Carroll County democrat. (Huntingdon, Tenn.) 188?-1971, 1921-06-17
CHAPTER xI-cOntinued.

4 RtgtN ~ ISL rNt7T @St@'"4r'@~R
&c.
"Cood Lord" exclaimed the little
millionaire; you don't have to tell
me thatl If we can't stop EN- 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
erightfull"
1T Il" said the boss gravely. And
then; Upton, we're not altogether as
bright as we might be. Has it never
occurred to you that we are having
TOO much bad luck to warrant us in
charging it all up to the chapter Of
accldentsT
Mr.. Van Britt blew his cheeks out
until the stubby. cropped mustache
bristled like porcupine quilts.
$50 you've been getting your point
er, too, have your he threw in.
Mr.. Norcross didn't answer the Ques-
tiOn directly.
"Put TarbeIl on the job, and If ne
needs help, LET him pick his own men,"
he directed. 1--WE want to know why
that boulder tumbled down ahead Of
Number Seventeen, and want to see
Tarbell's report on it. Keep at It
night and day Upton. The infection
Is getting into the rank and file and
it's spreading like a sickness. II It
becomes psychological, we shall have
all the trouble we need"
Il know" nodded the superinten-
dent. Il went through 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"
"That's it." said the boss. Eve
don't want to fall into that ditch.
Things are quite bad enough, as they
are"
This ended it for the time. The
Petrolite Canyon wreck was picked
up, the track was cleared, and once
more our trains we're moving on time.
But anybody could see that the entire
Short Line had case of nerves"
Kirgan, Kirgan the cOld-blooded,
showed It one afternoon when went |
over to his Office to return bunch OF |
blue-prints sent In for the boss APP
DrovaI. The big master-mechanic had
a round-house foreman ION the carpet"
and was marrying him like the dickens
Tor letting an engine 90 out with one
OF her truck safety chains hanging
loose.
Ever since we had gone together on
the 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
Elrgan little about the way he had
hammered the round-house man.
aBad medicine" / told him. TITS
worrying the bosses, too. What's do
ing 1t, MART"
"Maybe you can tell, ne groWled.
ats 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 Britt d fire the whole jumpy
Outfiti'
1t didn't seem as though firing was
needed SO much as dose Of nerve
tonic of some sort. Tarbell was work
ing hard on the problem, quietly, and |
without making any talk about 1t, and |
Kirgan was giving him all the men he
asked for from the shops; quick-witted
fellows who were up in all the me-
chanical details, and who made bet
ter spoilers than outsiders would be-
cause they knew the road and the
ropes. But it was no use. / saw
some of Tarbell's reports, and they
didn't show any crookedness. It
seemed to be just bad luck-one land
slide after another Of it.
Meanwhile, New York had walked up
again. President Dunton had been Off
the Job somewhere. / guess. but now
he was back, and the things he wired
to the boss were enough to make your
hair stand on end. looked every day
to see Mr.. Norcross pitch the whole
sho0ting-match into the Gre and quit
cold.
He'd never taken anything like Mr..
Dunton's abuse from anybody before,
and he couldn't seem to get hardened
10 It. But he was loyal to Mr.. Chad
wick; and, Of course. he knew that
lEr. Duntonis hot wires were meant ]