Newspapers / The Monroe Journal (Monroe, … / May 10, 1921, edition 1 / Page 3
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FIG ITT PACES THK MOVBOF JOntVAt. TI IY. MIV n. PAGE THRTB IIS CHAPTER I At Sand Creek Siding An a Kcneral inMuiiIn, I don't be l!ee mmh In the iliinM ciille! "hum-he." Hut tin-re are exception to all rules, nnil we certainly niicov eivil tin bluest one of the l the boss utnl I the iiirlit we left I'ort IiiimI ami the irnod old I'liclllc '" . It was this way. We had finished the construction work on the Oreu'i.n Midland; mid wire n our way to the traiii. wlicn 1 had one of those qu-er little irt'iiiinlt(iry chills you heiir mi much about and knew Just as well a could lie that we were never solng to null through to Chicago witlioiit set tins J"lt of some wirt. The reiison If you'll call It a reasou was that. Just before we carae to the railroad atatlon, the boss walked calmly under a ladder standing In front of a new building; and besides that, It wax the thirteenth day of the month, a Fri day, and raining like the Tery uils chief. Just to aort of toll us aloni. may be, the fatea didn't bee In on u that night. They waited until the next day, and then proceeded to shove na In behind a freight-train wreck at Wldner, Idaho, where we lost twelve hours. It looked a If that didn't amount to much, because we weren't due anywhere at any particular time. The bos wan nn hla way home for a little visit with bin folk In Illinois, and beyond that he was go!n to meet a bunch of Englishmen In Montreal, and maybe let them make blm irenersl manager of one of the t'anHdian rail mil da. So Ir. .Norcross whs In no special hnrry, and neither was I. I phiI been confidential clerk and shorthand man for the boss on the Midland construc tion, and he wus taking; me ulnutt part ly because he knows a cracking good stenographer when he sees one, but mostly because I was dead anxloup to go anywhere he was going. But, If It hadn't been for that twelve-hour lay-out we would hive caught the Saturday night train on the Pioneer Short I.lne, Instead of the train. Sunday morning, ami there would have heen no meeting with Mrs. Shells and Malsle Ann; no tele gram from Mr. Clntdwlck, because It wouldn't have found us; no, hold up at Sand Crvel; sldlim: In short, noiblne would have happened I tin I did hap pen. It was on Sunday that the jolt be gan to g'-t ready to land mi us. nijrht soon after breakfast, with the help of a little 1'iillmiin berth tnble and me and my typewriter. Mr, Norcross turned our section Info a business ofllce, aaylng that now we bad a good quiet day, we'd clean up the million or so odds and ends of correspondence he'd been letting go while we were tussling for the Midland right-of-way through the Oregon mountains. From where he sat dictating to me the boss was facing forward and now and then an absent sort of look came Into his eyes while he was talking off hla letters, and It puzzled me because It wasn't like him. One of the times after he had given me a full grist of letters and had gone off to smoke while I typed a few thousand lines from uiy notes to ratJi up, I made a discovery. There were two people Id Section Five just ahead of u, a young woniHD and a girl of maybe fif teen or an, ami the Pullman was the old-fashioned kind, with low seat backs. I put It up that In those u ri sen t-cyed Intervals Mr. Xorcross had heen studying the back of the young woman' neck. I was messurnbly sure It wasn't the little girl's. Along In the forenoon I hiade an ex cuse to go and get a drink of water out of the forward cooler, and on the way back I took a good sipiare look at our neighbors in Number Klve. The young woman wan pretty enough to start a stopped clock only "pretty" Isn't Just the word, either; there wasn't any word, when you come right down to It. And the little girl was simply a iieach a nice, downy, -osy peach; chunky, round-faced, aun:iy haired. Jolly; with a neat little turned tip nose and big sort of boyish .laugh ing eyes that fairly dared the world. At the second rail to dinner Mr. Norcross told me to strap up the ma chine and pot the Dies away In the grips and we'd go t. He was pretty quiet, breaking out once. In the meat course, to tell me that he'd Just had a forwarded telegram from an old friend of his that would atop us off for a day or two In Portal City, the head quarters of the Pioneer Short Line. Farther along, pretty well Into the Ice cream and black coKee, he came to life again to ask me If I hud noticed the young lady and the girl In the Pull man section next to ours. I told him I hud, and then, because I bad never known him to bother his ber.d for two Minutes In succession about any woman, he gave me a shock; fculd they were ticketed to portal City ami to tlml that out he must have asked the train conductor adding that when we reached porta! It would Ih th- iiebj'.ilmrly thing for me to do to help them off with ilu-ir j hand-hairs and we that they got a cat if they wauted one. j "Sure I will." sri.vs I. "That is. If : the lady's hushuud Isn't there to meet them. Iler Mi't case has her Inline, 'Mrs. Sheila Macrae,' on It." The boss. ba a way of making two up-and-down wrinkles and a llttlu curved