Argosy All-Story Weekly, June 27, 1925 — page 31: what you’re looking at

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

THE CALL OF SHINING STEEL. left it, banked for the night. His hook was soon clanging against the coked fire even as Jim had taught him. Back and forth he tumbled the lumps, raked out the heavy clinker, shook the grates and care- fully spread a light layer of coal on the hot level bed of the fire. He glanced up at the steam gauge that showed a low boiler pressure, then at the level in the water glass. sHalf a head of steam, low water and looking back at the tender, he finished the unspoken sentence, dirty coal, for the pile that slid between the coal gate on to the steel shovel plate was as fine as roadside dust. The engineer called over to him. “ Bud, we got the tonnage to-day. Ten solid cars of machinery for the new tannery and a big bunch of local stuff besides. Kin you keep her a rolling?” “Cap, I’ll shore try,” Zeb replied. The engineer nodded approval, adding: “Well, if you get petered, just yell and I'll stick in a few fires to spell you off. It’s going to be a hard day all right, for a green man.” The engine slowed down, stopped at the junction, where the West End Division branched off from the main line. During the ten minutes they waited for a clear track, Zeb improved the time by getting in a good fire. Cracking the blower valve be- side him, he listened with satisfaction to the rumble as the induced draft roared and sucked at the fire, while the steam pressure, pound by pound, eased the needle up around the dial. Just before the popping mark Zeb opened the injector. Tentatively, he tried it. There seemed to be a mystery about that little black handle that slid back so easily. He had read the night before of the strange mechanics of the injector, that cunningly contrived device which moves water, lifts it up and sends it rushing into a boiler against the steam pressure, the very pressure that causes it to function. The words of Jim's books—condensa- tion, vacuum, momentum of a head of water, came back to him, but he had not yet fully realized the complicated interplay of forces that took place when he jerked the handle and a rumbling, clicking noise of running water followed. The black line on the water gauge rose up, up till it al- most was hidden in the top of the ribbed glass. The engineer opened the top gauge cock. A gurgling hiss issued out and he called: “ All right, kid. You got her full. Don’t want to get too much in or we'll be work- ing water instead of steam. It ‘ll wash all the oil out of her valves and cylinders. Then there’s the devil to pay, no lubrica- tion, cut valves, ground out piston packing and scored rods.” He looked up as a semaphore in front of them swayed, moved, then swung its tail down. A clear track, a “ hoot-hoot!” from the whistle and Zeb glanced back, saw a hand wave up and down from the rear of the train. “What's he say?”. asked the engineer, jerking his head toward the back end. “Up and down,” answered Zeb as he had heard Jim explain a go-ahead sign yesterday. The throttle jerked open and fiem- flam-flam! harsh, abrupt, loud ringing, the exhaust roared out the stack when the local moved and got under way. For an hour it puffed and chugged along the level where the tracks followed the river. Then it started up a slight grade that would take it among the foothills, up higher through the gaps, higher still along the cuts on the ~face of the hills till it came to Ecclefechan. While Zeb fired shovel after shovel of the run of mine coal that was almost all slack and dust, he was dismayed to notice the steam pressure steadily falling. At each stop by vigorous use of his shovel, he worked the needle a few pounds higher\ but the stops were short this morning, and the slow runs with the reverse lever well down and the throttle wide open, not only used up the sttam fast, but the heavy draft that roared through the stack sucked the life out of the fire. Bang-crash! the shovel grated against the steel shovel sheet and-clanged through the fire door opening. Over and over again, Zeb bowed his back, crooked his arms, Straightened, lined his coal into the in- Satiable maw glowing before him. The force of the draft picked the coal dust up COnniEaoo () SS Co