Arizona republican., 1912-03-03
65e Car By ARTHUR K. AYERS.
Copyright, 1910, by the Pearson
 Publishing Col

l
 no possibility of catching the runaways
 before they reached it, little chance that they would round 1t in safety. and none at all that there would be any thing left of them or the yard engine | if they did pitch over on to the rocks | below. All this George knew-and he | did not hesitate. Only the merest trifie he eased the speed for the bend, ! leaning far out of the window to catch | the first indication that they had left | the track. Then for half a minute the tension was at the highest. The old l engineer arose in his seat and Hallidy looked with longing for soft spot on | which to jump.
 Had the inner wheels risen an inch | higher it would have been all over. but l they followed the rails in some of the ! mysterious ways that are beyond the ken of man and after them the engine. careening wildly but in safety. One | final mad spurt and the knuckles on the couplers touched, trembled a mo- ment. and locked fast together. Sst! Sst, Sst, The air shot out from the valves and the brakeshoes clamped down on the drivers unyieldingly. A scant one hundred yards from the end | of the track they halted.
 A little white and shaky, Amhorn and his fireman climbed down from the l cab and made their way forward 10 where a knot of excited and admiring trackmen were clustered about the cap tured cars.
 Better open it and see if it's all safe before you start back up the grade with that dynamite" suggested O'Rourke, and together he and George broke the seal and entered. There drifted out in the next few minutes the sound of smothered language of which only burnt out eight boiler tubes" and "sprained driving-rod" was distinctly audible, and the two men reappeared, closing the door behind them. Tn omi-
 
 the cab and the homeward run began. In all the hour it required for the re- turn trip he youchsafed no word to the fireman, but Combs was too thankful to be alive to care for aught else.
 Then the North Haven yard hove in sight and George steamed down to the yard-master's office before he stopped. His lower lip was fully an inch in ad vance of its partner as he dropped from the engine, and the little tuft of chin whiskers he then wore stuck out belligerently before him as he en- tered the room where Oakes and Mel vile were. At his first glimpse of them restraint left him. He let loose the flood-gates of wordy wrath, he ges- ticulated, he stamped, he rolled up his sleeves, he besought someone to come forth and be licked into a resemblance of a last years bird nest. Slowly, through fog of heated words, it be- came apparent that he wished to take Shorty Oakes apart and examine him to see what made his wheels go round. He desired to unscrew his head and pour the sawdust out of it. He ex- pressed a wish to run switch engine on the further shore of the StyX for ever if another such monumental idiot had been seen since the days of the Deluge He regretted with tears in his eyes that there was no adequate punishment for man who would send another chasing fifteen miles on a re- tired sewing machine over the devils own personal track after a car marked Explosives" that contained only bdled hay!
 The first faint dawn of an idea as he placed desk between himself and the infuriated George.
 Hay" he said weekly. "H-h-hay"
 "Yes, hay," snorted the old man. Hay, dried grass, goat's-feed bound with wire for such jackasses as you to eat!"
 ''B-but you told me to card that car of dynamite, c. & O. 14,67S," protested the bewidered Shorty, turning to Mel vile.
 "C. & O.! c. 6 O.lr shouted the yard master. ''Who said anything about c. & O.? I told you B. & O., Baltimore and Ohio! c. & O., 14,678 was baled hay for Walton Brothers mules!"
 Amhorn blocked the door, mules are not good company for dynamite: there was a crash of glass as the little clerk dived through the window, rolled over unhurt, and set forth in frantic search for the B. & O. car of the same num- Der.
 The story would not keep. Though l towers and shops and roundhouse it | spread, gaining in thrilling details at | each telling until finally 1t came to the l ears of McKelly.
 Good old George" muttered that | official, half to himself, and there was !! deeper than laughter in his | eyes as he said it. You thought it | was dynamite, yet you went after it i just the same. And you'd do it again | tomorrow. So long as we've got you | and a hundred more just about as | game I guess we won't worry about | the roads running"
 And his stenographer wondered a | little at the gentleness in tke big mans | voice as he dictated a telegram to the | old engineer that his former main line run was waiting for him.
 But, while all this was some years ago, even now when George comes to visit Combs the children are warned not to mention baled hay while Grand