The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-23
The TarninQ By FRANCIS LYNDE
(Continued.l
900

and I ain't dispatchin' trains on this jerkwater railroad" observed the con- ductor coolly. Then he added, with a shade less of the belligerent dis interest: williams can't speed up. That housin' under the tender is about ready to blaze up and set the woods afre again right now
 Once more Lidgerwood turned to the time card. It was twenty miles far ther along to the next telegraph sta tion. and he heaped up wrath against the day of wrath in store for a dis patcher who would recklessly turn two trains loose and out of his reach under such critical conditions for thir- ty hazardous mountain miles.
 Bradford. looking on sullenly, mis- took the new boss frown for more, to follow. with himself for the target, and was moving away. Lidgerwood pointed to a chair with a curt "Sit downr' and the conductor obeyed re- 1uctantly
 'fYou say you have your cledrance card and that you are not dispatching trains,'' he went on evenly, +'but' nei- ther fact relieves you of your respon- sibility. It was your duty to make sure that the dispatcher fully under stood the situation at Crosswater and to refuse to pull out ahead of the pas senger without something more def nite than a formal permit Weren't you taught that? Where did you learn to run trainsr'
 It was an opening for hard words, but the conductor let it pass. Some thing in the steady businesslike tone or in the shrewdly appraisive eyes turned Bradford the potential mutineer into Bradford the possible partisan.
 'I reckon we are needing a roundup over here on this jerkwater mighty bad, MT Lidgerwood," he said, half humorously. "But, Lord love you, that's the old 210 chasin' us with the passenger, and she, can't, catch Bat Williams and. the '66 in a month O Sundays if we didn't have that dog goned spavined leg under the tender. She sure couldn't"
 Lidgerwood smiled in spite of his an noyance. But it isn't railroading," he insisted, meeting his first pupil half way and as man to man. You might do this thing ninety nine times"-~
 The sentence was never finished. The special. tagging little now in def erence to the smoking hot box, was rounding one of the long hill curves to the left. Suddenly the air brakes ground sharply upon the wheels, shrill whistlings from the 266 sounded the stop signal, and past the end of the slowing service car a trackman ran frantically up the line toward the fol lowing passenger, yelling and swing ing his striped coat like madman. > Lidgerwood caught fieeting glimpse of section gangs green "slow" flag lying toppled over between the rails 100 feet to the rear. He called to Bradford to jump and then ran for ward to drag tue Japanesescook out of his galley.
 It was all over in a moment. There was time enough for Lidgerwood to rush the little Tadasu to the forward vestibule, to fling him into space and to make his own flying leap for safety before the crisis came. Happily there was no wreck, though the margin of escape was the narrowest. Williams stuck to his post in the cab of the 266, applying and releasing the brakes and running as far ahead as he dared NIon the ioosened timbers of the cul- vert. for which the section gangs slow flag was out. Carter, the engineer on the passenger train, jumped. but his fireman was of better mettle and stay ed with the machine up to the moment when the shuddering mass of iron and steel thrust it's pilot under the trucks of Lidgerwood's ear.
 It was an excellent opportunity for eloquence oe the explosive sort, and when the dust had settled the track and trainmen were evidently expect ing the well deserved tongue flashing. But in crises like this the new super intendent was at his self contained best. Instead of swearing at the men, he gave his orders quietly and with the brisk certainty of one who knows his trade. The passenger train was to keep ten minutes behind it's own time until the next siding was passed, mak- ing up beyond that point if its running orders permitted. The special was to proceed on 201's time to the siding in question. at which Toint it would side track and let the passenger .precede it.
 Bradford was in the cab of 266 V hen Williams eased his engine and the service car over the unsafe cul- vert and inched the throttle open for