Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 358: what you’re looking at

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

- TRAIN AND STATION. One day a sick man, coming to the end of the track to go prospecting for gold, as many had come before him, was taken from the train. When it was discovered that he had unmistakable symptoms of smallpox, there was a semi panic -in the railroad camp ‘and signs of a stampede. He was hurried off to a shanty-like structure on the other side of the val- ley, which was thereafter designated as the “ pest house.” For a day and a night no one went near the afflicted man, and no one could be induced to do so. It soon became evident that if the man would not die of the disease itself he would certainly succumb to hunger, thirst and neglect. Finally the facts of the case came to Dykeman, and he instantly decided that if no one else would go to minister to the sick man’s needs he would do so himself. Mr. Layard tried to dissuade him, but it was no use, and the chief engineer agreed to take care of his work while he was gone, because if he once went to the pest house he would have to re- main there till the patient died or re- covered. And if he himself took the disease, there was no telling what the result would be. - Consideration of these things did not deter Dash from his purpose in the least, and after arranging that food, wa- ’ ter, medicines and such other things as he should need, should be left at a cer- tain point in the valley, where he could go by a particular route to get them, he bade good by to Mr. Layard and walked over to the pest house. He felt perfectly indifferent to the danger of taking the contagion, and indeed there seemed a sort of fascina- tion about courting it so boldly that stimulated his drooping spirits. The man was in a burning fever and was muttering in delirium. As soon as he had made the patient comfortable, Dykeman applied effective remedies. He then inspected the man’s features and general appearance. His head and 349 face were large, the former covered with gray hair, and the latter with a dark beard only streaked with white. He possessed a tall, bony frame, and was evidently a man of fine physique when in health. There appeared to be something fa- miliar to Dykeman about the face or the form, he did not know which. But there was nothing on his person to indi- cate who or what he was. That day and the next night were passed in lonely vigil by the young railroader. The second morning he was sitting in the doorway listening to the unintelligible mumbiings of the sick man, when the latter began to talk in a disconnected way. Dash listened attentively and then sprang to the side of the cot, his face flushed and ‘his heart beating tumultu- ously. The sick man was slowly and laboriously referring to the incidents that had happened on the express train on the Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, just prior to the wreck at Lonewood nearly nineteen years before, with which Dykeman was so familiar. Dash stepped quickly to the man’s ‘head, and eagerly began searching for a scar hidden by the gray hair. He found 1t! “ Father!” he sobbed, with joy and pity in his tones, as he sank on his knees and clasped the burning hand. He felt assured that this man was his father indeed, in spite of the fact that Missouri Pete had said his name was Basil Orloff. The outlaw might still be Dorothy’s uncle, but he cer- tainly was not his father. If Dykeman was not perfectly con- vinced that he had found his long lost relative, all doubt was removed when he heard the agony and remorse ex- pressed by the delirious one, as he again went through the experience of ringing down the engineer of the express, after the break in two, and realized too late that his act would produce a collision, in which the woman he had just recog- nized as his wife would robably be (SLOVOOLKS COIN CO