Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1921-08-19
CHAPTER xl-Continued.


"Good Lordw exclaimed the little
millionaire; "yOu don't have to tell
me that! If we can't stop 'em. Uncle
Dunton will have plenty of good rea-
sons for cleaning us all out, LOCK,
stock, and barrel / was talking with
Carter, in the claim office, this morn
ing. Our loss and damage account
for the past month is something
frightful!"
1T is" said the boss gravely. And
then: upton, we're not altogether as
bright as we might be. Has it never
occurred to you that we are having
tuo much bad luck to warrant us In
charging it all up to the chapter OF
accidents?'
Mr.. Van Britt blew his cheeks out
until the stubby, cropped mustache
bristled like porcupine quilts.
$50 you've been getting your point
er, too, have your" he threw in.
Mr. Norcross didn't answer the ques-
tion directly.
"Put Tarbell on the job, and ii he
needs help. let him pick his own men,,
he directed 1--WE want to know why
that boulder tumbled down ahead OF
Number Seventeen, and l want to see
Tarbell's report on it. Keep at 1t
night and day, Upton. The infection
is getting into the rank and file and
It's spreading like sickness. LII IL
becomes psychological, we shall have
all the trouble we need"
81 know" nodded the superinten-
dent. 81 went through a siege of that
kind on the Great Southwestern, one
winter. 1t was horrible. Men who
had been running trains year in and
year out. and never knowing that they
had any nerves, went to pieces IL
you'd snap your fingers at them"
THAT'S it," said the boss. 1--WE
don't want TO fall into that ditch.
Things are quite bad enough, as they
are"
This ended 1t for the time. The
Petrolite Canyon wreck was picked
up, the track was cleared, and once
more our trains were moving on time.
But anybody could see that the entire
Short Line had case of nerves"
Kirgan, Kirgan the cold-blooded,
showed it one afternoon when l went
over to his office to return bunch of
blue-prints sent In for the boss APP
proval. The big master-mechanic had
q round-house foreman ION the carpet"
and was marrying him like the dickens
for letting an engine go out with one
of her truck safety chains hanging
loose.
Ever since we had gone together on
the rescue run TO Timber Mountain,
Mart and l had been sort of chummy,
and after the foreman had gone away
with his foot in his, hand, l joShed
Kfrgan a little about the way he had
hammered the round-house man.
dad medicine" l told him. "It's
worrying the bosses, too. What's do
.ng It, Mart?"
"Maybe you can tell." he growled.
ITS q hoodoo-thats what it is
Seven engines in the shops in the last
nine DAYS, and three more that haven't
heen fished out-a the ditch yet. i wish
Mr.. Van Britt d fire the whole jumpy
outfltw
II didn't seem as though firing was
oeeded SO much as a dose of nerve
tonic of some sort. Tarbell was work
ING hard on the problem, quietly, and
without making any talk about 1t, and
Firgan was giving him all the men he
asked for from the shops; quick-wltted
ea,,ows who were up in all the me-
cbepieal details, and who made bet
x.r snotters than outsiders would be-
,.ause they knew the road and the
rones But it was no use. saw
son,a of Tarbell's reports. and they
didn't show any crookedness. It
seemed TO be just bad luck-one land
.Iide after another OF it.
Meanwhile, New York had walked up
again. President Dunton had been or
che lob somewhere. l guess. but now
a. WAS back. and the things he wlreo
=, the boss were enough TO make your
hair stand on end. looked every day
% see Mr.. Norcross pitch the whole
shooting-match into the fire and quit
cold.
He'd never taken anything like Mr..
D,,ton,s abuse from anybody before,
and no couldn't seem to get hardened
- r. But he was loyal TO Mr.. Chad
v,ck. and. of course, he knew that
Ar Duntou's hot wires were meant