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By
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Dispatcher’s
FRANK H.
SPEAKMAN
Story
( thelastordeii
Cupvrieht. tuoa. f'u s. &
Mdlurl Co.
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pr-xlding th* Mountain division, »nd
part <rf the stuff came in 1st« ou Black
bum sad part of it «srly ou Fred, who
was almaat coughing bis head off about
that tim*. gottiag up at 3 AO every
morning.
Fred at 4 o’clock took the steers and
sent them train after train through
the Kat river country Ito* bullet« out
of a Maxim guu. It was hot work,
and before be bad sat In an hour there
was a stumble. The engineer of a big
ten wheeler pulling tweuty-five cars of
steers had been pushing hard and at
the entrance of the canyon set bis o . t
bo quick be sprung one of the driver
shoes, and the main rod hit it. The
great steel bar doubled np like a man
with a cramp. It was showing day
light. They made a stop and. quick as
men could do it, flagged both ways.
But the last section was crowding
into the canyon right behind. They
were too close together; that was all
there was to it. The bluff section split
into the standing train like a butcher
knife into a sandwich. It made a
mean wreck, and, worse, it made a
lot of hard feeling at the Wickiup.
When the investigation came it was
pretty near up to Fred Norman right
from the sturt, and be knew it. But
Blackburn, who shielded him when be
could. Just as all the dispatchers did.
because lie was a boy, and a sick one
among men, tried to take part of toe
blame himself. He could afford it,
Blackburn. Ilis shoulders were broad,
and he hadn't so much as a fly speck
ou bis book. Bucks looked pretty
grave when the evidence was all in, and
around the second tl or they guessed
that meant something for Norman.
Fred himself couldn’t sleep over it.
and to complicate things the engineer
of the stalled train who bated Double
day, hinted quietly that the trouble
came in the first place from Double
day's newfangled Idea of putting the
driver shoes behind instead of In front
of the wheels. Tbeu the fat was In the
fire. Fred got hold of it and. boylike,
sore over his own share In the trouble
and exasperated by something Double
day was reported to have said about
him over at the house, lighted into
Doubleday about the engine failure.
Doubleday was right iu his device, as
time has proved, but it was unheard of
then, and, moreover, tlie assistant mas
ter mechanic, sensitive to criticism nt
any time, was a fearful man to run
against. Sunday morning lie and Nor
man met In the trainmaster’s office.
They went nt each other like sparks,
and when Doubleday, who bad a hard
mouth, began cursing Fred the poor
little dispatcher, rankling with tlie
trouble, anyway half sick, went all to
pieces nnd flew at the big fellow like a
sparrowhawk. He threw a wicked left
Into the master mechanic before Dou
bleday could lift a guard, but Walter
Doubleday, angry ns he was. couldn't
strike Fred. He caught up both the
boy's hands nnd pushed him. struggling
madly, back against the wall to slap
his face, when a froth of blood stained
Fred's lips, nnd be fell fainting. Just
at thnt minute Blackburn stepper! Into
the room.
It wasn’t the kind of a time—they
weren't the kind of men—to nsk or
volunteer explanations. Blackburn was
on Doubleday in a wink, and before
Walter could right himself the night
dispatcher had thrown him headlong
across the room. As the operators
rushed In Blackburn nnd the tall mas-
N order to meet objection cool, clean white arms, one of them al
ways bared to the elbow, sanding his
on the «core of the im point« with the ash of a San Francisco
possible and to anticipate cigar, and Neighbor wouid begin to
inquiry uh to whether heave from the middle up like a hippo
"The Dispatcher's Story” potamus, and Callahan would laugli his
is true it may be well to whiskers full of dew. and Hailey would
state frankly at the out- yell with delight, and the slaves In the
set that this tale In Its Inexplicable next room would double up on the dead
psychological features Is a transcript at the story, Blackburn would sit with
from the queer things in the railroad hl» laugh all In a smile, but never a
life. It 1» based ou an extraordinary noise or a word. He enjoyed it all. not
happening that fell within the experi a doubt of that, only It was all tem
ence of the president of a large west pered. I rsckon, by s »mething that bad
ern railway system. Whether the gone before. At least that's the way it
story, suggestive from any point of now strikes me, and I watched those
view of mystery, can be regarded as a big fellows pretty close—the fellows
demonstration of the efficacy of prayer who were to turn while I was growing
may l>e a disputable question. In pass up among them Into managers and
ing. however, It is only fair to say that presidents and magnates and some of
the circumstance on which the tale is them from every day cntch-as-catcli-cnn
based was ho regarded by the dispatch men with tlie common alkali flecking
er himself and by those familiar with their boots Into dead men for whom
marble never rose white enough or high
the circumstance.
