The Bolivar County Democrat., 1921-04-09


and sprinted after both of them, leav-
ing a string of large. man-sized com
ments on the foolishness of women
as a sex trailing along behind him as
he few
Right then II was my golden moment
to play safe and sane With three of
| them off and lost in the gathering
night, somebody with at least II grain
of sense ought to have stood by to
pull the emergency cord if the train
/ should start But, Of course. | had to
take Il chance and spill the gravy all
over the tablecIoth. The stop was at
blind siding in the edge of a noun
| tain desert. and when l squinted up
ahead and saw that the engine was
/ taking water. II looked as if there
were going to be plenty of time for
| bit of promenade under the stars. So
| swung off and went to join the muff
hunt
Amongst them. they had found the
| pillow thing before | had a chance to
! horn in. They were coming up the
track, and the boss had each of the
TWO by an arm and was telling them
that they'd be left to a dead moral
certainty if they didn't run. They
couldn't run because their skirts were
100 fashionably narrow, and there We're
still three or four car-lengths to 20
when the tank spout went up with a
clang and clatter of chains and the
old "Pacific type gave a couple of
hisses and snort.
They're going" gritted the boss,
sort Of between his teeth. and with
| out another word he grabbed those
two hobbled women folks up under
/ his arms, just as if they'd been a
couple of sacks of meal, and broke
| into Il run.
1t wasn't a morsel of use, you know.
| Old Hercules himself couldn't have
run very far or very fast with the
| handicap the boss had taken on, and
in less than half a minute the "Paci-
| fc type" had caught her stride and
! the red tail lights of the train were
vanishing to pin points in the night.
We were beautifully and artistically
| left.
When he saw that it was no man
ner of use, the boss quit on the handi-
cap race and put his two armfuls
down while he still had breath enough
left to talk with.
"Well," he said, in his best rusty
hinge rasp, you've done it, Why, in
the name of common sense, couldn't
] Lot hot
muff thing?"
1t was the young woman who an
sWered the boss.
II didn't stop to think!" she
/ fiuttered, taking the blame as if she
/ had been the one to head the process
sion. isn't there any way we can
stop that tran?"
The boss said there wasn't, and |
know the only reason why he didn't
say a lot of other things was because
he was too much of a gentleman to
say them in the presence of couple
of women.
SO far as we could see, the SURE
roundings consisted of a short side
track spur running off into the hills,
and the water tank. The siding
switches had no lights, which argued
that there wasn't even a pump-man at
| the tank-as there was not, the tank
being filled automatically by a gravity
pipe line running back to a natural
| reservoir in the mountains
BY this time the boss was beginning
| to get a little better grip on himself
and he laughed.
We've all earned the leather medal,
| | guess" he chuckled. ITS done now,
and it can't be helped"
But isn't there anything we can
do?" said the young woman Cant
we walk somewhere to where there is
station or a town with people in
| it?"
| saw Mr.. Norcross look down at
her skirts and then at the girls.
"You two couldn't walk very far
or very fast in those things you are
wearing" he grunted. Besides, we
are in one of the desert strips, and it
is probably miles to a night wire sta
! tion in either direction"
We trailed off together up the track,
two and two, the boss walking with
the young woman. After we'd counted
| few of the croSS-ties, the girl said
rs your name Jimmie Dodds?" And
when | admitted it; Mine is Maise
Ann. Pm Shela's cousin on her moth
er's side l think this is great lark;
don't you?'
81 can tell better after it's over" |
said. Maybe We'll have to stay here
all night"
81 shouldn't mind" she came back
airily. Il haven't been up all night
since l was little kiddie and our
| house burned down."
! We reached the big water tank, and
the boss picked out one of the square
! footing timbers for a seat 1t seemed
as if he were finding it a good Bit
| harder to get acquainted with his half
| of the combination than | was with
mine, but after a little the young wo-
| man thawed out a bit and made hin
| talk-to help pass away the time, |
| took it-and the little girl and | sat
and listened When the young woman
| finally got him started, the boss told
her all about himself. how he'd been
railroading ever since he left college.
and a lot of things that I'd never even
dreamed of. It's curious how a pret-
ty woman can make man turn him