1 ' ' S ' - THE "o&EGOtf SUNDAY' JOURNAlT PORTLAJNI'TuNPAV"ilOING FEBRUARY 21? 1969. " 4" -
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E was oiling around on the "519 when
Althea first saw him, and he was not
very pretty to look at. There is, or there
may be, a sort of artistic fittness, in blue
denim overclothes and a mechanic'! cap,
but the big-boned, thin-faced young
man who was jabbing the snout ot
the oil-can into the vitals of the ten-wheeler had
missed it. His overalls, which were as, much to
large ctrcumferentially as they were lacking in length,
were innocent of soap and water ; his jumper was
: little more than a greasy rag ; and to complete the
motley , he was wearing a, cap which was the latest
' wrinkle in golf headgear. - . j:.
Vice-President Lockhart s private car, Nadia,
was coupled in the rear of Number Five, and at the
breakfast-station stop three members of the party,
I m;- lrlthirt. the vice-president and Mr. Bain-
bridge Brockton, had descended to take the fresh
morning air on the platform. After i few turns op
and down beside the "Nadia" Miss Althea had said:
"l want to see the engine; don't you know I a'wiyt
i ... , .fiffin?" And so the three of them
f had walked up the long platform, clear now ot the
rwnrrvinff thrones of breakfast seekers, to where" the
' big "Baldwin" stood throbbing and shuddering:
i preparatory to its plunge into the tunnel-like" gate
i way of Gringo Canyon
This.wat the way Miss Lockhart came to see Or
1 man. In the ordinary course of things he would
' scarcely have had a second glance of hers; but with
no such intention in mind the peppery vice-president
: stood his friend. Major Lockhart had been known
'to have flagman called down for the lack of a
! button on his uniform; and Oman's ill-fitting over
1 clothes, the oil, the coal smut, and the parti-colored
olf cap aroused his ire. ,
i "Har he snorted, "I wonder how long Hoskms
Jlas been putting roustabouts in charge ot his first
iclassvtrains?" - , .
There was a moment of fuse-fizzing silence m
'-wh Rmrlftnn. decently reluctant to witness the
shaming of fellow man, turned away. Mis Althea ( meaning the engineer,
ctrwt hrr amnnA honinr that the engineer had not Brockton adjusted
heard. But it was said of the vice-president mat nis
xapiers were all broad-swords.
v "Yes, . I mean youl" he rasped, when Orman
'straightened op and faced him. "You are a disgrace
-to the ervice-i-a harlequin, sir! There is no excuse
for the engineer of a passenger train masquerading
as a round-house wipen Report to Mr. Hosktns
when you get in, and say to him, with my compli
ments, that th audttiifg department will approve a
voucher for a box of soap and a supply of wash-
i tuckets for the use of the company's enginemen.
"Oh, uncle !" said Althea, under her breath; an!
ther visible distress changed the engineer's scowl of
I resentment into a shame-faced grin.
;' "I'm afraid I do look rather tough," he admitted,
good-naturedly, "And there is no excuse, as you
say. , I'll report to Mr. Hoskins and mention the
box of aoap."
j Althea was watching him narrowly as he spoke,
withhcr woman's heart full of sympathy. She wa
not, of those who believe that all the finer feelings
are monopolized by the .leisure classes, and she was
ccnerouslv indignant .
Now, if there be women whom emotion mars
and their name is a multiple of all the others there
are a few whose charms are heightened thereby.
Miss Althea was one of the few; and Brockton, who
' had reattached himself to the group, thought he had
never seen her more entirely beautiful Also, it dis
turbed him a little to reflect that the exciting cause
j was an upflash of womanly sympathy for an un
washed workingman. As he knew to his own dis-
i comfiture, Miss Lockhart had an exaggerated re-
' spect for men who had work to do and did it It
-was clearly the moment for a diversion, and he made
i one.
"We are due to leave, Major," he said, consult
ing his watch. "Don't you think we'd best be get
ting back to the car?"