horseshoe line come lietweea bis eyes when he Is going to reach for you. "There are times, Jlmmle, when you see altogether too much," he said, aort of grulT. "Macrae,' you say: that Is Scotch. And ho Is 'Sheila.' Most likely thW names, both of thetn, are only hand downs. She looks straight American to me." "She ! pretty enough to look any thing," I threw In, Just to see bow he would take It. "Right you are, Jlmmle," he agreed. "I've been look In at the back of her neck all day. There are so many women who don't measure up to the promises they make when you see 'em front behind. Tou catch a glimpse of a pretty neck, and when you get i round to the face you find out that the neck was only a bit of bluff." If I had been eating anything in the world but Ice cream I believe It would have choked me. What he siitd led up to the admission that be had been making these face-and-neck compari sons for goodness knows how long, and I couldn't surround tluit. 'l at once. You see, he was such a picture of a man'a man In every sense of the word; a fighter and a hard-hitter, right from the Jump. And to a man of tluit sort women are usuulljr no more than fluffy little side-Issue.', s Kve ld when they told her she was made out of Adam's rib. That ended the dining-car pa 't of It. The sore-enough, knock-out rtiund was fought at the rear end of onr Pullman, which happened to be the last car In the train. As we walked buck after dinner Mr. Norcross gave me a cigar and said we'd go out to the observation platform to smoke. When we reached the door we found the young lady and the girl standing at the rear railing to watch the track unroll Itself under the trucks. The young lady was wenrlng a cont with a storm collar, but the girl hud a fnr thins around her neck, and her stocky, chunky little arms were elhow deen In a big pillow nmfT to match, though the April night wasn't even half-way chilly. The In ms stepped out on the plat form to i 'oe the side trap door which, with the railing gate on that Ride, had been left open by a careless rear flug num. .li st then the big "Pacific type" tlist was pulling us let out a whistle screech that would have waked the dead, and the air brakes went on with a Jerk that showed how beauti fully reckless the railroading was on the Pioneer Short I.lne, Mr. Norcross was reaching for the catch on the floor trap and the Jerk didn't throw hi in. Rut It snapped the young woman and the girl away from th railing so suddenly that the little one had to grab for hand-holds; and when she did that, of course the big muff went overboard. At this, a bunch of things happened, all In an eye-wink.' The train ground and Jiggled to a stop; the girl squealed, "Oh, my muff!" and- aklpped down the steps to disappear In the general direction of the Pacific toast; the young woman shrieked after her, "Malsle Ann! come back here j-you'll he left!" and then took her turn at disappearing by the same route; and, on top of It all, the boss Jumped off and sprinted after bath of them, leaf ing a string of large, man-sized com ments on the foolishness of women as a sex trailing along behind him as he flew. Right then It was my golden moment to play safe and sane. With three of them off and lost In the gathering night, somebody with at least a grain of sense ought to have stood by to pull the emergency cord If the train should start. But, of course'. I had to take a chance and spill the gravy all over the tablecloth. The slop was at a blind siding In the edge of a moun tain desert, and when I squinted up shesd and asw that the engine was taking water. It looked as If there were going to be plenty of time for a bit of promenade tinder the atara. So I swung off and went to Join the muff hunt. Amongst them, they bad found the pillow thing before I had a chance to horn In. They were coming up the track, and the boss had each of the two by an arm and was telling them that they'd be left to a dead moral certainly If they didn't run. They couldn't run because their skirts were loo fashionably narrow, and there wen e'M f! ree or fmr car ictcth to gv wlen tie t jX fjH'Ut veul Up i.h a !u-; vA Ha::i-r of chains and the uM "i :r-:i- itm"" ave a oiupl of h j s Liiti a Miort. T1 ey're tro ag!" pn-1 the !sa. -rt f between lis ei!i. aid v.:tli-a.i!;h-r rtl he jjubjed ilio-e two hobbled women folks up under hi arm. Just as if they'd heea a cvtipie of kacks of nieaU and broke into a run. It wasn't a umrsel of use, you know. Old Hercules himself couldn't have run very far or very fast with the handicap the Ihis had taken on, and in less than half a minute the "Pai tic type" Lad caught her stride and ihe rul tail lights of the train were xutilshiui: to pin (xiints in the nunt. We c.