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Show If I ' EXfERY COUNTY PROGRESS. CASTLE PALE. UTAH ' ' THE WRECKERS Chrle 8cHbnert gifrht - i marrici now, and her husband is still living." little I couldn't do anything but gape like a chicken with "She is for The boss stepped out on the platform to close the side trap door which, with the railing gate on that side, had been left open by a careless rear flagman. Just then the big "Pacific type" that was pulling us let out a whistle screech that would have waked the dead, and the went on with a jerk that showed how beautifully reckless the railroading was on the Pioneer Short Line. Mr. Norcross was reaching for the catch on the floor trap and the Jerk' didn't throw him. But it snapped the young woman and the girl away from the railing so suddenly that the little one had to grab for ; and when she did that, of course the big muff went overboard. At this, a bunch of things happened, all in an The train ground and jiggled to a stop; thejlrl squealed, "Oh. my muff!" and skipped down the steps to disappear in the general direction of the Pacific coast; the young woman shrieked after her, "Maisie Ann ! come back here you'll be 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 both of them, leavcoming a string of large, man-sizements on the foolishness of women as a sex trailing along behind him as as I knew If uas simPlV fierce! 1 knew as anything wax gone on Mrs. Sheila; that he had fallen in love', boss thai the neck and then with her pretty face and fat '( ?' back of her and that the one big reason why he had let all of with her; then jnirsuade him to stay in rortal City was 'the fact that jr. Chadwick to be near her and to show her how he could make a wanted he had vtrftcVy good spoon out of the spoiled horn of the Pioneer Short ( Line. "The Wreckers" in a nutshell a railroad by that, enough for anyone. The "Boss" is a storys railroad man. "Mrs. Sheila" is as lovable as they make 'era. The Pioneer Short Line is a sick road which has been shamefully misused by successive groups of Wall street speculators. And Jimmie Podds, who tells the story in his own inimitable way, is the "Boss's" secretary and handyman. There' Frsnci. Lyndej first-clas- I At Sand Creek Siding general proposition, I don't much in the things called Hut there are exceptions hunclifs." and we certainly uncoveal! rules, b be-je'- s a one of the lot the the night we left Port-fcn- d the good old Pacific coast. this way. We had finished work on the Oregon the construction Jlidland: and were on our way to the train, when I had one of those queer little premonitory chills you hear so much iiliout and knew just as well as tmilil le that we were never going s to pull through to Chicago without The reason a jolt of some sort. was that. -i- f you'll call it a reason biest red the toss ami and It was I get-tin- before we came Just to the railroad station, the boss walked calmly under ladder standing in front of a new kilding: and besides that, it was thirteenth day of the month, a raining like the very and ay, the Fridmis-Chie- sort of toll us along, may-lis didn't begin on us that rifht. They waited until the next day. and then proceeded to shove us In behind a freight-trai- n wreck at Wldner, Idaho, where we lost twelve lours. It looked as If that didn't amount to much, because we weren't due nnywherei at any particular time. The boss was on his way home for a little visit with his folks in Illinois, and beyond that he was going to meet a bunch of Englishmen In Montreal, and mnybe let them make him general tiannger of one of the Canadian railr.lust tn e, t'ne fnt-- oads. Norcross was In no special hurry, and neither was I. I had been confidential clerk and shorthand i .an for the boss on tiie Midland construction, and he was taking me along partly because he knows a cracking good when he sees one, but RenoRrapher mostly because I was dead anxious to go anywhere he was going. But, If It hadn't been for that t we would have taught the Saturday night train on the Pioneer Short Line, instead of the train Sunday morning, and there would have been no meeting with Mrs. Sheila and Maisie Ann ; no telegram from Mr. Chadwick, because It wouldn't have found us ; no hold-u- p tSand Creek siding; In short, nothing would have happened that did happSo Mr. twelve-hou- r lay-ou- he Hew. Uiglit then it was my golden moment to play safe and sane. With three of them off and lost In the gathering you say: that Is Scotch. is 'Sheila. Most likely the names, both of them, are only She looks straight American to me." "She Is pretty