The Argosy, December 1905 — page 156: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

~_ 134 Drowsily he recognized a different” motion to the train. He looked up and listened to, the increasing clatter.. What was it? He rose up with a whoop that brought the men in the bunks out of them in a hurry. “ Brakes, boys! Get a move ont” he roared. “The danged train’s broke: in two!” Sleepily, and with remarks unprint- able, the men swarmed out of the caboose and: up. over the car roofs. Black as the night was, it was plain that a goodly share of the train had broken off and now was descending the grade with threatening speed. The men went from brake-wheel to brake-wheel, screwing them down hard and shouting to one another through the rain and: darkness.. Suddenly the flag- man at the rear uttered a stentorian cry: “?Ware the curve! We're on it!” On the instant the eaboose slung around the turn with a shock that nearly cast him spinning from the train. The others clung desperately to the brake-wheels, expecting that each car as it struck the curve would leap the rails. But the brakes set at the rear of the train (now the front of the descending string of cars) were beginning to tell on her speed. When once again all the cars were running on the straight line, the men were able to complete the winding of the brakes. Before all were tightly set, the bottom of the grade was at hand; and when the cars finally ground to a protesting stop, the persistent shrieking of the locomotive followimg them down the hill was plain in the ears of the crew. 3 The engineer had run on to Gridiron station, just beyond the brink of the hifl, side-tracked the forward end of the long train, and was now steaming back to pick up the cars which he had dropped. 3 “ And, by jiminy,” growled the sooty- faced driver to Sousa, who stood im the rain beneath the cab window while the men were repairing the patent coupling: "Ware the curve! THE ARGOSY. between the forward box-car and the tender, “‘ I didn’t expect to find half of these blamed ears right side up. “T reckoned a good part of the train would snap off at that curve yonder—I sure did! Didn’t lose a car, eh? ” “Tt don’t look like it, does it?” erumbled Sousa. “ But we lost a man down below here,” and he repeated the story of the tramps’ attack on the sig- nalman, the pursuit of the rascals, and the disappearance of their victim. “ Well, it’s tough on the poor chap. But. we can’t spend any more time here. Tell ’*em at Gridiron when we get up there ag’in, an’ have the morning ex- press watch out for him.” He got the signal then and pulled open the throttle with a jerk. An hour later they were at the station on the mountain and the train was made up once more, while the crew hustled out the freight. billed to this place. It had stopped raining by this time, and Sousa, with a lantefn swinging from his arm, went down. the long string of cars, comparing their numbers with the list he had prepared from the waybills. The forward end of the train was now in the rear, although the caboose had been shunted back and coupled upon the extreme tail as usual; so it was not an easy matter to find all the cars. Sousa wandered up and down the length of the train twice, and by that time the half ear-load of freight had been dumped in the Gridiron freight shed. : “All right, Jim?” sang out the en- gineer, with his head out of the cab window and his hand upon the lever. “T dunno,” growled Sousa. “ Wait a minute!” Then he called his nearest men. “Scatter along here, boys, and see if you can find a car numbered 30-71-11. I’m hanged if [ can find it.” The brakemen went off grumbling. It was late, they were wet, and the run had been unpleasant enough to get on the nerves of the most callous. “You're off your nut, Jim!” sang out the flagman. “ We ain’t got a car numbered like that.” Sousa went back to the caboose and took a look through his waybills. COMmiclooolkX (C@