' For the first few miles of the canyon-stormin
Miss Althea sat with Brockton's cousin, Alicia, be
hind the "broad windows in the observation end of
the "Nadia," watching the cliffs and peaks swing
right and left with the curves and thinking point
edly of a small dilemma.
The outing trip, which was now three days old,
and which was to pause indefinitely at Undercliff
Inn a Summer resort in the heart of the main
range, had not been, nor did it promise to be, an
unalloyed joy. While her invitation to join the party
had come from her uncle in his own proper person,
Althea was beginning to suspect that it had been
prompted by certain match-making proclivities on
the part of the vice-president's wife. Mrs. Lockhart
IL was a young woman, and Bainbridge Brockton
was her. cousin, once removed.
Althea had known Brockton since his college days,
and had liked him as much as she could like any
man who was content to do nothing. Left to her
self, she might have come, in time, to look with
favor upon his wooing, wmch was as energetic as
amthing he ever did. But, with all its yieldings, the
woman-heart has a latent quality of stubbornness;
and when Miss Althea began to suspect that Mrs.
Lockhart had planned things, she set her fine white
teeth firmly upon a steady resolve not to be "mar
keted,"' at least, not while she was cn the small
match-maker's own ground.
That her fortune had anything to do with the
match-making, or .with Brockton's devotion, she
was unwilling to believe, since Brockton had
enough of his own to make him the most uncon
scionable of idlers. Yet she remembered, with a
curious little thrill of scorn, that the fortune-hunting
initinct was in the Brockton blood. Alicia, the fair
haired, serene-eyed cousin who sat within arms
reach, looking out Upon this same backward-racing
procession of peaks and cliffs, had once so gossip
said broken an engagement almost between the
church steos and the altar because the man had told
her he had been cut out -of his father's will.
Such thoughts were not altogether pleasant, and
she was rather glad when Brockton flung his cigar
away and came in from the platform to draw up a
chair beside her.
."Enjoying the scenery by height and depth?" he
aid, making idle talk, as was his wont.
s"Ve and no; not as much as I should if we were
going toward it instead of running away from it'
she rejoined.
. "It i disappointing to catch fleeting glimpses of
It just as it is vanishing."
The vice-president had been closeted in his atate
roora with Hoskins, the general manager, and the
two men Joined the group at the observ.'ion win
dows in time to hear Althea's reply.
Lockhlr?-yJ!n thc en?ine if 3rGU'd c Mi" v
7 r V, Jhe en:4' manag'r. "Mr. Brock-v
a-rA.: arrange it at the next
sharp edge of it. , '
"By the way, Mr. Hoskins, who is our engineer
this morning?" demanded the vice-president,
"A general utility man named Orman," was tfie
reply, but its facetiousness did not seem to lay hold
of Major Lockhart. "The regular man bad a death
in his family, and " ;
The vice-president's smile was portentous. "Or
man will have something to say to yoa' when he
reports his run," he remarked.
Altbea happened to be looking at Alicia, and she
surprised a little start at the mention, of the sub.
stjtute's name. While two rail joints could click
under the wheels the slate-blue eyes were clouded
and a faint flush came and went in the fair neck
and cheek. Althea wondered why, but at that mo
ment the chime of the 519 sounded for a station and
she rose to go forward with Brockton and the
general manager. i
With the highest executive authority "of the com
pany to sanction it, the invasion of the 519's cab
facilitated itself, though Orman was no more than
gruffly polite to the invaders. Room was made for
them on the fireman's box, Althea was told briefly
how to brace herself against the side-slam of the
cab in rounding the curves, and thereafter the engi
neer left them to their own devices. ,
-The experience proved something less than excit
ing, even to a novice. The grade was very heavy, and
the big engine labored up the hills and around the
dodging curves rather faithfully than spectacularly.