enough to look anything," I threw in, just to see how he would take it. "Right you are, Jimmie," he agreed. "I've been looking 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 from behind. You catch a glimpse of a pretty neck, and when you get around to the face you find out that the neck was only a hit of bluff." If I had been eating anything in the world but ice cream 1 believe It would have choked me. What he said led up to the admission that he had been comparimaking these sons for goodness knows how long, and I couldn't surround that, all at once. You see, he was such a picture of a man's man in every sense of the word; a fighter and a "'Macrae,' so hand-down- car-lengt- k hard-hitte- gan to get soon on Sunday that the Jolt beready to land on us. Right after breakfast, with the help of Pullman berth table and me and my Mr. Norcross typewriter. turned our section into a business office, l'init that now we had a good quiet y. we'd clean up the million or so s and of correspondence he'd wn letting g0 while we were tussling the Midland y j through e Oregon mountains. Fro,,, where he sa dictating to me We bftSS WHS facinir fnmgn) on1 tr and then an absent sort of look came Into h is eyes while he was talking off " letters, and it puzzled me because an't like him. One w he bad given me a offullthe times grist of ners and m gone off to smoke e I typed a few thousand lines "OH . ...-- jnntoo " wuiun up, i umue a disci overy. There were two people to Secti on l ive just ahead of us, a Iwi"8or so. ;; ad a gIr, of maybe flf. and the Pullman was the 'I kind, with low sent- tacks. a little right-of-wa- 111 V It it tin ryed tho.' In ,t,ne,n K intervals Mr. Norcross had ""s!"ll-v- i the back of the young " s '" ' k1 was BMnt 'he nuie measurably sure girl's. n"s in lh" forenoon 1 made an ex- m imd get a drlnk of wa,er ont irfV" forward cooler. and on the av l ,00k a 80(1 square look 6.,r 'l,!'0rs ln Nraber Five. The JoC "as pretty P11010 l start mMl dock only "pretty" Isn't 1 wasn't down 7" V Dealt, ' ' . laired. WOrd Word' either: there when vou come rIght AD(1 tl,e litt,e irl was .I1Pn(,ha. nice, downy, rosy IlllU'n jnllv ..va IIH.VU, DUIHIJ- - with n neat little turned- mid big sort of hovlsli lnneh. that fairly dared the world. M'',n'1 " o dinner Mr. Xorcr "foe nn i"1''1 ",0 10 Strnp UP tl,e nlfl- pm the fiIes nwy ,n t"e A d go at. Ha was pretty "P nnS(. .' n Just as if They'd Been a Couple Sacks of Meal. of And to a man right from the Jump. are usually no women sort of that as little more than fluffy was she her told when they said Eve made out of Adam's rib. side-issue- part of round It The our was fought at the rear end of the .be to Pullman, which happened walked last car In the train. As we back after dinner Mr. Norcross gave out to me n cigar and said we'd go smoke to the observation platform nnihofi the door we found .. c --itiv..-iv lieu standing the owl the voung lady . girl the track " at the rear ramus i" The trucks. the under Itself unroll a coat with young lady was wearing tad fur the girl but a itorm collar, That ended the sure-enoug- dining-ca- r knock-ou- t - , , I "Out Quick, Jimmlel" Whispered. of Sight He of the combination than I was with mine, but after a little the young woman 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 woman finally got him started, the boss told her all about himself, how he'd been railroading ever since he left college, and a lot of things that I'd never even dreamed of. It's curious how a pretty woman can make a man turn him- self Inside out that way, just for her amusement. The boss asked her If she were warm enough, saying that If she were not, he and I would scrape up some or something and make a sage-brusfire. She replied that she didn't care for a fire, Unit the night wasn't at all cold which It wasn't. Then she showed that she was human, clear down to the tips of her pretty fingers. "Yon may smoke If you want to," she told the boss. "I sha'n't mind It In the least." 