The Elk Mountain pilot., 1921-04-21

"
We Hunted for q Possible Passing
Point.
out seeing a meet train on the side
track, Is it?"
The big master-mechanic shook his
head. ..l
Hardly. you'd think. reckon we are
up u stump, Jimmie. That siding In
par IN old " att mouth Of q
gulch that runs back into the noun
tains for maybe a dozen miles or so.
They tell me the ~ was put In for
the Timber Mountain Lumber outfit
when they used the gulch mouth for
their shipping point. They had one
Of their saw-mil!s Up in the gulch
somewhere. but the business died out
when they got the timber all cut on"
"Tell me this, Mart" put in quick
ly.> THE Timber Mountain company
is one of the Red Tower monopolies:
did 1t have a railroad track up that
gulch connecting with our Y'?'
"Why, yes; 1 reckon so. I'm not
right sure that there amt one there
yet. But II there is. it's been dis
connected from the ~ Pm sure of
that, because went in on that W
one day with the wrecker."
You'd think this would have settled
1t. But l hung on like a dog to a
root.
Say, Mart" 1 insisted, "this "
siding we're talking about is just
around where the Ten-Sixteen ought
fn ho hn 10 20
can tell by this map it's the only place
where it could have met it. And the
old gulch track would have been a
mighty good hiding-plac for the stolen
engine!"
"There amt any track there" said
Kirgan, shaking his head; "or, least
wise, If there is, 1t hasn't any rail con-.
nection with our siding, just as I'm
tellin' you We'll have to look far
ther along"
Somehow, I couldn't get 1t out of
my head but that was right. Our.
guesses all went as straight as II
string to that ~ siding ten miles west
Of Banta, and 1 was sure that If had
l'een talking to Mr.. Van Britt could
have convinced him. But Kirgan was
awfully hard-headed.
Its supper time" he said. after
we had mulled while longer over
the map. Tomorrow. II you like.
we'll take an engine and run down
there. But we amt goin' to nnd any
thing. l can tell you that, right now"
"Yes, and tomorrow we may have
the new general manager. and then
you and and all the others will be
! hunting for some other railroad to
work on" retorted.
I pretty nearly had him over the
edge, but 1 couldn't push him the
rest of the way to save my life.
"If there was the least little scrap-a
reason even to imagine that Mr.. Nor
cross had gone on on that stolen
eight-wheeler, it would be different.
Jimmie" he protested. But there
aint; and you know doggoned well
there amt. Let's go uptown and
hunt up something to eat. You'll feel
a heap clearer In your mind when you
get good square meal inside O. your
Clothes"
We left the shop Offices together,
and got shut out, crossing the yard,
by freight that was pulling In from
the west. There was yard crew
shifting on the other side of the In
coming train. and rather than wait
for the double obstruction to clear itself.
we walked down the shop track. mean
ing to go around the lower end of
things.
This det0ur took us past the round
house, and when we reached the turn
table lead, the engine Of the just
arrived freight came backing down
the skip-track. Seeing Kirgan, the
engineer swung down from the step
at the lead switch. leaving the hostler
to "spot" the engine on the table.
knew the engineer by sight. His name
was Gorcher, and he was reformed
cow-punch'-with record for getting
out of more tight places with heavy
train than any other man on the divi-
sion.
Here's looking at you, Mr.. Kir-
gan," he said, with sort of Happy
Hooligan grin on his smutty face.
You been passin' the word, quiet,
among the boys to keep an eye out
f'r that Atlantic-type that got lost in
the shuttle, amt you? Well, found
her."