The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-22
CHAPTER III.

A A wood Ford had transferred one of the cooks from his own ~ A private car to Lidgerwoods service, and the little man, Tadasu Matsuwarf by name and subject or the mikado by race and birth, came to l the car door to call his new employer to the breakfast table as the service car approached Crosswater Gap. | It was an attractive table, well ap- pointed and we'll served, but Lfdger- wood, temperamentally single eyed in all things, was diverted from his reor- ganization problem for the moment only. Since early dawn he had been up and out on the observation platform, | noting, this time with the eye of mas | tership, the physical condition of the road
 1 To a disheartening extent the Red | Butte demoralization had involved the permanent way. Originally good track, the roadbed and equipment had | been allowed to fall into disrepair un- der indifferent supervision and the short handing of the section gangs. Underwood had seen how the ballast l had been suffered to sink at the rail | joints, and he had read the record of I careless supervision at each fresh swing of the train, since it is the sec l ton foreman's weakness to spo1 the geometrical curve by working 1t hack, l little by little, into the adjoining tan gent.
 Ref1ecting upon these things, Lidger- | foJy ;-t his cup of coffee and crisp breakfast bacon
 | About the first man we need is an engineer who won't be too exalted to get down and squint curves with the section bosses" he unused, and from 1 that on he was searching patiently through the memory card index for the right man.
 At the summit station, where the plunge into the western desert, there was a delay. Bradford, the conductor, | black shirted and looking in his slouch hat and riding leggings more like horse wrangler than captain of rail- road trains, lounged in to explain that there was a hot box under 266's tender. Bradford was not of any fac t1on of discomfort, but the spirit of morose insubordination, born of the late change in management, was in the air, and he spoke grufly.
 Were the boxes properly oyerhauled before you left Copah?" demanded the | new boss. | Bradford did not know, and the manner of his answer implied that he did not care. And for good measure he threw in an intimation that round house dope kettles were not in his line.
 Lidgerwood passed over the large impudence and held to the matter in hand.
 How much time have we on POI P he asked, train POI being the west bound passenger overtaken and left behind in the small hours of the morn ing by the lighter and faster special.
 Thirty minutes here," growled the little brother of the cows, after which he took himself off as if he considered the incident sufficiently closed.
 Fifteen minutes later Lidgerwood finished his breakfast and went back to his camp chair on the observation platform of the service car A glance over the side rail showed him his train crew still working on the heated axle bearing. Another to the rear picked up Sthe passenger train storm ing around the climbing curves of the eastern approach to the summit. There was a small problem impending for the division dispatcher at Angels, and the new superintendent held aloof to see how 1t would be handled It was handled rather indifferently. The passenger train was pulling in over the summit switches when Brad ford, sauntering into the telegraph of l flee as if haste were the last thing in the world to be considered, asked for
 his clearance card, got 1t and gave Williams the signal to go. | Lidgerwood got up and went into
 the car to consult the time table hang
 ing in the office compartment. Train
 POI had no dead time at Crosswater;
 hence if the ten minute interval be-
 tween trains of the same class nov
 ing in the same direction was to be
 preserved the passenger would have
 to be held.
 The assumption that the passenger
 train would be held aroused all the
 railroad martinet's fury in the new
 superintendent. In Lidgerwood's cal
 endar time killing on regular: trains