The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1918-01-03
THE PRINCETON UNION: THURSDAY JANUARY 3 1918

ming at tea, and she really thought she
could.
Mahoney looked for letter that
never came. AS mail train after mail
train had come and left him to his
gloomy and desolate home on the big
hill with no answer from his first
love, his mind found new theories as
to how it was possible she might have
missed receiving his message. So he
wrote again. AS the days wore on
and he received no response, he asked
Kennon, the night track man, if the
Cooks were still at Ell Paso. Perhaps
they had gone, he thought. But when
he had been told over the wire that
Miss Cook had been seen crossing the
tracks that very afternoon, his heart
sank within him, and for the first
time he took a drink. The mesqual
was bitter, and his head soon began
to ache. The next morning, he made
two solemn oaths. The first was that
he would never speak to another girl
chance. His second resolve was that
he would never take another drink. He
has studiously observed the latter.
One morning the Ell Paso Chronicle
had story Of Mahoney's bravery, and
it was scattered all over the front
page Of that newspaper. Robbers had
bound and gagged him at Sierra
Blanca, but they had not secured his
hands so fast that he could not crawl
to the telegraph key and warn the
approaching express that was soon
due at Valentine of it's impending dan
ger. This incident was followed a
week later by another story printed
equally as conspicuous, telling how
Mahoney, with a pistol, had shot the
headlight out Of an engine dashing by
the station after the signal lights had
failed to warn the engineer to get in
on the sidetrack. Thus a collision
with No. 81, which was hauling the
general manager, was averted. Three
weeks later Dave Mahoney was dis
patcher at Ell Paso.
Fearing that his return might rekin-
die the dangerous fame which, ap-
parently, had been successfully ex-
tinguished in her daughter, as soon as
Mrs. Cook discovered Mahoney's pres
ence, she arranged an excursion for
herself and daughter into Chihuahua
A months stay among the foothills
of the Sierra Madres worked such
wonderful results in the physical con-
dition of Mrs. Cook that she conclud-
ed she was well enough to go back
to her Louisiana orange grove.
So one evening she wrote a message
to superintendent Stewart, telling him
of her plans, and asking him to see to
it that her belongings in the Magoffin
flats were packed and made ready for
shipment on her return, and that she
would depart from Chihuahua the fol-
lowing afternoon. Mahoney was at
the desk when the telegram was re-
ceived. He did not sleep that night,
and the following morning he asked
to be relieved of work for the day.
In the evening he wandered over
into the sleepy town Of Juarez, just
across the river from Ell Paso, and the
terminal of the Mexican Central. He
drifted into the dispatcher's office, and
after shaking hands with the opera
tor, took a seat. He could not tell
why he remained. An indefinite some
thing held him to his chair. In little
while the dispatcher asked Mahoney
to take his key while he walked over
to the station. Mahoney had no more
than glanced over the train sheet than
the operator at Pueblo began nervous
ly calling Juarez. Mahoney answered,
and then came the message that made
his head reel. The passenger train
had run over half a dozen Mexicans,
and all had been killed. At that mo-
ment the train was at the station and
the Mexican officials were coming.
1t did not take Mahoney a moment
to grasp the real seriousness of the
situation. If the train were caught,
all hands, trainmen and passengers,
would have to lie in jail and await
tedious and vexatious questioning by
the alcalde and his officers. He thought
of her and mentally took a picture of
that sweet face in a Mexican cell. A
shudder passed over his frame.
''No. 16 has right of way to Juarez,
limit TO miles an houS. Make no stops
unless for water. Disregard all sig
nails. Have conductor say to American
lady and her daughter on board your
train that if train detained, American
consul will proceed on special to pro-
tect them.
(SigneO ''MAHONEY,
"Acting Trainmaster."
That was the order that went from
the trainmaster's office to the conduc-
tor of No. 16. When the operator had
returned to relieve Mahoney, and heard
what had been done, he would have
been powerless to have countermanded
the order, even if he had been so in
clined, for the train had already pulled
out Of Pueblo.
Two hours later a closed carriage
was driven rapidly over the long
bridge between the Mexican and Amer
fcan towns. There was no examina-