A hundred times If once the thing enough.
Blackburn was four years at the
had been, on apiieals for betterment,
before the board of directors, it was the Wickiup on the night trick. It wouldn't
oue piece of track on the mountain have seemed natural to see him there
division that trainmen »book their In daylight. It needed the yellow gloom
beuds over — the Peace river stretch. of the old kerosene lamp In the room,
To run any sort of a line through tlmt the specked, knotted, warped, smoky
cunyor would take the breath of au en- pine celling losing Itse’f In black and
'or Glve him all the money he Cobwebbed corners, the smoldering
F
<k and It would stagger Wet- murk of the soft coal Are brooding In
(1
mself. Brodie In his day said the shabby old salamander and outside
is nothing worse In the Andes, In the darkness the wind screwing
»lie, before be drifted into tlie down the gorge and rattling the shrunk
had seen, first ami last, pretty en casements to raise Blackburn In the
dispatcher’s chair. Blackbum nnd the
I of the Chilean work.
lamp nnd the stove nnd the ceiling nnd
ar
men
had
the
Job
to
do
with
Bn
the money they needed— the the gloom—In a word. Blackburn and
run, the grades to figure, the th» night trick—they went together.
line»
Before the short line wns opened the
cubi h to put in, the fills to make,
the I «ting to do, the tunnel to bore, No, 1 nnd No. 5 trains enught practical
ly nil the coast passenger business.
the b Ige to build, in a limit; that They were Immensely heavy trains.
e curse of It—the limit, And
d the tiest they could. But I Month after month we sent out two
candid—if a section and eleva- an<l three sections of them each way,
wir
Itoeamoud's bower and a see- and they always ran Into our division
Hjt
d elevation of our Peace river on the night trick. Blackburn handled
tlot
ere put up to stand for a prize all that main line business with a mile
age of 8<>5. besides the mountain
It Ä C vll engineers’ cakewalk the de- branches, say 400 more; and the pas
would go, and quick, to the
senger connections came off them.
Pl-.HV river track. There are only mostly at night, for 1 and 5.
eight □lies of it, but our men would
Now three men wrestle with Black-
back I against any eighty on earth for buru's mileage, but that was before
ng
curves,
tough
grades,
villain
vh' *,
iproacbes and railroad tangle they found out that dispatchers, al
though something tougher than steel, dd^
< lly.
wear out. Moreover, we were then a
i . directors always have promised good way from civilization and extra
to in rove It. and they are promising men. If a dispatcher t<x>k sick there
Dianka to what Halley taught was no handy way of filling In; it was
yet
there'« a good bridge there now Just double up and do the best you
matlc caisHons sunk to the be<l. could.
e more pity they haven't ellml-
One lad In the office those days every-
the dread I. .ill» line curves that I hh I. v loved—Fred Norman, He was off
u-h It through a valley which I the Burlington, a kid of a fellow who
brü a« a canyon and the mauvalaes looked more like a choir boy than a
rolled Into one «Ingle proposi train dispatcher,
ten
But lie was all light-
th’U
nlug—a laughing, restless. artless boy.
we do lots of business along thnt open as a book and quick as a current.
gtr**! h. Our engineers thread the cuts There was a better reason still, though,
and ire gind to get safely through why they loved Fred the I my had con
tbvr
Our roadiuaster» keep up the sumption. That's why he was out In
Ions, hoping some night the the mountains, and ills mother In De
Ing right of way will tumble ln- troit used to write Bucks asking about
to p< ■ iltlon. Our dispatchers, study him. and she used to send us all things
ruler shaded lamps, think of It in Fred’s box. Ills flesh was as white
v
their teeth clinched and hope and as pink as mountain snow, and he
never will be any trouble on thnt had brown eyes. He was a good boy.
h. Trouble I« our portion, and and I called him handsome. I reckon
le we must get. but not there. they all did. Fred brought out a tennis
come but let It come anywhere set with him, the first we ever saw In
t on the.I’ence.
