The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-01-01

He was now eighteen minutes be
hind his schedule, and his whole rur
was over one of the worst railroad di
visions in Americas difficult, in
fact, thar the crews covering it haC
dubbed it the Stormy.
The Pacific Limited trailing behind
him-crack train of the great trans.
continental system-was usually a six.
car affair. Today it was seven, and
all Tom Davenport's finesse as a loco.
motive engineer had been called upon
to make Lordsburg with only a quar-
ter-hour delay.
Up to Mescal he had climbed from
Tucson, then dropped down a terrific
grade around Dead Mans Curve
into Benson; up again the sharp
ascent into Dragon, then down through
Cochise and San Simon upon the only
few miles of straight track the entire
division boosted.
Once more Davenport set his teeth
as he damned the cutoff lever far
down in the corner and nursed his
train up through STEMS pass, over the
summit, and down again into Lords
burg.
He had still one hundred and forty
eight miles to go in two hundred and
fourteen minutes, besides making up
that lost eighteen, to maintain his
schedule.
The grade was not so nerve-racking
into Ell Paso, and once at Separ, the
summit, Tom calculated on the long,
gradual drop down through the valley
of the Rio Grande to the terminus TO
aid him in considerably exceeding the
usual running time of a mile in a min
ute and a third, which was the average
of his particular schedule for the en-
tire division.
Back in the swaying, lurching Pull
mans a realization of the unusual
speed began to communicate itself to
the minds of the passengers, now
streaming forward to the dining car in
response to the first call for dinner.
Buchanan Williams, whose hurried
rush across the platform at Lords
burg had enabled him to make a con
nection which saved an eight-hour de-
lay, stopped in the vestibule of the
diner to pass his ticket to the con-
ductor.
"Some class to this" he chuckled as
he rendered the bit Of p~asteboard. DO
you think wen make Ell Paso on
time?'
within a few minutes of it," smiled
back the other reassuringly. TON
Davenport's up ahead, and he hates to
make explanations at either end of
the division. Going to Chicago,
Buck?'
mo; Mexico. Trouble down Culia-
way. Another revolution; and
every man in my mine, l suppose, is
put trying to make himself president
with a shotgun instead of using a di-
rect primary to get the nomination.
Wish they'd settle down. The Ell
rigre is beginning to pan out big
tut we need men to work it,"
Some mine, that Ell Tigre, accord
ng to the talk of the boys coming out
# that section
Fair" drawled Buck, with a whim-
ical smile. "She paid out more than
half-million last year, and we've only 5
cratched her back so far. Wait until !
re get down to the Northumberland
evel and drift. Then We'll make
ohnny Rockefeller's wig take on a 7
larcel-wave effect" +
He swung into the diner and seated {
imself in the only vacant chair. OPP [
osite sat a small, dark, unobtrusive 7
tile man whose skin was a trif1e too c
awny for either a Mexican or an In |
ian.
His coal-black hair, large, luminous I
rown eyes, and general appearance i
f intellectually were unusual, but Of t
cred a strange contrast to a certain t
of manner, Williams thought t
ather contemptuously. b
Buck scanned the card while the O
alter brought the meal his vis-a-vis
i'd previously ordered. The mining f
ans interest in his fellow passenger Il
creased as he noted that his meal ii
wholly of vegetables and n
he drank nothing but milk. O
The limited was snorting up the le
-ade toward Separ when his own
was brought in. fl
Williams ate voraciously. as only an fl
merican can whose life Is spent In p,
,mbat with the apparently sterile 81
Id ~antagonistic country which they
ere traversing. NJ
He glanced curiously over at his CO
companion. The brown eyes tn
emed to take on a half melancholy, OF
cooling look, as If the owner were ar
'ering into a future pregnant with
ents.
He laved his hands in the silver fin
wiped them carefully, and,
nile waiting for the check, drew from
pocket a sheet of paper and began ~.
peruse II. -,
Travelling farY' queried Buck, with