New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1921-05-20
CHAP Err |
At Sand Greek Siding

As a general proposition, don't be-
lieye much in the things called
Punches But there ARE exceptions
TO all rules, and we certainly uncov-
cred the biggest one of the lot-the
boss and THE night We left Port
land and the good old Pacific coast.
II was this way. We had finished
the construction work on the Oregon
Midland and were ON our way to the
train, when ! had one of those queer
little premonit0ry chills you hear so
much about and knew just as well ms
could be that we were never going
To pull through 10 Chicago without get
ting "A jolt of some sort. The reason
If you'll call II II reasOn-was that,
Just before we came to the railroad
station, the boss walked calmly under
a ladder standing in front of n new
building and besides that, IL was the
thirteenth day of the month, n Fri
day, and raining like the very mis-
chief.
just To sort of toll us along, may
he, the fates didn't begin on MS that
night. They waited until the next
day and then proceeded TO shove us
In behind "A frcight-train wreck at
Widner. Idaho where We lost twelve
hours. II looked MS II that didn't
amount To much. because we weren't
due anywhere AT any particular time,
The boss was On his way home for a
little visit with his folks IA Illinois.
and beyond thnt he was going 10 meet
u bunch of Engllshmcn In Montreal,
and maybe let them make him general
manager of one of the Canadian rail
ronds.
So Mr.. Norcross was In no special
hurry, and neither was |. had been
confidential clerk and shorthand an
for the boss on the Midland construc-
tinn. and he was taking me along part
ly because he knows n cracking good
stenographer when he sees one, but
mostly because | was dead anxious to
90 anywhere he was going.
But, II II hadn't been for That
twelve-hour layout we would have
caught the Saturday night train on
the Pioneer Short Line, Instead of the
train Sunday morning, and there
would have been no meeting with
Mrs. Shella and Malsle Ann no tele-
gram from Mr.. Chadwick, because II
wouldn't have found us; no hold-up
AT Sand Creek siding; In short. nothing
would have happened that did hap
pen.
II was on Sunday that the JOLT he
gan to get ready to land on Us. Right
soon after breakfast, with the help Of
and my typewriter. Mr.. Norcross
our section into n business office.
saying that now we had n good quiet
day, we'd clean up the million or so
odds and ends OF correspondence he'd
been letting 90 while We were tussling
for the Midland right-of-way through
the Oregon mountains.
From where he sat debating 10 me
the boss was facing forward and now
and then an absent sort of look came
into his eyes while he was talking off
his letters. and il puzzled me because
n wasn't like him. one of the times
after lie had given me a full griSt Of
letters and had gone of to smoke
while | typed n few thousand lines
from my notes TO catch up. I made
p discovery. There were two people
In Section Five just ahead of MS, a
young woman and a girl of maybe fif-
teen or 50. and the Pullman was the
old-fashioned kind. with low seat
! put II up that in those alb
sent-eyed intervals Mr.. NorcrOss had
been studying the back Of the young
w0man's neck. I was measurably sure
wasn't the little girls.
Along I'm the forenoon I made an ex-
cuse TO 70 and get a drink Of wafer
put Of the forward cooler, and on the
way hack I took n good sauare look
st our neigbbors I'm Number Five. The
voupg woman was pretty enough TO
a slammed clock-onlv aprqttv-
ism, lust the word. either: there