When she had grown somewhat accustomed to
the novelty, and had found the approaching scenic
procession much like an inversion of the view from
the "Nadia's" observation windbws, Althea began to
take note of her more immediate surroundings; to
make mental notes, and to wonder how she might
pour a little of the oil of kindliness into the broad
sword slashes of the vice-president
Despairing of finding an opening unless she could
make it, she turned to Brockton to say, "I wish I
could know how he does it without going crazy,"
"I'll put it any way yon like," he answered :.JFt a week after the side-tracking t of the , "Nadia'
his eye-glasses and stared
across at the crouching figure on the opposite box as
if the subject bored him. But it was the better part
of him that made him get upon his feet and offer to
help her down from ber perch.
promptly. "Suppose we say that Major Lockhart
nas me respcci, if jnoi, cxacuy me wui-mvih
affection, of all the men In the service, your humble
servant included. - And his guess hit the mark- This
rig of mine is a wiper's outfit."
The 519 was picking her way judiciously around a
set of complicated elbows and reversed curves at a
point in the eanyon where Gringo Creek runs every
way sare uphfll.and for a minute or two the man
was lost in the engineer; When he spoke again it
was in gentle deprecation of the vice-president's mar
tinetism . : .
"Of course, .Major Lockhart was within his rights
in landing on me. But some things which are-tjuite
justifiable are nof always expediept- This is a rough
country, with rough work to be done in It; and the
men who do the work are not always mindful of
dress-parade regulations. ;
It was at . this conjuncture that Althea's precon
ceived ideas of a workingman's point of view went,
to pieces. She was modern enough to be able to set
aside the conventions when the occasion demanded;
and she had a tfue woman's disregard of social dis
tinctions based on the lines of a man's occupation.
But he could not disguise the fact that she had
meant to placate Orman as she would have tried
to placate John the gardener, or Thomas the coach
man, if her nncle had browbeaten the one or the
other. And slje was finding it blankly impossible.
"You make me wish I hadn't said anything," she
protested, fluite humbly; and then she blushed a little
in deference to a certain maidenly shame fpr having
opened a door of familiarity whica she did not know
how to shut again.
But afterward she remembered that the solemn
faced young i man had not taken advantage of the
opened door. On the contrary, he had stopped talk
ing when she did; and some few minutes later, when
he had brought the engine to a shuddering stand at
the little station of Undercliffe, he had signed to
Brockton to come and take her down from the box.
"Who is Mr. Orman, Cousin Bainbridge?" was the
question1 she asked of Brockton that evening, while
they were watching the moon come up over the
hunched shoulder of. Gringo Mountain from the
piazza of the inn.
Brockton got up and flicked the ash of his cigar
at Undercliffe there was no lack of diversions for
the outing party, and little Mrs. Lockhart outdid
herself In devising pastimes new and different There
gifted, and a helpless idler from choice, '; . y
By some workings of the mysterious, sixth sense,
Brockton felt the comparison, and it angered him.
41:,.: itn, rlA ,,r tU n '
of Gringo Mountain; burro climbs to the ytop, of gine cab'?' he replied" shortly,-"It's" Jack Orman,
rhincrarn and to the Bridal Veil fails: na pedeStrain Inn1rinr r1nrn iinnn li.r tn nnt th .flrVr WW hn
marches ud the nrulcbes in which Alicia the languid
- leaned heavily upoia the arm of the Reverend Percy
Montgomery, a fellow guest at the inn, whom Mrs.
Lockhart had attached .to eke out the. ill-balanced
masculine side of her party. s .'- :
On the eighth day the vice-president went On an'
inspection trip to .the; end of the Extension; and
while Mrt. Lockhart was planning another excur
sion which should make - Althea dependent for the
day upon Mr. Bainbridge Brockton, the little station
saw gave him a weapon which he1 fully meant to U3t
if the need should arise. . -l
. Orman slept that night at the inn, and, as a matter
vof course, fate flung them together. cThejwork of
track-clearing was completed by, nightfall, but there
"was ,yfcking-up enough to keep the wrecking crew
on the ground for two or three days, and Orman
wired in to the division station for his travelling
which was the railway stopping-place for.the inn h ag whi ch canie down 0B Number Seven. : Because
had its sensation made to order. - ; ,.- . , . .... . u.. . .