-e beautifully and artist-ally left. When he saw that It was no man ner of use, the bos quit on the handi cap rac-e and put his two armful d -vn while be utill had breath enough left to talk with. "Well." he said. In his best rusty hinge rasp, "you've done it '. Why, In Juat as if They'd Been a Couple of Sacks of Meal. the inline of common sense, couldn't you have let Die go back after that niulf tlilugT" It whs the youmg woman who an swered the boas. "I I didn't stop to think!" she fluttered, taking the blame as If she had heen the one to head the proces sion, "Isn't there any way wu can stop that train?" The boss said there wasn't, and I know the only reuson why he didn't say a lot of other things was because he wus too much of a gentleman to say them In the presence of a couple of women. So far na we could see, the surf, ro'itiillngs consisted of a short side track, u spur running off into the hills, and the water tank. The aiding switches hud no lights, which argued that there wasn't even a pump-imin at the tank as there was not, the tank beinx tilled automatically by gravity pipe line running back to a natural reservoir In the mountains. Ry this time the lioss was begluuing to get a Iltjle better grip on himself and he laughed. "We've all enrued the leather medal, I cuess," he chuckled. "It's done now, and It can't be Iieliied." "Hut Isn't there anything we can do?" said the young woman. "Can't we walk somewhere to where there Is a station or a town with people In itr I aaw Mr. Norcross look down at her skirts and then at the girl's. "You two couldn't walk very far or very fast In those things you are wearing," he grunted. "Besides, we are In one of the desert strips, and It Is probably miles to a night wire sta tion In either direction." We trailed off together up the track, two and two. the boss walking with the young woman. After we'd counted a few of the cross-ties, the girl said: "Is your name Jlmmle Dodds?" And when I admitted It: "Mine Is Malsle Ann. I'm Sheila's cousin on her moth er's side. I think this tail great lark; don't you?" "I can tell better after It'a over." I said. "Maybe we'll have to stay here all night." "I shouldn't mind." she came back airily. "I haven't been up all night since I was a little kiddle and our house' burned down." We reached the big water tank, and the boss picked out one of the square footing timbers for a seat. It seemed as If he were finding It a good hit harder to get acquainted with his half of the combination than I was with mine, hut after a little the young wo man thawed out a bit and made- Mm talk to help pass away the time, I took It and the little girl and 1 sat and listened. When the young woman finally got him started, the boss told her all about himself, how he'd heen railroading ever since he left college, and a lot of things that I'd never even dreamed of. It'a curious how a pret ty woman ran make a man turn him self Inside out that way. Just for her amusement. The boss asked her If she were wsrui enough, aaylng that If she were not. he and I would scrape op some sage-brush or something and make lire. She replied that she didn't care for a fire, that the night wasn't at all cold which It wasn't. Then she showed that she was human, clear down to the tlpa of her pretty fingers. "You mny smoke If you want to." she toll the boss. "I aha'n't tn!nd Jt in the least." . ( The boss lighted his cigur. Then there was t :re ts!. in which It turned V'lt that the yutirg woman and her rouvii weir to hae lc!i met at Portal City by si:uclMn!y she railed "Cousin I-.;:-;!," but there wouldn't In? any ;irr, Kt-nuse !o lad written ahead s::y th:it jMs!bly ibey i.iighl ti' u r wi:"i soti.e fr.ii.d-. iu our of the apple towns. Then Mr. Norcr-s said he wouldn't miss anything by the dro-out but an appointment he bad with an old friend, and he gmi-M-d that could wait. I listened, thinking maybe he would mention the name of the friend, and after a while be did. The forwarded Port:il t'jty tel. grain the boss had got. ten Jim before we went to dinner In the dining-car whs from "I'ncle John" Chadnirk. the Chicago wheat king, and that left me wondering what the nifsiliief Mr. Ch'tdtvick was doing away out in the wild and woolly west ern country where they raise more apples than they do wheat, and more mining stink schemes than they do either. We had ln-cn marooned for tiearly an hour when I struck a match and looked at my watch. Mr. Norcross was doing his best to kill time for the young woman, nnd he was Just in the exciting part of a railroad story, telling about a right-of-way fight on the Mid land, when the little girl grubbed my arm ami said: "Listen:" I did, and broke In promptly. "Kx eu.se me." I called to the other two. "but I think there's a train coming." The boss cut his story short and we all listened. It seemed that I was wrong. The noise we heard was more like an auto running with the cut-out open than a train rumhliag. "What do you make It. Jlmmle?" came from the boss' end of the tim ber. "Motor car," I said, pointing In the darkness toward the east. My guess was right. In less than a minute we saw the lights of the car. It atopped a little way below the water tank and about a hundred yards north of the track, or maybe less, and four men came tumbling nut of It. If I had been alone on the Job I should probably have called to the men ns they came tramping over to the aide track. But Mr. Norcross had a dif ferent think coming. "Out of sight quick, Jlmmle!" be whispered, and In another second he "Out of Sight Quick, Jimmle!" Whispered. He had whipped the young, woman over the big footing timber to a standing place under the tank, among the braces, nud I had done the same