Medicine Bend, ami before lie had been
•as In the golden days of the bat- playing an hour he had Nelghb>r. b g a
old Wickiup that tlie story ojieus, a grizzly, ami Callahan, with a pipe
Blackburn sat lu the uiglit chair, In one hand and a tennis guide In the
i. vi »hen the olii guard were still other, chasing all over the yard after
there, before death . nd fame nnd clr- balls, and Halley trying to figure forty
cum. tauce had stolen our first com love, while Frei taught Buck« the Law
manders and left only us little fellows, ford drive. I don't say what lie was to
forg itte i bv every better fate, to tell me; only thnt lie taught me all 1 ever
their greater stories
knew or ever will know alxmt handling
Hailey bad the bridges then, and trains, nnd. though I was carrying mes
Wetmore tlie locating, and Ne ,'ibor sages then and he was signing orders,
the roimdlioiises. and Bucks the super we were really like kids together.
Intendency, anil Callahan, so be claim-
Fred for n long time had the early
ed. the work, and Blackburn had the tri' k He came on nt 4 In the morning
night trick.
t nd caught most of the through freights
When Blackburn came from the that g>t away from the river behind
plains be brought a record clean as the the passenger trains. Tliere was no
book of life. Four years on a station tse trying to move them tn the night
key. then eight year» at Omaha dis trick. ■
Between the stock trains east
patching. with never a blunder or a bound and the both way passenger
break to the eight years. But It was trains, If a westbound freight got
at Omaha that Blackburn lost the wife enught In the mountains at night the
whose face he carried lu his watch. I engine might as well tie standing In the
never beard tlie story, only some ru house saving fuel: there wasn't time to
mor of how young she was and how get from one siding to another So Fred
pretty and how he burini her and the Norman took the freights ns they came, “i urn turc of what 1 oay. Tlnre uUl
wee baby together. It was all Black nnd be handled them like a ringmaster
be no wrtek."
burn brought to the West End monti When Fred's whip cracked, by Jo*»! a
ter
mechanic
sprang at each other In
tains his record and the little face In train had to dance right along, grade or
the watch. They said he had no kith no grade. Fred gave them the rights, a silent fury. No man dare say where
or kin on earth besides the wife and and they had the rest to do- or bust- It might have ended had not Fred Nor
tlie baby back on tlie bluffs of the Mis ness to do with the superintendent or man staggered between them with Ills
sourl. and so he csrne ou the ulgbt with Doubleday. Neighbor's assistant hands up—but the blood was gushing
from bis mouth.
tn tlie motive power.
trick to us.
It was pretty serious business. They
I was Just a boy around the Wickiup
There was only one tendency tn Fred
then, bu t 1 reu. -uilx-r the crowd. Who Normin's dispatching thnt anybody caught him as be fell, and the boy lay
»oi.ld f >rg«*t them? They were Jolly could criticise He never seemed, after on Blackburn's arm limp as a dead
go«l fe
-handling trains on »he plains, to appro wire. Nolssly thought after they saw
ve- y li c
IK
elate what our mountain grades really that hemorrhage that be would ever
I don't tu.-a
drunk or that sort, but g<*-«l tolta evo to meant, aud »hen they pushed him be live to bare another. I was scared sick,
amoke and gotsl «stags to sing and <*M*d sent his trains out pretty close togetb ami I never saw a man so cut up as
stories to tell. aud. Lord, bow th<*> er. It never bothered him to handle a IVonbledny. Blackburn wns cool In a
conisi tell them! Aud when the pin« heavy traffic He would get the bus! second, for be saw quicker than others,
allppol, as they would, and things went neas through tie mountains Just as and he knew there was danger of tbe
wrong, as they will, there were
f ist as they could put It at the division, little dispatcher dying right there in
head« ansi pretty wits ami stout heart« but « h - css »nally then* wen* some hair his tracks. Blackbum stood over him,
curling ex •ri«nces among vhe frolght« as much at home facing death as be
to put things right.