A heavy freight tram haa double-headed no the w
mountain from the west, and at the summit, fifteen AHhea 'hardly knew' him when he walked into the
hundred feet straightaway above the' station of Un- dining-room, but she gave him a friendly little nod
iLl when the waiter, at a sign from Mrs.: Lockhart,
shoulder of the mountain, the leading engine had seated him in the chair which would have been
been cut off to run down ahead of the train.
Three minutes later, the guests at the inn fumed
out in a body at the bidding of demoniac, whistle
shrieks on the high grade. Glasses were levelled
and the coming disaster foreshowed itself. The train
was out of control, was" running away , down thV
mountain, and the driver of the detached engine had
a lead of no more than a few hundred yards in the
race for life.
The catastrophe climaxed in full view from the ;
inn piazzas at a point where the down-mountain
track curves sharply to enter the canyon prcuper.
The engineer of the leading engine knew he could
not take the curve at full speed, and at the critical
moment lost his head. There was a shrill squeal
of brake-shoes grinding on the tires, the flying en
gine buckled to a dead stop, and the two men of
its crew leaped from the gangways and ran for
dear life. Three seconds farther along-there was a
crash like the shock of an earthquake and the long
train rammed the standing engine, piling up the
wreckage mountain high.
Happily, there were no lives lost. The crew of
"I know him,' he said shortly. "I'll introduce him,
if von like."
Jifir held back.
"Did you know him when Uncle when we were
at the breakfast station?''
"I didn't recognize him; nobody would in that
farricial rip. But Mr. Hoskins' mention of his name
gave it away."
The clamor of matter in motion isolated them, and
Orman was attending strictly to business. Brockton
waited for a bit of straight track, and when it came
he gave Althea his hand and steadied her across the
foot-plate. '
"I take it yo,t don't remember me, Orman." he
said. "I'm Brockton, of the class of '98; and this is
Mis Lockhart, the niece of the vice-president."
The engineer took the introduction a little sheep
ishly, as befitted his station, Althea thought; and she
was sorry she had let Brockton make it. But since
thrre were now two reasons for kindliness where
there had been only one, she would not retreat
Now a man who runs an engine in Gringo Canyon
is happy if. bj gluing his eyes to the track, he can
see a scant half dozen rail-lengths ahead; to do this
and to answer the curious questions of. a sweet
voiced young woman who must needs stand almost
directly behind him, is manifestly impossible. Or
man gave it up after one or two futile attempts, and,
surrendering his box to the inquisitive one, he took
his place beside her on the running step.
"Now you may ask all the questions yott want to,"
he said, after Brockton, finding himself shut out of
this most convenient arrangement for two, had gone
back to his place on the fireman's side.
For a dodging curve or two she clung to the
windew-seat arm-rest and was ' silent Then she
said: "I want to ask you not to care too much about
what my uncle said to you a little while ago. I-
don't think- he really meant to to " .
The young engineer's laugh Vas wholly without
bitterness. , ; ' ' N '
"Is that what voo had in mind?" he asked.' 1 And
then: "You needn't have taken so much trouble. It
was nothing; and, besides, I'm not quarreling with"
my bread andfbutter."- ' - - '
"I wish you wouldn't put it that way," sheTald,
after another pause. . Quite conscientiously he was
trying to get down to his level; to. the level of a man
in his walk in life; and it perplexed her a little tot
findhirq 5Q.unrespjysijtp the effort"; . . , 'V
'. ' ; . " ' j' : ; ' ' '
ost the piazza railing' to gain time. He was not
sure how much it would be advisable to tell her.
"He used to be a sort of fourteen-fifteen puzzle
when I knew him in the university, and he seems
to be keeping it up yet," he replied guardedly. "He
was two years ahead of me, and in the Scientific, so
I didn't see very much of him." v -
"Is he a a gentleman?.' she asked; and the word
was no sooner spoken than she could have bitten
her tongue for the base-born use of it.
"That depends somewhat on your definition. He
was always messing in the manual training shops,
and he made a social outcast of himself for the
sake of 'poling.' It was my impression at the time
that he was a poor man's son, working his way
through college. So much Brockton said with a
nicely calculated air of disinterest. But he had de
termined not to say anything of .the later develop
ments, or of his Cousin Alicia's part in them. That
was Alicia's -affair, to be buried or kept alive, as she
saw fit. . .
