The Wreckers

nk P

uit on the handicap race and put his two armfuls dow

've done it! Why, in the name of common sense, coul

nk that she was crying. If I had been as well acquainted with her as I got to be a little later on, I would have known that sh

g woman who ans

e blame as if she had been the one to head the proce

didn't say a lot of other things was because he was too much o

went on, gasping a little. "Isn't ther

and the water tank. The siding switches had no lights, which argued that there wasn't even a pump-man at the tank-as ther

n about the telegraph office he got his eye on me,

to be able to unload on somebody in trousers. "Why in blue blazes

an excuse that would sound just a few degrees less than plumb foolish, when the young woman took up for me. She'd

of crisp, and yet sort of motherly. "If you feel obl

rl. "I was the one who jumped off first. And I don't

nning to get a little better g

nd it can't be helped. We're stuck until another train comes along, and perha

he young woman. "Can't we walk somewhere to where

k down at her skirts a

wearing," he grunted. "Besides, we are in one of the desert strips, a

for another train?" This time it was

t Line schedules." Then to the young woman: "Shall we go and sit under the water tank?

ounted a few of the cross-ties, the girl said: "Is your name Jimmie Dodds?" And when I admitted it: "M

over," I said. "Maybe we'll

ce I was a little kiddie and our house burned down. You're just a boy, are

re finding it a good bit harder to get acquainted with his half of the combination than I was with mine, but after a little the young women thawed out a bit and made him talk-to help pass away the time, I took it-and the little girl and I sat and listened. When the young wo

l had the cigar the boss had given me, and I sure wanted to smoke mighty bad, only I thought it wouldn't look just right-me being the chape

have been telling me the story of a man who has done things, Mr. Norcross. It has be

up some sage-brush or something and make a fire. She replied that she didn't care for a fire, that the night wasn

o," she told the boss. "I sh

the other end of the timber seat, and the boss lighted his cigar. Then there was more talk, in which it turned out that the young woman and her cousin were to have been met at Portal City

friend, and after a while he did. The forwarded Portal City telegram the boss had gotten just before we went to dinner in the dining-car was from "Uncle John" Chadwick, the Chicago wheat king, and that l

d. So far as that under-the-tank talk went, there needn't have been any "Mr. Macrae" at all, and I was puzzled. If she'd been weari

he was just in the exciting part of another railroad story, telling about a right-of-way fight on the Midland, where we had to smuggle in a few cases of Winches

se me," I called to the other two,

ed that I was wrong. The noise we heard was more like an

immie?" came from the b

ay," I said, pointing in th

ped a little way below the water tank and about a hundred yards north of the track, or maybe less; anyway, we could see it quite well even when the lamps were switched off and four men ca

d whipped the young woman over the big footing timber to a standing pla

the four men separated. One of them went back to the auto, and the other three walked down the main track to the lower switch of the short siding which w

" she whispered. "I saw it whe

ne anything to prevent it. There were only two of us men to their four; and, besides, there wasn't any time. The lantern-carrying man had barely reached the lower switch whe

one passenger car. One of the men stood on the track waving the red lantern; we could see him plainly in the glare of the headlight. There wasn't muc

on the siding. Before the car had come fully to a stop, the engine was switched in behind it, coupled on, and the reversed train, with the engine

ind. These two reset the switches for the main track, leaving everything as they had found it, and then crossed ove

Jimmie?" asked the b

im if he knew where the old spur track led to. He said he didn't; that there used to be some bauxite mine

d on the young woman and the girl, but though my half of the allotment was shivering a li

went past to get in behind it?" she asked, turning

boss; and I h

its, were quicker than ours. "I had just one little gl

tarted as if h

m!" Then he whirled short on me. "Jimmie, are you man enough to go

or us two to go up against a pair of armed thugs with our bare hands. The boss would have done it

till telling him all the different reasons why he mustn't, when we hear

ed somewhere in the gulch back of us and out of sight from our hiding-place, and pretty soon the two men who had gone with her came hurrying across out