The L'Anse sentinel., 1921-06-17
CHAPTER xl-continued.

"Good Lord" exclaimed the little
millionaire; "you don't have to tell
me that! If we can't stop 'em. 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
frightful!''
at is" 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
accidents?"
Mr.. Van Britt blew his cheeks out
until the stubby, cropped mustache
bristled like porcupne quills.
$50 you've been getting your point
er. too, have your" he threw in.
Mr.. Norcross didn't answer the ques-
tion directly.
"Put Tarbell on the job, and II he
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 1t
night and day. Upton. The infection
is getting into the rank and file, anu
it's spreading like sickness. FIT
becomes psychological, we shall have
all the trouble we need"
II know" nodded the superinten-
dent. ."I 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 If
you'd snap your fingers at them"
That's it," said the boss. "We
don't want to fall into that ditch.
Things are quite bad enough, as they
are" ~
This ended 1t for the time. The
Petrolite Canyon wreck was picked
up, the track was cleared, and once
more our trains were moving on time.
But anybody could see that the entire
Short Line had a case of nerves."
Kirgan, Kirgan the cold-blooded,
showed Ii one afternoon when 1 went
over to his office to return bunch of
blue-prints sent in for the boss ap-
proval. The big master-mechanic had
a round-house foreman ION the carpet"
and was harrying him like the dickens
for letting an engine go 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 1 had been sort Of chummy,
and after the foreman had gone away
with his foot In his hand, l joshed
Kirgan a little about the way he had
hammered the round-house man.
"Bad medicine" told him. "It's
worrying the bosses, too. What's do
ing 1t, Mart?"
'Maybe you can tell" he growled.
"It's q hoodoo--that's what 1t 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
outfitw
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 IT, and
Kirgan was giving him all the men he
asked for from the shops; quick-witted
fellows who were up In all the me-
chafiical details, and who made bet
ter spoilers than outsiders would be-
cause they knew the road and the
ropes. But 1t was no use. ! saw
some of Tarbells reports, and they
didn't show any crookedness. 1t
seemed to be just bad luck--one land
slide after another of 1t.
Meanwhile, New York had walked up
again. President Dunton had been of
the Job somewhere I 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
shooting-match into the fire and quit.
coidle
He'd never taken anything like Mr..
Dunton's abuse from anybody before,
and be couldn't seem to get hardened
- ~ But he was loyal to Mr.. Chad
WICK; and, Of course. he knew that
~. Dunton's hot wires were meant