Bin-'kburti. a« much as I can remem on Norma ’« trick trying to keep off was in a fight or in a dispatcher's
ber always enjoy*sI It, but In a differ each other's coattail« One night lit chair. He appeared to know just how
ent war. He hail sm h times a manner July there was a great pre«» moving to handle the boy to check the gu<h
•r nine trains of Montana grass and to know just whero the salt was
Ilk» nolssly else»—a silent, beaming
manner Whs*n Buck« wsmM mil a •TM < »r the r In lie« ou »cme kind of nnd how to Bred it. an 1 he had Donble-
We were giving stock day telephoning for Dr. Cirbart and
grv it nhlte I'anbanslle yarn over h's fl tin
e.
then. R, < rytsx’y was me running to « snlonn after c',.<'<r>*d
fresi, imcu shut front aud donn U.» num
» Putting ft <lcwn almost at ones
u* in a nffy *^*n *n?body ’’*•
locked out Blackburn was m regul^ SbS £
hoa“
w!re »nd beguu drumming **« **11.
neo. when th.y got pitched, kind of l al’ahSU'S "Ay*, sy«*” came b8tk 1U
looked to Blackburn.
Side of a minute, and Blackburn tap
That day U* minute he got Fmi into ped right at him. “Come dowu. Aud
Carbart'» band, there was FWd• 1 began to wonder what was up.
trick to take care of. and
There
““ lu,erV1“; **“,**C
course, but Blackburn to do it He ’« han asked, "What's tbe matter?
in and picked up the threads and b”ld
1 got up aud walked over to the wa
them till noon, then Maxwell relieved ter lank for a drink. Blackburn again
b.m. Doubleday wa» waiting outside pressed the key und repeated to Culia-
when Blackburn left the chair. I saw baa precisely tbe words be had used
him put out bls hand to the night di -
"Come dowu.
pateber. They spoke a minute an- before.
Hl» face was drawn into the very
went out and up Third street toward shape of fear, and hi» «T«* *>eut har^
Fred Norman's room. It was a gloomy ou me. were looking through u>e and
day around tbe depot. Everybody was through tbe shivering wmdow-l know
talking about tbe trouble aud tbe way it now-aud through the storming night,
it had begun aud the way it bad ended. horror set. into the canyon of tbe 1’eace
Tbew talked in undertones, little group«
___ .
iu corner» and in rooms with the doors river.
Tbe sounder broke, aud be turned
shut
There wasn't much of that In
our day there, aud it was depressing. back. listeueJ a moment, but it was
I went Lome early >o bed. for I was on »tray stuff about time freight. He
night», but the wind sung so. even in pushed tbe chair from behind -him,
the afternoon, that 1 couldn't quiet still, like a man. listening, listening;
then with an effort plain even to me
down to sleep.
We were handling trains then on the be walked across the office, pushed
ebl »ingle order system. I mention this open tbe door of Callahan's private
because In no other way could this par room and stood with his baud on tlie
ticular thing have bappeuel, but there s kuob. looking back at tbe lamp. It
no special point in that, since other was as if he still seemed to listen, for
particular things do happen all the he stood undecided a moment; then he
time, single order, double order or no stepped into the dark room and closed
the door behind him, leaving me alone
order system.
The wind bad dropped an-1 there was and dumb with fear.
