The L'Anse sentinel., 1921-07-22
CHAPTER xvIll
The Murder Madman


layout. the chief and I. leaving the
good old major thoughtfully putting
his cigar In the club smoking-room.
With a strike due to be pulled of In
little more than three hours there
were about million things that would
have to be jerked around into shape
and propped up so that they could
stand by themselves while the Shore
Line was taking a vacation. And
there was only a little handful Of US
in the headquarters to do the jerking
and prOpping.
II was precisely in crisis like this
that the boss could shine. From the
minute we hit the tremendous job he
was all there. carrying the whole map
Of the Short Line In his head, think
ing straight from the shoulder, and
never missing lick; and l don't be-
lieve anybody would ever have sus-
pected that he was beaten man,
pushed to the ropes in the final round
with the grafters. his reputation as
successful railroad manager as good
as gone. and his warm little love-
dream knocked sky-winding forever
and day.
Luckily, we found Fred May still at
his desk, and he was promptly clamped
to the telephone and told to get busy
spreading the hurry call. In half an
hour every relief operator we had In
Portal City was In the wire-room, and
the back-breaking job Of preparing
thousand miles Of railroad for sud-
den tie-up was In full swing. MIR.
Perkins, as division superintendent
was in touch with the local labor
leaders Persuading and insisting by
turns, Mr.. Norcross fought out the
necessary compromises with the
unions. All ordinary traffic would be
suspended at midnight. but passenger
trains en- route were to be run through
to our connecting line terminals east
and west, live stock trains were to he
laid out only where there were feed
ing corrals, and perishable freight was
to be taken to its destination wher-
ever that might be.
The strikers agreed to allow the
mail trains to run without Interrupt
tion, with our promise that they would
not carry passengers. Hoskins and
his committee bucked little at this,
but got down when they were shown
that they could not afford to risk a
clash with the Government. This ex-
ception admitted, another followed, as
q matter of course. If the mail trains
were to be run, some Of the telegraph
operators would have to remain on
ding train orders.
With these generalities out Of the
way, we got down to details. Sire
alarm" wires were sent to the various
cities and towns on the lines asking
for immediate information regarding
food and fuel supplies, and the strike
leaders were notified that, for sheer
humanity's sake, they would have to
permit the handling of provision
trains In cases where they were abb
solutely needed.
By eleven o'clock the tangle was
| getting itself pretty well Strengthened
| out. Some of the trains had already
been abandoned, and the others were
moving along to the agreed-upon des-
tinations. Kirgan had taken hold In
the Portal City yard, and by putting
on extra crews was getting the needful
shifting and car sorting into shape,
and the Portal City employees, acting
upon their own initiative. were picket
ing the yard and company buildings to
protect them from looters or fire-set-
ters. Mr.. Van Britt's special, so the
wires told us, was at Lesterburg, and
II was likely to stay there; and Mr..
Van Britt, himself. couldn't be reached.
1t was at half-past eleven that we
got the first real yelp from somebody
who was getting pinched. 1t came in
the shape Of wire from the Strath-
coma night operator. A party of men
"mine owners" the operator called
them-had Just heard of the impend-
ing railroad tie-up. They had been
meaning to come in on the regular
night train, but that had been aban-
dOned. SO now they were offering
all kinds of money for a special to
bring thern to Portal City. 1t was
represented that there were millions
at stake. Couldn't we do something7
Mr.. Norcross had kept Hoskins and
few of the other local strike lead
ers where he could get hold of them,
and he put the request up to them as
matter that was now out of his
hands. Would they allow him to run
one-car special from the gold camp
to Portal City after midnightf 1t was
for them to say.
Hoskins and his accomplices went
of to talk II over with some Of the
other men. When the big freight con-
ductor came back he was alone and
was grinning good-naturedly.
1--WE amt aimin' to make the COM
pany lose any good money that comes
a-rollirg down the hill at 1t. Mister
Norcross," he said. "Cinch these here
Strathcona hurry-boys f'r all you can
get out o. them. and II you'll lend us
the loan of the wires. we'll pass the
word to let the special come on
through"
1t was sure the funniest strike I
ever saw or heard of. and guess the
49, A. tnn-xxrfkh Al Atxg~