New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1921-06-17

NihotitCS ~ any III u HidtCiid
that they happened to need, usin' our
cars and engines on their loggin' roads
and mine branches"
You stopped all this?"
You bet l dld-between two days!
They've been maxim seventeen differ
ent kinds of a roar eve since, but I've
had Mr.. Van Britt and the big boss
behind me, so | just showed ahead"
What Kirgan said about the Red
Tower people using our rolling stock
on their private branch roads set a
bee to buzzing In my brain. What If
they had stolen the 1016 to use in that
way?
You have a blueprint of the Portal
division here, haven't yOu?" l asked.
dig 1t up and let's have a look at it,"
At first the facts threatened to bluff
us. The blueprint engineers map was
an old one, but it showed the spurs and
~side-trackS, the stations and water
tanks. Since the lost engine had been
standing at the western end of the
Portal City yards, We didn't try to
trace 1t eastward. To get out in that
direction 1t would have had to pass
the round-hOuse, the shops, the pas
senger station and the headquarters
building, and, even at that time of
TO see it.
Tracing the other way-westward-
we had a clear track for ten miles to
Arroyo. Arroyo had no night opera
tor, SO we agreed that the stolen en-
CINE might easily have slipped past
there Without being marked down.
Eight miles beyond Arroyo we came
to Banta, the first night station west
of Portal City. Here. as We figured
1t, the wild engine must have been
seen by the operator, If by no one
else. Banta was an apple town, and
he town itself might have been
asleep, but the wire man at the sta
ton shouldn't have been.
Lets hold Banta in suspense a bit,
and allow that by some means or
other the thieves managed TO get by"
| suggested. "The next thing to be
considered is the fact that the Ten
Sixteen must now have been run
ning-without orders, we must remem-
ber-against the Fast Mail coming
east. The Mail didn't pass her any
where-nOt officially, at least; if 1t
had, the fact would show up in some
stations report to the dlspateher's
Office"
At this, we hunted up an official
time-card and began to figure on the
meet" proposition. The Fast Mail
was due ut Portal City at twelve
twenty, and on the night in question
it had been on time. Making due
time allowances for inaccuracy in the
yard watchman's story, the missing
engine could hardly have left the
Portal City yard much. before ten
forty-five.
The Fast Mail was scheduled at
miles an hour. Its time at Banta
vas eleven-ffty-three. Allowing the
l0l6 the same rate of speed in the
opposite direction, il would have
passed Banta at eleven-twelve or there
Hence there would still be
forty-one minutes running time to'be
divided between the %eastbound train
and the w|estbound engine. In other
words, the meeting-point, with the two
running at the same speed, would fall @.
about twenty minutes west of Banta.
Tracing the line on the blueprint,
hunted for a possible passing point,
which, according to the way we hal
-hings doped out, should have been
lot more than thirteen or fourteen
niles west of Banta. There was a
siding ten miles west, but be-
'ond mat, nothing east Of Sand Creek,
which was twenty-one miles farther
long; at least, there was nothing that
howed up on the map. The ten-mile
iding might have served for the pass
ne point, but I'm that case the crew ,
# the Fast Mail would surely have i
cen the lOl6 waiting on the siding as .
hey came by. And they hadn't seer ,
/; Kirgan said they had been ques- :
Toned promptly the following norm !,
ne. ,
Though I had been over the road
18th Mr.. Norcross in his private car Z
ny number of times since we had {
lken hold, / didn't recall the detail
biographies very clearly, and / d
ouldn't seem to remember anything q
bout this siding ten miles west of
So l asked Kirgan. e
That siding isn't In any such shape d
lat the Fast Mail could get by with
ut seeing a meet train on the side
'ack, is It'll" $
The big master-mechanlc shook his II
cad. @
Hardly. you'd think. I reckon we are
? a stump, Jimmie. That siding Is h
lrt Of an old ~ at the mouth Of a
llch that runs back into the noun I
ins for maybe a dozen miles or so.
hey tell me the ~ was put in for {,
Timber Mountain Lumber outfit
hen they used the gulch mouth for
Ieir shipping point. They had one y,
their saw-mills up I'm the gulch r,
mewhere, but the business died out "
hen they got the timber all cut of" al
Tell me this, Mart" I put In quick
"The Timber Mountain company OF
n of the Red Tower monopolies: q
q it have a railroad track up that pl
Itch connecting with our Y'Y' m
why, yes; l reckon SO. I'm not m
hit sure that there amt one there OF
{. But II there Is, it's been dis b.
injected from the " I'm sure of
at, because I went I'm on that ~ re
e day with the wrecker." fl
You'd think this would have settled I
But I hung on like a dog to a 10