Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1922-03-24
CHAPTER XI-COntinued.

III ar 4 En- n IL OFSSCNAStAs
All members of our party were invited
there to dinner one time or another.
Prothro ana Barnette came, but little
Mora never did. He confded to me after
ward that he stayed away for, fear Of be
ing poisoned.
IT was during little tete -tete across
her tea table that l first learned why
she had gone so far as she had with Mel
son. IL seems hat her agent in New
York had informed her that Jarndyces
cousin was sailing with our party, but
that the agent himself had gotten the
names mixed up and represented Nelson
as that cousin. For the rest. she was
woman Of mean and small soul, utterly
ignoble, and Prothro and Barnette and l
had taught her all the dignity she knew.
Things occurred in that house that
shall certainly not relate here; but l
viii say that l withstoOd every tempt2-
ton, because | knew that a man once in
volyed in an intrigue with a Latin
American woman all too soon is plunged
into an abyss where he loses oil sense
of honor and self-respect.
And l learned as the days went By
that ProthO was not man 10 be trified
with. My cousin Jarndyce was indeed
+ q
was absolutely inplacable while being
at the same time the justest man that
ever dealt with a hard situation. AS
for little Mora, he was the diplomat of
the party. Without him we could never
have survived.
We broke the strike, as I have said,
with the ragtag of the town, men so
slow and lazy and unskilful that they
were hardly worth their feed. The white
{ man Vrhn hoa rom fuad with
each put IN the same superior capacity.
Spinks was a skilled mechanic, and In
a lesser sense SO were Hathaway and Nc
Carly, q man named Jones acted a.
timekeeper, and three more men were put
. in as gang foremen with good pay.
Mora. besides being Barnette's diplo-
matte representative, was assistant en-
gineer to Prothro. and l was promoted TO
Nelson's place as bookkeeper and cash
Ter. With our new crew we transferred
half our load to the narrow gauge train.
and Hathaway and Mora, with the three
fOremen were left behind to continue the
reloading while the rest of us got aboard
the train for the sixteen mile run up TO
Tteximal. AS soon as we were outside the
city limits ProthrO and Barnette came
along the train with Springfield rifles.
Know how 10 shoot from the hip 2"
he asked me as he handed me one.
"a
bone yet awhile"
lie gave rifle to each white man Of
the party. Then to my astonishment he
set up a tripod machine gun on top Of
q box car a little back of the locomotive,
whore It could he made to sweep the
entire train and the right Of way on each
side. That road consists Of 90 per cent
Of single loops, double loops. tunnels and
switchbacks There are thirteen tunnels
. asr.M 10.
road can be seen four stories high, one
Of the importance Of the Neta de orc
mine when I realized that Jarndyce had
built the road TO haul coal and machin-
cry and supplies up to the mine and
crude ore down. At the time Of the
strike Of our men in Guanajuato there
had also been a strike OF the ten en-
ployes on the road, and only the prompt
punishment Of our strikers had warned
the others to 90 back to work. SO pre-
carious was the whole labor situation that
the morning after the strike Prothro had
sent Aguaros back to New York TO ex-
plain the whole situation to Jarndyce
and bring back with him a sufficient
number OF dependable men TO carry on
the work
Our train that day was only rlne cars
and a caboose In length on account of
the shortness Of dead ends OF the first
switchback. But heavily loaded with
machinery and piping as the cars were,
Il was all the little geared engine could
do to pull them slowly up the long and
curytug grades. After two hours of
climbing we made the run into the first
dead end Of the switchback, and, having
inspected the engines and brakes. backed
slowly back and into the second dead
end. I thought had seen wild and pic
turesque scenery, but had never seen
Sanything like that up there We stopped
for ten minutes in the second dead end,
and then at snail's pace and with pant
ing engine and creaking langes we start
ed climbing up to the top of the pass
deeply snow filled, even IN July.
l was standing on a flat car loaded
with castings. and as no ambush had de-
veloped and no danger seemed TO
threaten at our slow pace l had for
gotten my business for the moment in
the contemplation Of the Wild and Won
derful landscape, when suddenly. I be-
came aware that something was wrong.
The train had stopped and was begin
ming to move slowly backward. I won
dered If we could be in a second switch
back. Prothero had told me OF only one
on the near side of the pass. But, look
Ing forward. I discovered the cause of
our trouble. The locomotive was loose
and was racing with all speed up the
grade. l could have jumped to safety
during the first moment before the train
had gained speed in its retrograde move
ment, but I was too busy watching Pro-
thro to think of my own welfare He
threw down his rifle and leaped to the
machine gun. and the next minute Its
sharp staccato was mingled with the