The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1921-04-07

n big pillow mum to match. though the
April night wasn't even halfway
chilly.
The boss stepped out on the plat
form to close the side trap door which,
with the railing gate on that side, had
been left open by a careless rear flag
man. Just then the big Pacific type"
that was pulling us let out a whistle
screech that would have walked the
dead, and the alr-braRes went on
with a jerk that showed how beautl-
fully reckless the rallroadlng was on
the Pioneer Short Line.
Mr.. Norcross was reaching for the
catch on the floor trap and the jerk
didn't throw him. But II snapped the
the railing so suddenly that the little
one had TO grab for hand.holds; and
when she did that, of course the big
muif went overheard.
At this, bunch of things happened,
all In nn eye-wink. The train ground
and jiggled to stop; the girl squealed,
"Oh, my muffl" and skipped down
the steps to disappear In the general
direction OF the Pacific coast; the
young woman shrieked after her,
"Malsle Ann l--come back here-you'll
be left !" and then took her turn at
disappearing by the same route; and,
on top of II all, the boss jumped off
and sprinted after both of them, leav-
ing n string &C large, man-sized com
ments on the foollshness of women
as n sex trailing along behind him as
he flew.
Right then 1t was my golden moment
to play safe and sane. With three of
them of and lost in the gathering
night, somebody with at least n grain
of sense ought to have stood by to
pull the emergency cord If the train
should start. But, of course, had to
take n chance and spill the gravy all
over the tablecloth. The stop was at
blind siding in the edge of noun
tain desert, and when / squnted up
ahead and saw that the engine was
taking water. II looked as II there
were going to be plenty of time for a
bit of promenade under the stars. So
swung off and went to join the mufr
hunt.
Amongst them. they had found the
pillow thing before ! had chance to
horn In. They We're 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 II they didn't run. They
couldn't run because their skirts were
too fashlonably narrow, and there were
still three or four car-lengths to go
when the tank spout went up with a
clang and n clatter OF chains and the
old Pacific type" gave couple OF
hlsses and snort.
They're golngl" grltted 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 II they'd been a
couple OF sacks of meal, and broke
into run.
| 1t wasn't n morsel of use, you know.
| Old Hercules himself couldn't have
run very far or very fast with the
|
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 II 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 1t Why, In
the name of common sense, couldn't
you have let me go back after that
nun thlng?'
1t was the young woman who an
swered the boss.
IL didn't stop TO thinki" sNt
fluttered, taking the blame as II she
had been the one 10 head the process
sion. Isn't there any way we car
stop that trainT
The boss said there wasn't, and
know the only reason why he didn't
say n lot of other things was because
he was too much OF gentleman tC
say them in the presence of couple
of women.
So far as we could see. the sur
roundings consisted of a short side
track, a spur running or into the hills
and the water tank. The sldinl
switches had no lights, which argued
that there wasn't even a pump-man Al
the tank-as there was not. the tanl
being filed automatically by gravit,
pipe line running back TO natura
reservoir In the mountains.
By this time the boss was beglnnln,
to get little better grip on himself
and he laughed.
"We've all earned the leather medal
guess he chuckled. ITS done now
and II can't be helped"
"But isn't there anything we cai
dor" said the young woman. "Can'