Carroll County democrat. (Huntingdon, Tenn.) 188?-1971, 1921-04-22

the Pioneer Short Line.
Mr.. Norcross was reaching for the
catch on the floor trap and the jerk
didn't throw him. But 1t snapped the
young woman and the girl away from
the railing so suddenly that the little
one had to grab for hand-holds; and
when she did that, of course the big
muff went overheard.
At this, bunch of things happened,
all In an eye-wink. The train ground
and jiggled to a stop; the girl squealed,
"0h, my muff" and skipped down
the steps to disappear in the general
direction Of the Pacific COAST, the
young woman shrieked after her,
"Maisie Ann -come back here-you'll
be left!" and then took her turn at
disappearing by the same route; and,
on top Of it all, the boss jumped off
and sprinted after both of them, leav-
ing string of large, mansfield COM
ments on the foolishness of women
as sex trailing along behind him as
he flew.
Right then 1t was my golden moment
to play safe and sane. With three of
them off and lost in the gathering
night, somebody with at least a grain
Of sense ought to have stood by to
pull the emergency cord If the train
should start But, Of course, had to
take chance and spill the gravy all
over the tableclOth. The stop was at
a blind siding In the edge of noun
tain desert, and when / sQuinted up
ahead and saw that the engine was
taking water, it looked as If there
were going to be plenty Of time for q
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
too fashionably narrow, and there were
still three or four car-lengths to go
when the tank spout went up with
clang and a clatter of chains and the
old Pacific type" gave couple of
Kisses and a snort.
They're golng" 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 a run.
1t wasn't 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 minute the "Paci.
fic 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
you have let me go back after that
muff thing?"
It was the young woman who an
swered the boss.
Ell didn't stop to thinkw 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 train%
The boss said there wasn't, and /
know the only reason why he didn't
say lot of other things was because
he was too much of a gentleman to
say them in the presence of a couple
of women.
So far as we could see, the SURF
roundlngs 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 little better grip on himself
and he laughed.
"We've all earned the leather medal,
l guess" he chuckled. ITS done now,
and it can't be helped"
"But isn't there anything we can
dop said the young woman. Cant
we walk somewhere to where there is
a station or a town with people in
itY
saw Mr.. Norcross look down at
her skirts and then at the girls.
"Yeu 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
tien in either direction"