The mystery lay. I knew, in the or
Just a drizzle of rain falling through
tbe mountains when I got down to the der book. Curiosity gradually g >t the
depot at 7 o'clock that Sunday even better of my fright, and I walked from
ing. I don't know how much sleep the cooler over to the counter to get
Blackburn had bad during the day. but courage aud shoved the train register
he had been at Fred Norman's bed around uolslly. I crossed to tbe dis
most of tlie afternoon with Doubleday patchers’ table nnd made a pretense of
an.l Carhart, so he couldn't have had arranging tlie pa is and blanks. The
much. About half past i Maxwell sent train order book was lying open
me over there with a note and his storm he had left it under tlie lamp. With
coat for him, and the three men were my eyes bulging. 1 read the last two
In tbe room then. Boylike, I huug orders copied iu it:
around until It was time for Black i C. and E. No. 1. Ames:.
1. Eng. 871, will hold at O’Fallon «
burn to take his trick, and then he and for No. Special
202.
Doubleday and I walked over to the C. and E. Special 2C‘2, Rosebud:
Special 202. Eng. c3->. will run to Sail
Wickiup together.
At sundown everything was ship Rocks regardless of No. 1.
Salt Rocks! I glared at the words
shape. There h.Siu't been au engine
failure lu the district for twenty-four and tlie letters of tbe words.
I reread the first order aud read again
Lours, and every hand car was run
ning smoothly. Moreover, there were the second. O'Fallon s for No. 1. . Thnt
no extra sections marked up aud only was right. O'Fallon's It should be for
one special on tire division card—a the the Special 202, of course. to meet her.
atrical train east bound with Henry Irv But It wasn’t; it was the first station
ing aud company from Frisco to Chica j east of O'Fallon's lie bad ordered the
go.
Me Irving special whs heavy, a» | sr-ecinl to run to. It was a lap order.
It always is That night there were Are My scalp began to creep. A lap order
baggage cars, a coach and two sleepers. for tlie Irving special and the No. 1
I am particular to lay all this out Just passenger, aud it doomed them to meet
as the night o[>ened when Blackburn bead ou somewhere between O'Fallon's
took his train sheet, because sometime» and the Sult Rocks, in the Peace rivei
these things happen under extraordi canyon.
nary pressure ou tlie line aud some
My mouth went sticking dry. The
times they don’t; »ometlm.es they hap sleet outside had deepened into a hail
pen under pressure on the dispatcher that beat tlie west glass sharjier, and
Lrmself. It was all flxr<l. too, for Black the window shook again In the wind.
burn to handle not only his own trick I asked myself, afraid to look around,
but the first two hours of Fred's trick what Blackburn could bo doing in Cal
which would carry till 0 o’clock In the lahan’s room. The horror of tbe wreck
morning. At fl M axwell was to doublt impending through his mistake began
into a four hour dog watch, and Calin to grow on me. I know wbat I suf
ban was to sit in till noon.
fered; I ask myself now what he suf
There wns nothing to hold the big fel fered. Inside, alone, in the dark.
lows around the depot thnt night, and
Young as I was I realized that night
they began straggling home through the tbe meaning of the career to which my
rain about 9 o’dbck. Before 10 Bucks little ambition urged me. Tbe soldier,
nnd Callahan had left tbe office, by 11 the officer, the general, the statesman,
Neighbor had got away from the round the president, may make mistakes, do
house: Doubleday had gone back to sit make mistakas, that cost a life or cost
with Fred Norman.
10,000 lives. They redeem them aud
The lights in the yard were low. and live honored. It is tbe obscure dispatch
the drizzle bad eased into a mist; It was er under the lamp who for a single
a nasty night, and yet oue never prom lapse pays the penalty of eternal dis
lsed better for quiet. Before midnight grace. I felt something of it even then,
the switchmen were snug In the yard and from my boy's heart. In the face of
shanties; in the Wickiup there were the the error, in the face of tbe slaughter,
night ticket agent downstairs and the I pitied Blackburn.
night baggageman. Upstairs every door
Callahan's room door opened agaiu,
was locked and every room was dark an.l Blackburn came out of the dark.
except the dispatcher's office. In that I had left the table and wns standing
Blackburn sat at his key. Nearby, but In front of the stove. He looked nt me
closer to the stove, sat the night caller almost eagerly; the exjiresslon of his
for the train crews, trying to starch his face had completely changed. I never
hair with a ten cent novel.