Althea was silent for a little time,' and then she
said another . thing for which -. she was instantly
sorry. ,
"He stems somehow to be above his present sta
tion m life.
the train engine had jumped before the crash; and
the head brakeman who stuck to his post until the
box-car on which he was, riding reared high in air.
made a flying leap and landed in the inn trotit pool.
But. as we have said, the guests of the hotel bad
their sensation ready-made, and for that day there
was no talk of 4ime-killing excursions in- the hil!
Two hours after the dust of the crash had settled,
the division wrecking train was on the ground and
.hard at work; and af:er luncheon Brockton took
Althea and his cousin down to join the crowd of 011
.lodkers frorrt the hotel. .-. !
It was Althea's first sight of a trained army of
track-clearers in action, and the fierce toil and
wonderful method pi it all thrilled her like the clash
of arms. Here was a battle royal with dead Weights
inanimate td tall out all that was fittest and most
heroic in a master of men and things. Huge freight
cars rose to the creaking of windlasses apd were
toppled with the nicest precision to right and left
down the embankment Gangs of workmen, as or
derly and purposeful as well-drilled soldiers, placed
the jackscrews, adjusted the lifting tackles, or stood
clear at the word of command when the great haw-
k ! .
sers were singing ukc yioitn-strings under tne neart
breaking strain. Althea thought it was- the finest
Brockton laughed easily. The danger, if any there thing-"She had ever-seen, and said so, looking mean
ere, was passing. r " " "while for the master mindr-'" "
"Who is directing !t alir she kedWhen Brock
ton had folded his 'top-coat to make a cushion for
Alicia. x - , ... .
His smile was half cynical.jand at the moment she
could have hated him for it
"It's our friend of the engine cab, I think. Don't
you see him down under that car showing the men
how to make the next hitch?" .
. She looked again and - recognized Orman. As
oncebefore, he was a sight to grate upon the neryes
of martinet majors and the wearers of purple raiment
and fine linen. The grimy overclothes were want
ing, but the rough tweed suit was soiled and stained
and muddied, artd the big, skilful-hands were -the
hands of a blackamoor. . 1 -.
It did not occur to her to question how a driver'
of locomotives came to be the commander of this
armv of workmen: there was mom n-t. i
She had a dis- r and admiration, and for an instant comparison 'be-
iiwccn iwu meui one uown mere in the thick of it
toiling, shouting, commanding accomplishing; the'
other standing beside her, well groomed, handsome,
'Oh. you can't tell anything about that, you know,
A man iinds his level; not because he is forced to
it but because he likes it Orman has an education
which would fit him for anything in sight in the
technical line; and, apparently, he chooses to wear
outlandish clothes and to be a driver of locomo
tives."; "
it was not the wisest possible thing to say, since
the lightest word may sometimes suffice to turn a
clean-hearted woman into a militant defender of the
absent.' ' '
: "How can you tell?", she retorted. "Perhaps it
was the best he could do; and, at all events, it is
honest" work. You couldn't dof it. Cousin Bain-
bridtfe,", - V' ."-' ""' :- '.'" v:.M
-, "Now, what have yon two found to - quarrel
''about ?" said a voice out of the shadows behind
them; and Althea left her chair and wnt to stand
beside one of the piazza pillars,
.comforting conviction that .Mrs., Lockhart II. was
. always just in the background in her capacity 'of
, matcn-makerv' .
COTYKIGHTA'V
oc
cupied by Alicia if she had not pleaded a headache
and gone to her room.
It was a moment of surprises for Althea on more
counts than one. That the vice-president, who had
returned on Number Seven, should remember the
young man whom he had reprimanded was not be
yond " belief; but that he should welcorne him
cordially to a seat at his own table was by way of
being inexplicable. And when-MrsfXockhart made
much of him, calling him "Jack," and putting him at',
once upon the footing oi a family friend, Althea's'
wonder was complete. ,
After dinner it was Orman, and not Brockton,
who went with Althea to her accustomed corner on
tne eiectric-ugntea piazza; and their talk in that
first tete-a-tete was all of industry battles. But
three evenings la.er. when the wrecking crew was
finally piecing the string of "cripples" together for.
the run to the shops, the mile-posts of commonplace ;
were well to the rear, and she ventured to repeat the
question she had once asked of Mr. Bainbridge
Brockton.
