Williams news., 1914-12-17

ran toward the scene of the wreck they dashed down the hill together and threw a handcar on the track.
 Then, with what tools they could get together, and spare derailer on the front, they pumped madly up the canyon, holding their breaths at every curve for fear of what they might see If there was one runaway car there ginning an attack.
 Already on the ridges above them they could hear the crack of rifles, and a jet or two of dust made 1t evident that they were the mark. But with three strong men at the handles they made the handcar jump. The low hills fled behind them. They rounded a point and the open track, lay before them, with something ,a < H
 "Jump!" shouted the roadmaster, and as they tumbled down the bank they heard a crash behind them and their handcar was knocked into kind ling wood. 2 .t
 It was a close call for all three men, and there had been but an in stant between them and death, a death by the most approved fighting methods of the revolutionists, methods which kept the fighters out of harms way. .,s
 Now up to the track!" the roadmas- ter panted, as the destroyer swept on down the line. Find some tools we'll take out rail!"
 With frantic eagerness he toiled up the fill and attacked a fish-plate, and Bud and the young guard searched the hillside for tools to help with the work. They fell to with sledge and clawbar, tapping off nuts. jerking out spikes, and heaving to loosen the rail-and then once more that swift-moving something loomed up suddenly on the track.
 up the hill!" commanded the road master, and as they scrambled into a gulch a wild locomotive, belching smoke and steam like a fire engine, went rushing past them, struck. the loose rail, and leaped into the creek bed. A moment later, as 1t crashed It's way down to the water, there was an explosion that shook the hills. They crouched behind the cut bank, and the trees above them bowed suddenly to the slash of an iron hail.
 3"Dynamite!" cried the roadmaster, grinning triumphantly as he looked up after the shock; and when the fall of fragments had ceased, and they had fled as if by instinct from the place, they struck hands on their narrow es- cape. But back at the big house, with everybody giving thanks for their de- livery from the powder train, the mas ter mechanic raised single voice of protest. He knew the sound. He knew that dynamite had not been re- sponsible for the crash that smote the ears of the anxious listeners.
 Twas not dynamite!" he yelled. Powder train be damned! It was No. g! She was sour as a distillery! She blowed up, I tell ye-she blowed up when she hit the creek!"
 And even after shower of bullets from the ridge had driven them all to cover he still rushed to those who would listen and clamored that 1t was the bran. 4s s.1 sts
 But there was scant time to hold a post-mortem on No. g, for on the sum- init of nearby ridge, and overlooking the black tank, the rebels had thrown up a wall in the night, and from the se- curity of this shelter they were indus triously shooting up the town.
 The smash of the first wild car had been their signal for attack, and as the explosion threw the defenders into confusion they made a rush to take the tank. Here, as on the day before, was stationed the federal garrison, 8 scant twenty or thirty men in charge of boy lieutenant. :; |; \
 Being practically out of f;hmmunition; he did not stand on the. order of his going, but as his Npelones pelted past the superintendent's house the 'reor- ganized miners, their belts stuffed with cartridges from their own private stock, came charging up from the town and rallied them in the rear.
 Trained by American leaders they were the only real fighting force to be depended upon unless the Americans themselves should take hand in the game, and that they could not do without the possibility of serious in- ternational conseQuences, chance they could not take except as last resort to save the women and children and themselves. .5
 In solid, shouting mass they swept up the hill together, dropped down be- hind the defenses, and checked the as- founded rebels with a volley. Then there was another long-range battle. with every. sign of war but the dead. until at last, as, the firing slackened from the lack of cartridges. a white flag showed on the ridge above, and the leaders went out for a barley one of those parleys so character istic of Mexican revolutions. and which in reality mean so little, for la41. aiaoz