In my life saw such a change in so few
The westbound overland passenger. minutes on any man's face, and, like all
No. 1. was due to leave Ames at 12:40 tbe rest, it alarmed me. It was not for
a. m.. and ordinarily would have met a me to sj>eak If I had been able, and be
special like the Irving at Rosebud, did Dot. He walked straight over to the
which Is a good bit west of the river. table, closed tlie order book, plugged
But No. l's engine had been steaming
Callahan's house wire again and began
badly all the way from McCloud, and
calling
him. The assistant superintend
on her schedule, which was crazy fast
ent answered, and Blackburn sent him
all night, she did not make Ames till Just
these words:
some fifty minutes late. While there
“Y’ou need not come down.”
were no special orders. It was under-
I heard Callahan reply with a ques
st<xxl we were to help the Irving train
as much as possible anyway. Bucks tion: "Wbat Is the matter?”
Blackburn stood calmly over the key.
had made the acquaintance of tbe great
but
he made no answer. Instead, he re
man and bis fellows on tbe westbound
run. and, <s they had paid us the par peated only the words, "You need not
come down.”
ticular compbment of a return trip, we
Callahan, easily excitable always,
were minded to give them the best of
was
wrought up. “Blackburn,” he ask-
It. even against No. 1, which was al
ways rather «acred on the sheet. This. ed over the wire Impatiently. "What in
I say. was pretty generally understood, God's name is the matter?” But Black
for when It was all over there was no burn only pulled the plug and cut him
criticism whatever on Blackburn's in out nnd sunk into the chair like a man
tention of making a meeting point for wearied.
"Mr. Blackburn," I said, my heart
the two trains, as they then stood, at
thumping like an Injector. "Mr. Black
O'Fallon's siding.
Between Ames and Rcsebud, twenty burn?” He glanced vacantly around;
miles apart, there are two sidlngs- seemed for the first time to see me. “Is
O'Fallon’s, we«t of the river, and Salt thi-re anything.” I faltered, "I can do?”
Even If the words meant nothing, the
Rocks, east. There was no operator at
either place. The train that leaves offer must have touched him. "No.
Ames westbound Is in the open tor Jack" he answered quietly, "there
twenty mile«, with only schedn'e rights Isn't" With the words the hall door
or a dispatcher's tissue between her opened, nnd Bucks, storm beaten tn his
and the wont of it. At 1 o'clock that ulster, threw it wide nnd stood facing
morning Blackburn wired an order to u« b-.th. The wind that swept In be
Ame« for No. 1 to hold at O'Fallon for hind him blew out the lnmps and left
Special 202. A minute later he sent an us In darkness.
“Jack, win you light u»»v'
order for Special 202 to run to O'Fallon
If w *• k! urn who «poke to me
regardless of No. 1. At least be thought
he scut auvli a:i order, but he didn't B it B'i-*ks nr ke In Instantly, speaking
to Uiui:
He made a mistake.
"tsliaiiau called me over his house
When be had flx.* i the meeting point.
Blackburn rose from hts chair and sat wire a few minutes ago. Blackburn,
»rW"..nrJhe "tOTe 1 ,”rt,y w«‘<*ed and told me to meet him here right
him till, fall tig Into a doze a« I eTed away, i* anything wrong?” be asked,
him drowrily. be txgan to l<x,m np ln with anxiety restrained in his tone
I «track a match. I was so nervous
h.s chair and to curl and twist toward
tlie roof like a signal column. Then the that I took hold of the hot chimney of
front 1- gs of hi« ctialr struck tbe floor the counter lamp and dropped It smash
and wnb a start I woke Just as be to the floor. No one said a word, and
•tepped burledly back to his table and that made me worse. I struck a sec
picked up the order book.
