The spectator., 1921-05-10
CHAPTER VIII
A Close Call

At the "Y" siding we Stopped-with- out going on to the gravel track where Gorcher had seen the lost 1016-and kirgan and I got off with lantern. This was because, on the way down, l had managed to tell the big master mechanic about the Cantrell talk. though I hadn't succeeded in making him believe that it accounted for Mir. Norcross' drop-out Just the same he humored me by having Billy Gorcher stop, and now he was trying to make me take it STt of slow and easy as we stumbled out toward the stem of the "Y." That was Kirgan's way. He was as hahi as nails with gang of men. but he could be as soft-hearted as any woman when fellow was all in. And he knew I wasn't half 'at myself yet. physically.
 Don't get too much hope up. Jim mic" he was saying, as we bumped along around the crooking track of the "Y." "We ain't goin' to find any thing out wonder but rusty loggin' track and that broken rail con nection. You see. I've been here be- fore. and I know"
 He was as right as could be. When we reached the end of the "Y' there was the broken connection. just as he'd said. The old saw-mill track was still there, leading off in the dark up the gulch. but the two switch rails had been taken out and the switch itself was as rusty as if it hadn't been used in years.
 What you heard from Mir. Cantrell may have been all true enough" kir- gan said. while 1 stood swallowing hard and staring down at the broken rail connection, "Only it didn't have anything to do with the big boss. Them thugs was probably plannin' to wreck the Mail. all right, and they came down here to do it. The Lord only knows why they didn't do it: prapS there wasn't time enough, after they'd got the Sixteen in on the gravel track"
 only just about half heard what he was saying. He had the lantern. and it's light fell squqrely upon a crosste a foot or two beyond where we were standing. It was the last tie in the empty string from which the two rails had been taken up to break the connection with the lighter saw-mill track steel. and what l was looking at was fresh spike hole; fresh beyond all question of doubt because there was a clean new splinter of the wood sticking up beside it--a splinter that had been broken out when the spike was pulled.
 took the lantern from Kirgan In my one good hand, and he stood there waiting for me while l walked on out to the chopped-ofr end of the saw mill track, examining the loose ties as l went along. There were fresh spike holes in some of the others; just one here and there. But that was enough. After I had knelt to hold the lantern close to the rails of the rusty timber track I knew my hunch was all right.
 Come here, Mart!" I called, and Nhtn Hc Cuuit, l SHoWeu nm tue HeW holes and new wheel-marks on the old rusty rails of the timber track that proved as clear as daylight that an engine or n train had been over them away this side of the rains and the snows that had rusted them.
 Kirgan didn't say word-not to me. He just took one look at the rubbed rails and then yelled back to Gorcher to>run out on the "Y" What followed went like clockwork. There were tools, a spike-puller and driv- ing-maul. on the light engine's tender and while the two firemen were throw ing them off, Kirgan made a couple of swift measurements with his pocket tape.
 These two. right here. boys" he ordered, indicating pair of rails in the other leg of the "Y," and in less than no time the two rails were up and relaid to bridge the gap of the broken connection.
 l suppose we poked along into the black heart of the Timber range for as much as five or six miles before