fcr the girl. What followed was as mysterious as a chapter out of an Anna Katherlne tireen detective story. After doing something to the switch of the unused vpur track, the four men separated. One of them went bark to the auto, and the other three walked down the main track to the lower switch of the abort siding, which was on the same side of the main line as the spur. Here the fourth man rejoined thetn, and the girl at my elbow told us what'he had gone back to the car for. "He has lighted a red lantern," ahe whispered. "1 saw It when he took It out of the auto." I guesa It was pretty plain to all of us by this time that there was some thing decidedly crooked on the cards, hut If we had known what It was. we couldn't very well have done nnyililng to prevent It. There were only two of us men to their four; ami, besides, there wasn't any time. The lantern carrying man had barely reached the lower switch when we heard the whis tle of a locomotive. There was a train coming from the west, and a few sec onds later an electric headlight showed up on the long tangent beyond Ibe siding. It was a bandit hold up, all right. One of the men stood on the track waving the red lantern; we could aee him plainly In the glare of the head light. There wasn't much of a acrap. There were two or three pistol shots, and then, as near a we could make out. the hold-up men, or some of them, climbed Into the engine. Refore you could count ten they had made a flying switch with the single car, kicking It In on the siding. Before the car had come fully to a stop, the engine was switched In behind It, Coo pled on, and the reversed train, with the engine pushing th car, rattled away on the old spur tlmt led oT Into 'be hills; chit'civil anay ami was lost o sight Mid I 'lug In less than a It waa not until after the train was switched and gone that we discovered !:Bt two of the l-ani:'!s tad I een l ft behind. These two r t the switf be i for the main track, leaving everything; as tlier had found it, aid tht-u crossed over to tic auto. I was just thinking tl at all ibis mystery an I kidnaVi g .d gun play must lie mh1 of bard oil I be yoiii.g womau and the girl, but, though my h: If i f the allotment was shiverlnc a I?; tie and snuggling up just a grain cltMT to me, ahe proved that ahe hadn't lost her nere. "Iid ou see the name on that car when the engine went past to get in behind it?" she asked. "No," Fultl the boss; and I hadn't, either. "I did." f-he asserted, showing that her eyes, or her wits, were quicker tliiin ours. "I had Just one little glimpse of it. The rame is 'A 1-e-x-a,' sll,ng It out. Mr. Norcross started as if he had been slmt. "The Alexa? That Is Mr. Chad-wb-k's private car they've kidnnled him !" Then k whirled short on nn. "Jiiiuuie, are you man enough to go with me and try a tackle on those fellows over there in that auto?'' I said I was; but I didn't add what I thought that It would probably be a case of double suicide for us two to go up against a p;;'r of anaed thugs with our bare hands. The young wo man put in her word. "You mustn't think of doing such a thing!" she protested; and she was still te'llng him all the different rea sons why he mustn't, when we beard the creak and grind of the stolen en gine coming back down the old spur. After that there was nothing to do hut to wait and see what was going to hapen next. What did hapen waa as blind m all the rest. The engine was stoped 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 hur rying across out of the hill shadows, making straight for the auto. A min ute or two later they had climbed into the machine, the motor had sput tered, and the car was gone. (Continued In the next Issue.) No More Dandruff A leading hair dresser says she has found nothing as good as Paris Ian Sage to banish all dandruff and make the hair wavy, thick and lus trous. English Drug Co sells it on money back plan. Doycu know ysj cn roll t f dr :.?;l5f lOcts from one bag of 9 f3ENU BullDurham TOBACCO A Natural Question The canoe was drifting farther an! farther out into the lake. "Oh," sha exclaimed suddenly, "don't you think, we ought to hut; the shore?" i With Instant interest he inquired: l"Why the shore?" i PERFORMANCE Harer Overland 7 day non-stop an ; durance run showed mileage of 324f at WnsliliiKtoii, I). C. Tires at Bargain Prices. i i III v I Honesty and Service Our Motto. R. SAMS Opposite Postoffice. tTtl mm m $ &im FIMl mm There's n good deal in the cooking of a meal, but there's more still in the buying of the groceries. When you entertain you want the best there is. Your guests will know at the first meal if you trade willi an u)-lo-dute grocery store. Trade with us. and your guests will be delighted in the menu. QUAL I TY ECONOM Y r ophoneM THE QJUALITY GROCERS SERVtCF I 1 I t f FANCY C. STAPLE GROCERIES 4 pj iiLMGii syrup m A sweet that's as good for the children as it tastes t6 them. 1 LS Order a can of ALAGA from your rocer and spread it on bread for die kiddies. A , wholesome treat ALABAMA-GEORGIA SYRUP CO. MwtawMrr. AW. Jaia illh FU.
The Monroe Journal (Monroe, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 10, 1921, edition 1
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