The Dolores star., 1921-11-18
CHAPTER xl-Continued.

Good Lord" exclaimed the little
millionaire: "you don't have 10 tell
me that II we can't stop 'em. Uncle
Dunton Will have plenty of good rea-
sons for cleaning us all out. lock,
stock, and barrel! l was talking with
Carter. in the claim office, This morn
ing Our loss and damage account
for the past month is something
frightfulr
at Is" said the boss grayely. And
then: Upton. we're not altogether as
bright MS we might be. Has 1t never
occurred to you that we are having
too much bad luck to warrant us In
charging II all up to the chapter of
accidents7"
Mr.. Van Britt blew his cheekS out
until IN. stubby, cropped mustache
bristled IKE porcupine quilIs.
so you've been getting your point
er. TOO, have you?" he threw in.
3lr NOrc.Oss didn't answer the ques-
ton directly.
put TarheIl on the joU, and II he
aeeds help. let him pick his own men"
he directed. I'VE want to know why
that boulder tumbled down ahead of
Number Seventeen, ans want to see
TnrbeIl's report O. Il. Keep at ii
night and day. Upton. The infection
is getting into the rank and file and
ate spreading like sickness. If 1t
becomes psychological. we shall have
ALI the trouble we need"
Il know" nodded the superinten-
.dant II went through q 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 II
you'd snap your fingers at them"
"Thsts IT," said the boss. "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 O 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 ap-
prOval The big master-mechanic had
q rOund-house foreman "on 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
rhe rescue run to Timber Mountain,
Mart and had been sort of chummy,
and after the foreman had gone away
with his foot in his hand. / jOshed
kirgan little about the way he had
hammered the round-house man.
"Bad medicine" told hirx "Its
worrying the bosses. too. What's do,
ing it, Mart2"
"Maybe you can tell" he growled
ITS hoodoo-that's what it is
Seven engines in the shops in the last
nine days, and three more that haven't
been fished out-a the ditch yet. / wish
Mr.. Van B'itt d fire the whole jumpy
outfit"
1t didnt seem as though firing was
needed so much as "A dose of nerve
tonic of some sort. Tarbell was work,
fng hard on the problem. quietly, and
without making any talk about it, and
klrgan was giving him all the men he
asked fos from the shops; quick-witted
fellows who were up In all the me
chanical details and who made bet
Ter spOttcss than outsiders would be
cause they knew the road and the
ropes. Rut 1t was no use. l saw
some of Tarbell's reports, and they
didn't show any crOokedness. II
seemed to be Just bad luck-one land
slide after aDother Of 1t.
Meanwhile. New York had walked uI
again. President Dunton had been of
the job somewhere. I guess. but now
ne WIS back. and the things he wired
tn the boss were enough to make your
hair Stand on enc. looked every day
20 see Mr.. Norcross pitch the whole
shOOting-matrh ito the fire and quit
COLI.
He'd never taken anything like Mr.
Ou0ton's abuse from anybody before
and he couldn't seem to get hardened
20 It. But b was loyal to Mr.. Chad
.~ick; and. Of course. he knew thai
Mr. DURNsa'0 bot wires wsro meant