The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1912-01-19
The Ghost Club
Man S Story
Bv ROGER N. OLMSTEAD
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation. 1911.

endent Of q railroad, l was once To-
connective engineer. l crawled up to
my present post through every inter
mediate position. One wouldn't sup
pose that a man who had made his
way by hard work and a practical
makeup would be member of the
Ghost club, as some persons call the
Society For Psychical Research. But
I am. and I'm going to tell you what
started me in that line.
When l was a young fellow my ia
Their wanted me to 60 to college, but
Disguised him by taking a position as
brennan on locomotive. | had just
learned enough about the machine to
take the throttle when the civil war
broke out. and l enlisted. While
campaigning in the south we captured
a hundred miles of railroad. includ
Ing a good supply of rolling stock. Of
course there was call for those Of us
who had railroad experience. and I
gave in my name as an engineer. l
did that because was young and am
bilious to run an engine.
/ was given a machine at once. This
was more than wanted. for we had
made some sixty miles Of forced
marches. advancing every hour Of the
night, before we had made the capture.
The consequence was that we were all
dead tired. and as for sleep we'd had
hardly any for several days. We had
come down on a central point where
the rolling stock was kept and used it
to capture the terminals on our TANKS.
I was ordered to pull train loaded
with regiment of 500 men on an ex-
petition to occupy the eastern termi-
nal. and ! wasn't permitted to go to
sleep for few hours before starting
either. l told Major Twining. who had
been made superintendent. that he had
better send man with me in case l
went to sleep in the cab from sheer in
ability to keep awake. He sent Bob
and be ready to relieve me in case of
absolute necessity.
We started at dusk to run through
country, the people of which were all
hostile to us and ready to throw us
off the track or fire into us whenever
an opportunity arose. It seems now
more than it did then a pretty risky
business to put man who hadn't had
six hours sleep in forty eight hours in
charge Of the lives of 500 men. Be-
sides. was young then. and young
persons require more sleep than older
ones For awhile the danger of run
ming into distractions was so terrible
to me that l had no thought of sleep.
but we had some seventy miles to go
before morning. and with the load. the
condition of the road. the grades and
the locomotive Of that date we could
not do more than twenty miles an
hour. and the required stops lessened
that figure.
We had got over seven-eighths Of
the distance when the monotonous puff
of the engine began to tell on me and
looked around for Bob. He was not
In the tender Looking over the ten
der. saw him lying on top Of the next
car back sound asleep. Thinking it
would be better to let him get a little
rest before calling him. turned again
to the throttle
must have gone several miles half
asleep. At any rate. was reused by
bullets SCATTERING against the sides of
the cab and hearing fusillade which
was answered by men from the cars.
Realizing that we had struck a nest
of enemies. pulled her wide open.
and she sprang forward with consid
cradle speed. Anyway. we got away
from whoever were firing on us. Then
things settled down to the same old jog.
The next thing l knew Bob shook
me and. taking the throttle out of my
hand. told me to find place to get
some sleep. l preferred to sit on the
seat on the other side of the cab
saw Bob running the engine. looking
as wide awake as if he hadn't been
doing forced marching. and. treasured
by the sight. | went to sleep. | was
awakened by a touch which | sup
posed came from Bob. who wished to
be relieved. didn't see Bob. but |
saw that day was breaking. No one
was at the throttle No one was in
the cab or the tender The Iocomo-
tive's speed had been reduced to min
imum. ss,ssssFzn s1.s sr.t.~-~
Where was Bob? 1 had seen him
asleep on top of the car; then he had
relieved me. But where had he gone
since. and how had he come to leave
the engine without guide? And who
had awakened me if not he?
We needed water. and as soon as l
came to the next tank l pulled up to
take in some. Colonel Fordick. in COM
mand of the troops was hauling. came
forward to ask why we were getting
on so slowly. told him my story and
asked him to have search made for
Bob. He did so. but no Bob was to
be found. | began to feel kind of
queer about the whole business.
couldn't stop thinking what had be-
come of my assistant and when or
why he had left his post. endangering
the lives of a whole regiment.
We made the point we were going
to before sunrise. and when / took the
train back I had orders to look out fol