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 beeti met at Portal City by somebody she called "Cousin Basil," but there wouldn't be any scare, because she had written ahead to say that possibly they might stop over with some friends In one of the apple towns. Then Mr. Norcross said he wouldn't miss anything by the drop-ou- t but an appointment he had with an old friend, and he guessed that could wait. I listened, thinking maybe he would mention the name of the friend, and after a while he did. The forwarded Portal City telegram the boss had gotten just before we went to dinner in was from "Uncle John" , the dining-ca- r Chadwick, the Chicago wheat king, and that left me wondering what the mischief Mr. Chadwick was doing away out In the wild and woolly western country where they raise more apples than they do wheat, and more mining stock schemes than they do h an hour when I struck looked at my watch. right-of-wa- gulch?" They both paid me the compliment of saying that they'd stay with me, but the young woman suggested that It might be Just as well If we should all go up the gulch together. So w piked out In the dark, the boss helping Mrs. Sheila to hobo along over of the spur, and the litthe cross-tie- s tle girl stumbling on behind with me. We had followed the 6pur track up the gulch for maybe a short quarter of a jnlle when we came to the engine. As we had feared It might be, the big machine was crippled. There was a key gone out of one of the conncrank-piecting-rod straps; one miserable little piece of steel, mayba eight Inches long and tapering one way, and half an inch or so thick the We other; but that was couldn't make a move without It I thought we were done for, but Mr. Norcross chased me up Into the cab for a lantern. With the light we began to hunt around ln the short grass. I had been sensible enough to show the little girl the other connecting-rokey, so she knew exactly what to look for, and it did me a heap of good when it turned out that she was the one who found the lost bit of steel. "I've got it I've got it!" Bhe cried; and sure enough she had. The hold-upeople had merely taken it out and thrown It aside on the extremely probable chance that nobody wou'd be foolish enough to look for it bo near at hand, or, looking, would be able te I find It in the dark. It didn't take more than a minute or two, with a wrench from the engineer's box, to put the key back In place. Then, with one to boost and the other to pull, we got our two passengers tip Into the high ciib. I of coul Into threw a few shovel-ful- s the firebox and put the blower on; and when we were all set, the boss opened the throttle and we went carefully nosing ahead over the old track, feeling our way up the gulch and keeping a sharp lookout for the Alexa as we ground and squealed around the curves. It must have been four or five miles back In the hills to the place where we found the private car, pushed In g on an old track at the end of the spur. The other members of the crew were off and waiting for us; and standing out on the back platform, ln the full glare of the headlight as we nosed up for a coupling, there was a big, man, bareheaded and dressed ln rough-lookin- g old clothes like a mining prospector. The big man was "Uncle John" Chadwick, and If he was properly astonished at seeing us turn up with his lost engine, he didn't let it interfere with our welcome. Mr. Chadwick seemed to know Mrs. Sheila; at any rate, he shook lands with her and called her by name. Then he grabbed for the boss and fairly shouted at him : "Well, well, Graham ! of all the n 1 d p mine-loadin- gray-haire- d 's either. We had been marooned for nearly a match and Mr. Norcross was doing his best to kill time for the young woman, and he was Just in the exciting part of a railroad story, telHag about a fight on the Midland, when the little girl grabbed my arm and said: "Listen!" I did, and broke in promptly. "Excuse ine." I called to the other tvo, "but I think there's a train comiiig." 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-oopen than a train rumbling. "What do you make it. Jimmie?" came from the boss' end of the timber. "Motor car," I said, pointing In the darkness toward the east. In less than My guess was right. a minute we saw the lights of the car. It stopped a little way below the water tank and about a hundred yards nortii of the track, or maybe less, and four men came tumbling out of It. If I bad been alone on the job I should probably have called to the men as coming. "Out of sight quick, Jimmie!" ho whispered, and in another second he had whipped the young woman over the big footing timber to a standing place under the tank among the braces, and I had done the same for the girl. What followed was as mysterious as a chapter out of an Anna Katherlne Green detective story. After doing something to the switch of the unused spur track, 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 was on the same side of the main line as the spur. Here the fourth man rejoined them, and the girl at my elbow told us what he had gone back to the car for. "He has lighted a red lantern," she whispered. "I saw It when he took it out of the auto." I guess it was pretty