oud match, and a third, and with a
th™- 5'Sr
1 had that any fourth got the lamp on the dispatchers'
trou '¿¡1:wa’ an «’•Untatfcm table 1’ghtel as Blackburn answered
kburn as he stared at the t.ie superintendent. -Something serf
ous has happened," he replied to Buck.-»
”1 sent lap orders at 1
1
and th* Irviug special •• ***■
Buck« stared at him
>
“Instead of making’s ~
at O'Fallon's I ««nt t “"""-nl
to O'Fallon'» and clerJ1?!
to ruu to Balt Kocks ag», fl
"Why, my God,' exi-J,
“that will bring them tasZ'fl
Peace canyon! Blackbum^fl
Blackburn!” he cried, to/'fl
storm coat. He walked u ■
seized the order LoA ¿."fl
himself with one Land
fl
1 never saw him like c ?.■
looked as if the horror u. fl
the trouble In the Peace fl fl
had come. The sleet tore el
depot like a wolf, and Wth 'fl
shivering. Buck» turned Iff. fl
cutiouer on bls subordinll(. fl
"What have you doue to -J
He drew bis watch, aad "fl
came sharp a» doom. -\\-|Zfl
wreckers? Where'» your reSfl
have you done? Wbat ar/'.'
Nothing? Why don't you J...1
you kill two trainlo-.is 0( ” ■
out an effort to do anytkiug'/fl
Ills voice rang absolute
me. 1 looked toward
fectly helpless.
"Bucks, there will be n0 J
answered steadily.
“Be no wreck!” thunder*
towering in the dingy ream
sweep of the wind. "He ■
Two passenger train» meet loll
be no wreck? Arc you cruryfl
The dispatcher's Landa ¿»J
the table. "No,” he persisted J
"I am not crazy. Bucks. ilosfl
me so. I tell you there
J
wreck.”
I
Bucks, uncertain with uj
stared at him again.
"Blackburn, if you're sane
know wbat you mean. 1.-I
there like that. Do you kswl M"
you have done?" The su;» I
advanced toward him a*
__
N.
There was a trace of p!ty in ha onfi
that seemed to open Blackburn
heart more than all tlie Littenn
"Bucks," lie struggled, I :• ¿¡I
hand toward his chief, “1 amJ
what 1 say. There will b« w J
When 1 saw what I had donen
wns too late to undo it-I beq
that my hands might not be
with their blood.” Sweat w»;|
the wretched man’s forehead. 1
word wrung Its bead of agony 1
answered,” he exclaimed, »¡thus
confidence; "there will benovj
canuot see what will happen. l|
know what, but there will be ooi
believe me or not—It Is so."
His steadfast manner stages
superintendent. I could iniagi»]
he was debating as be looked al
burn—wondering, maybe, sbrts
man's mind was goue. Bucks nJ
gered; he looked it. and as hex
ed himself to speak again the kg
opened like nu ^mcanuy tiiing.r
all started as Callahan burst tai
"What’s so?” be echoed. “Wl
here? What did ft mean. Blta
There's been trouble, h»rat I
What's the matter with ya;
Bucks? Is everybody struck to
Bucks i spoke. "There's a li?l
out on 1 I nnd the theatrical sped*
lahan. ’ We don’t know what's
ed,” said Bucks sullenly. “Bit
here has gone crazy—or be I
somehow—there won't be any
added the superintendent sl-n
bewilderedly. “It's between t)
I
I
J
1
1
J
1
Blackbum wan ttrttchcd o» *
and Salt Rocks somewhere 0
take the key." he cried of
"There's a call now.
apeak; ask no question.«
sage," he exclalm<*d shs'i
the Instrument. "It m11? **
And It was news-r.--*»
station reporting the
at 1:52 a. m.—out at 1 ’4!
It together or It n
believed. Tlie Ir-.u
bound, safely past -*
t
on a single track when th “
orders had lapped I 1
word of danger or of
’
that they had seen No. 1
time to avoid a CO*,:‘,|<’D'
a word: nothing. B’ flt
5
And the actors hard - -.ew
berths, and on about its
Irving special — that * ’
from Ames.
,
Callahan looked arouoa
men. what does this
here Is Insane. I -’ 811
ort
It*« me or you. BI
■I
a ■' -
-
gxfl
(Continued on FaO