"Mr. Orman, who are you? By all' the family tra- i
ditions I ought to have known you long ago, but Ii
didn't."
Hrs smile was a slow wrinkling of the plain-song
face. ' ' ' ,
" "You haven't missed much. I've known your J
. cousins and Mrs. Lockhart for a number of years; '
but the Major knows me only as a wheel in the rail-!
way naehine.' .
She marked the plural, "cousins," and remembered
that AUcia had been all but invisible since the day
, of .the wreck; had., avoided Orman at every turn, j
But she was npt to be turned aside by the intrusion !
of. the small mystery.
J ---tiri,- you are not accounted for," slie persisted,
half jestingly.
"Were you 'in character' that day when Uncle ,
Jabez scolded you?'
"Yes a!nd no. No, because he didn't recognize me'
in the wiper's regimentals; and yes, because I am
truly a workingman, as truly as I seemed to be that
day; a 'lean, unwashed artificer,' as your Cousin
Bainbridge once dubbed me. But twice in my life I
have played the part of Bottom, the weaver,, I think." '
"Is it permitted one to ask how?"
"It is permitted to you. The first time was when
I was'Jool enough to believe that a woman loved me
for myself; and the other "
He broke off abruptly at this point, and she led'
him on,, whether from idle curiosity or real interest,
he could not tell.
"The other?" she said
"Was a time when I was tempted to forget the
lesson so hardly learned'
She. was silent for a full minute, and he rose, but
toning his cOat.
"I must go now. MacCarthy is about ready to
pull out. Shall I hunt up Mrs. Lockhart or Brock
ton for you?''
She shook her head and went .with him to the
steps, where they stood for n momerft looking down
upon the string of "cripples'" pricked out by the-
moving lanterns of the . trainmen. Then she gavel
riim her hand, and her parting word was no les
than friendly. - !
"I am sorry to have you go. You have done much'
for me in these three days."
He smiled down upoh her quizzically.
"Is it permitted one to ask the nature of the serv-
ice?" 1
"Yes; it is in the way of striking off shackles, anI
in the widening of horizons. I can t particularize; at
least, not while Mr. MacCarthy waits."
Th. n I chall rnmc harlr- m a v i ?"
"Whenever you please. But you mustn't neglecfi
your work."
He laughed like a pleased boy. "How good thaft
sounds!" he. said. "My ideal woman is one who
would say to a man, to the man she cared for, 'Your
work is the thing; go and do it, and do it better than
you have ever done it before for' my sake.' "
She smiled back at him. "That sounds very un
selfish on the part of your ideal. But really, don't
you know, it is the most sublimated type of feminine,
selfishness It would be a true woman's triumph
to know that a man's work in the world owed some
thing to her. Good-bye."
-He ran dwn the steps and crossed quickly to the
waiting train, throwu'ng up his hand to her, railroad
wise, as he passed out of the hotel grounds. Fifteen
minutes later they were bringing him back on an
x improvised stretcher, and the house physician was
,'2 ine cpmpanys surgeon to Come to Under
cliffe By special train. When the string of "cripples
was started, a broken drawhead had pulled out. drop
ping a oraKeman xwij beneath the wheels. Orman
had saved the roan's life at the eost of h; nn all
least, so ran the report which passed from lip to ear
on the hotel piazzas. ; -
It was a fortnisrht befor th wnuM 1f her rrrt
t0 him.'?d Mrs- Lockhart had talked herself to
standstill in expostulation. f
"It is simply dreadful!" she declared, firing hee
next ; to the last shot.. "Evervhod
you are Bainbridge's fiancee I have as good as told
then, so and it will make ridiculous scandaL
Why, you have known Jack Oman only a day os
twq at the mostf" -" " -
v.