The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-26
W6St6rn...
 Copyright, 1910. By Charles Scribner's Sons

came Gridley, always suave and good natured, making no complaints, not even when the repair work made nec- essary by the innumerable wrecks grew mountain high, and always coun- selling flrmness and more discipline.
 Don't give in an inch. Show these muckers that you mean business, and Lean 1t all the time, and youu win out all right" said he.
 In tue small headquarters staff Hal lock was thes only noncombatant. From the beginning of hostilities he seemed to have made,a pact with him. self not to let it be known by any act or word of his that he was aware of the suddenly precipitated conflict. The routine duties of chief clerks desk are never light. Hallock's became so exacting that he rarely left his office DOT the pen-like contrivance in which he fntrenched himself and did his work.
 When the fight began Lidgerwood observed Hallock closely, trying to discover if there were any secret signs of the satisfaction which the revolt of the rank and file might be supposed
 to awaken in an unsuccessful candi- date for the official headship of the Red Butte Western. There were none.
 McCloskey, being of Scottish blood and desert seasoned, was a cool 1p- l fighter who could take punishment without wincing overmuch. But at the end of the first fortnight of the new time card he cornered his chief in
 the private office and freed his mind. 'It's no use, Mir Lidgerwood; we can't make these reforms stick with | the outfit we've got" he asserted, in sharp discoura cement. The next l thing on the docket will be strike, and you know what that will mean in ] country where the whisky is bad
 and nine men out of every ten go
 fixed for trouble"
 sI know. Nevertheless the reforms
 have got to stick" returned Lidger- wood deflnitively. we are going to run this railroad as it should be run or hang it up in the air Did you dis
 charge that operator at Grow Canyon I-the fellow who let train 76 get by him without orders night before last?'' "Dick Rufford? Oh, yes; fired him.
 and he came in on POP today, lugging
 a piece of artillery and shooting off his mouth about what he was going | to do to me-and to you. I suppose | you know that his brother Bart, tsthe
 killer they call him, is the look out at Redlight Sammy's faro game
 and the meanest devil this side of the
 Timanyonis?"
 "I didn't know it, but that cuts no l figure" Lidgerwood forced himself
 to say it, though his lips were curious ly dry. eve are going to have disci-
 pline on this railroad while. we stay
 here, Mac; there are no two ways
 about that."s,
 McCloskey tilted his hat to the bridge of his nose, his characteristic gesture of displeasure "I promised myself that | wouldn't join the gun toters when I came out
 here," he said, half nusingIy, "but Eve weakened on that Yesterday when I was calling Jeff Cummings down for dropping that new shifting engine out of an open switch in broad daylight he pulled on me out of his cab window. What I had to take while he had me hands up is more than I'll take from any living man | again"
 'T wouldn't get down to the desert level if I were you, Mac" said the superintendent.
 'I'm down there right now, in self
 defense," was the sober rejoinder.
 "And if you'll take hint from me you'll heel yourself, too, Mir. Lidger- wood"
 It was an hour or two later in the
 same day when McCloskey came into | the private nf1ce again. hat tilted to
 nose and the gargoyle face portraying
 fresh soul agonies.
 They've taken to pillaging now!" he
 burst out. 'The S1e, that new saddle
 tank shifting engine, has disappeared.
 IT saw Broderick using the '95, and
 when I asked him why he said he | couldn't, find the '16."
 Couldn't find it?" echoed Lidger- wood
 "No, nor I can't either" "Where was it at last accounts? Standing on the coal track under
 chute Mo- 8, where the night crew left
 1t at midnight or whereabouts" ''But certainly somebody must know 1 where it has gone," said Lidgerwood. | 'Yes, and, by grapples, I think l know who that somebody is"' "Who is it?'
 eff I should tell you you wouldn't believe 1t, and, besides, I haven't got the proof. But I'm going to get the
 proof" shaking a menacing forefnger,
 ''and when do"-
 The interruption was the entrance of Hallock coming in with the pay
 rolls for the superintendent's approval.
 McCloskey broke of short and turned to the door.