriggers of the self-con-
tanned steam lifting machine, to insure
its stability, and the other half to trench
under the fallen engine and to adjust the
chain sings for the hitch.
It's a pretty long reach, Fred" said
here?'
shortly.
Lidgerwood was looking at his watch
civilians will be due here before long
with special from Copah. 1 don't want
to hold him up" he remarked.
Thirty minutes?" inquired the drafts
man, without taking mind or eye of his
problem.
"Oh, yes: forty or fifty, maybe"
'All right. I'll be out Of the way" was
the quiet rejoinder.
Yes you will" was McCloskeys IRON
gone around to the other side Of the
great crane.
Let him alone" said Lidgerwood. "it
lies in my mind that We are developing
Hell fall down" grumbled the train
master. THAT crane won't pick up the
90 clear the way she's lying
Won't it, said Lidgerwood. 'Thats
| where you are mistaken. 1t will pick up
anything we have on the two divisions.
It's the biggest and best there is made.
How did you come to get tool like that
on the Red Butte WESTERN"
"You don't know Gridley yet. He's a
crank on good machinery. That crane
was a. clean steal
WHAT"
the South American railroads, and was
| on its way to the coast over the P. S.-W
About the time it got as far as Copah
we happened to have q miX-up in our
Copah yards with ditched engine that
Gridley couldn't pick up with the sixty
ton crane We had on the ground. So he
borrowed this one out of the P. S-W
yards. used it. liked it and kept it. send
ing our sixty-ton machine on to the South
Americans in it's place.
What rank .piracy!' Adgerwood ex-
claimed. Il don't wonder they call us
buccaneers over here. How could he do
1t without being found out?"
| That puzzled more than two or three
OF us: but one Of the men told me some
time afterward how it was done. Grid
ley had q painter go down in the night
and change the lettering-on our old
crane and on this new one. It happened
that they were both made by the same
manufacturing company. and were of
substantially the same general pattern. l
notice particularly that the crane they
had lent us out Of the through west
bound freight had shrunk somewhat I'm
the using. But I'll bet those South
the sfe saying things
Doubtless" Lidgerwood agreed. and
now he was not smiling. The little side
light on the former Red Butte Western
BY this time Dawson had got his big
litter in position. with its huge steel arm
overreaching the fallen engine. and was
giving his orders quietly. but with clean
cut precision.
Man that hand fall and take slack!
Pay off. Darby" to the holster engineer.
That's right; more slack!''
The great tackling hook, as big around
as mans thigh, settled accurately over
the 1873.
There you are snapped Dawson.
Now make your hitch. boys, and be
lively about it; You've got just about
one minute to do it in.''
Heavens to Betsey!' said McCloskey.
Hes going to pick it up at one hitch
and without blocking:''
Hands off. Mac said Lideerwood.
[
this trade before. he's learning it pretty
rapidly now
That's all right, but if he doesn't
break something before he gets
But Dawson was breaking nothing
Having designed locomotives. he knew to
the fraction of an inch where the bal
ancing hitch should be made for lifting
one. Also machinery and the breaking
strains of it were as his daily bread.
While McClOSkey was still DronheSyinp
failure, he was giving the word to Darby,
the holster engineer.
Now, then, Billy, try your hitch! Put
the strain on q little at time and often
Steady! Now you've got her-keep ner
coming!
Slowly the big freight puller rose out
of its furrow in the gravel. righting itself
to the perpendicular as it came. Antici-
pating the inward swing of it, Dawson
was showing his men how to place ties
and rails for short temporary track.
and when he gave Darby the stop signal
the hosting cables were singing like
piano strings. and the big engine was
swinging bodily in the air in the grip of
the crane tackle, poised to a nicely above
the steel placed to receive 1t.
Dawson climbed up to the mainline
embankment, where Darby could see him,
and where he could see all the parts of
his problem at once. Then his hands
went up to beckon the Stacking signals.
At the lifting Of his finger there was q
growing of gears and a backward rae
ing of machinery, a groan of relaxing
strains and cry of "All gone." and the
1875 stood upright. ready to be hauled out
when the temporary track should be ex-
tended to connection with the main
line.
Lets go up to the other end and see
how your understudy is making it, Mac"
said the gratifed superintendent. 1t is
quite evident that we can't tell this young
man anything he doesn't already know