The Bienville Democrat. [volume] (Arcadia, Bienville Parish, La.) 1912-1980, 1921-05-19

cars and engines on their logsln roaos
and mine branches"
You stopped all this"
"You bet | lid-betWeen two DAYS
THEY'VE been maxim seventeen dl'le''
emf kinds of a roar ever since, OUT I've
lad Mr. Van Britt and the big Doss
behind me, SO | just showed ahead
What Kirgan said about the heo
Tower people using our rolling S'oeA
on their private branch roads SCI d
bee to buzzing in my brain. "ha' II
they had stolen the 1915 to use III lllat
way?
You have blueprint of the for'a'
division here, haven't YOU" l ASKED.
Dig it up and let's have look at IT,
AT first the facts threatened TO Dull
us. The blueprint engineers map was
an old one, but it showed the spurs anu
sjde-tracks, the stations and water
tanks, Since the lost engine had pee'
standing at the western end OF the
Portal City yards, we didn't Try "
trace it eastward. To get out III 'lla'
direction it would have had to pass
the round-house, the shops, the pas
sencer station and the headquarters
bujlding, and, even at that time u
night somebody would have been sure
to see it.
Tracing the other Way-WestWaro-
we had a clear track for ten miles u
Arroyo. Arroyo had no night opera
tor, SO we agreed that the stolen ell
CINE might easily have slipped past
there without being marked oo"l'
Eight miles beyond Arroyo we came
+ to Banta. the first night station west
, Of Portal City. Here, as we inquire"
=. IT, the wild engine must have oeeh
n seen by the operator, If by no o''s
e]se Banta was an apple town. aho
E the town itself might have peer
d asleep, but the wire man at the sta
d ton shouldn't have been.
Lets hold Banta in suspense o''
n and allow that by some means y
g other the thieves managed to get n.y.
o r suggested. "The next thing to D
N considered is the fact that the 1el
70 Sixteen must now have been rul
-. nng-without orders, we must relhell
o ber-against the Fast Mail comm
,d east The Mail didn't pass her an!
where-not officially, at least; II
20. had the fact would show up IN SOIL
10 stations report to the dispatcher
W. Office"
ss At this, we hunted up an offlcl
st. time-card and began to figure on II
ad meet" proposition. The Fast Ma
,ot was due at Portal City at twelV
cd twenty, and on the night in questl'
# had been on time. Making q
cd time allowances for inaccuracy IN Z
in ward watchman's story, the missl
,oh, engine could hardly have left I
de- Portal City yard much before te
forty-tiye.
rho Fast Mail was scheduled
- forty miles an hour. Its time at Bar
tha was eleven-tlfty-three. Allowing
ION 1915 the same rate Of speed In
inc onnosite direction, 1t would M
tho nassed Banta at eleven-twelve or the
abouts. Hence there would still
oor forty-one minutes running time 10
e. divided between the eastbound tr
.,, - and the westbound engine. In Of
iI t. words, the meeting-point, with the
:, 10 10 running at the same speed would
Nv about twenty minutes west OF BAL
,htv Tracing the line on the blue-pr
10y we hunted for possible passing pc
nos which, according to the way we
who things doped out, should have b
q ,' IN not more than thirteen or four'
~, " " miles west Of Banta. There wa
;. IT, blind siding ten miles west out
ond vond mat, nothing east of Sand or
"'''' which was twenty-one miles far
Tho along: at least, there was nothing
a ,nd showed up on the map. the ten
eo,, siding might have served for the
40" , ing point, but in that case the
at Of the Fast Mail would surely
' w ;. seen the 1915 waiting on the sld]n
- Nod they came by. And they hadn't
Nv .u #: Kirgan said they had been
\ ,>a "'s toned promptly the following II
ing.
n Though I had been over the
with Mr.. Norcross in his private
onv number Of times since we
taken hold, l didn't recall the {
biographies very clearly an
couldn't seem to remember any
4 about this siding ten miles we
Ranta. So l asked klrgan.
- THAT siding isn't in any such
that the Fast Mail could get by
\ 4 out seeing meet train on the
MIN track, is it?'
6 The big master-mechanlc shoe
WIN head.
A%I| Hardly, you'd think. 1reckon :
&XI| IN q stump Jimmie. That SID
-M| mart of an old ~ at the mouth
. gulch that runs back into the
talns for maybe a dozen miles
//O They tell me the ~ was put
.V the Timber Mountain Lumber
. when they used the gulch mou
. their shipping point. They ha
5MNM NJ their saw-mills up in the
,MuI|D somewhere, but the business al
NO when they got the timber all cl
INXlN "rell me this, Mart" I put in
N|MS ". "The Timber Mountain co
i! NINP Is one of the Red Tower mono
'S4If1N did It have a railroad track u
WI gulch connecting with our "
"Why, yes; l reckon So
through ~. :uro that there amt ont