plain to all of us by this time that there was something decidedly crooked on the cards, but If we had known what it was, we couldn't very well have done anything to prevent it There were only two of us men to their four; and, besides, there wasn't any time. The lantern-carryin- g man had barely reached the lower switch when we heard the whistle of a locomotive. There was a train coming from the west, and a few seconds later an electric headlight showed up on the long tangent beyond the siding. all right. It was a bandit hold-uOne 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 much of a scrap. There were two or three pistol shots, and then, as near as we could make men, or some of them, out, the hold-u- p climbed Into the engine. Before 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, coupled on, and the reversed train, with the engine pushing the car, rattled away on the old spur that led oft Into the hills; clattered away and was lost to sight and hearing ln less than a minute. It was not until after the train was switched and gone that we discovered that two of the bandits had been left behind. These two reset the switches for the main track, leaving everything as they had found it, and then crossed over to the auto. I was Just thinking that all this mystery and kidnaping and gun play must be sort of hard on the young woman and the girl, but, though my half of the allotment was shivering a little and snuggling up just a grain closer to me, she proved that she hadn't lost her nerve. "Did you see the nanie on that car when the engine went past to get in behind It?" she asked. "No,". said the boss; and I hadn't, either. "I did," she asserted, showing that her eyes, or her wits, were quicker than ours. "I had just one little " glimpse of it. The name is out. it spelling ' Mr. Norcross started as If he had been shot.' "The Alexa?' That is Mr. Chad-wickprivate car they've kidnaped himl" Then he whirled short on me. "Jimmie, 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 pair of armed thugs with our bare hands. The young woman put in her word. "You mustn't think of doing such a thing!" she protested; and she was still telling him all the different reasons why he mustn't, when we heard the creak and grind of the stolen engine coming back down the old spur. After that there was nothing to do but to wait and see what was going to happen next. What did happen was as blind as all the rest. The engine was stopped somewhere ln the gulch back of us and out of sight from our hiding-place- , and pretty soon the two men who had gone with hef came hurrying across out of the hill shadows, making straight for the auto. A minute or two later they had climbed into the machine, the motor had sputtered, and the car was gone. d en. It was track. But ferent think eye-win- 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 stop was at a blind siding In the edge of a mountain desert, and when I squinted up ahead and saw that the engine was taking water. It looked as if there were going to be plenty of time for a bit of promenade under the stars. So I swung off and went to join the muff hunt. Amongst them, they had 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 looral certainty If they didn't run. They couldn't run because their skirts were too fashionably narrow, and there were to go still three or four when the tank spout went up with a clang and a clatter of chains and the old "Pacific type" gave a couple of hisses and a snort. "They're going!" gritted the boss, sort of between his teeth, and without another word he grabbed those two hobbled women folks up under his arms, just as if they'd been a couple of sacks ot meal, und broke into a run. It wasn't a morsel of use, you know. Old Hercules himself couldn't have run very far or very fast with the handicap the boss had taken on, and in less than half a minute the "Pacific type" had caught her stride and the red tail lights of the train were vanishing to pin points in the night. We were beautifully and artistically left. When he saw that It was no manner of use. the boss quit on the handicap race and put his two armfuls down while he still had breath enough left to talk with. "Well," he said, ln his best rusty-hing- e rasp, "you've done It! Why, fn the name of common sense, couldn't you have let me go back after that muff thing?" It was the young woman who answered the boss. "I I didn't stop to think!" she fluttered, taking the blame as If she had been the one to head the procession. "Isn't there any way we can stop that train?" The boss said there wasn't, and I know the only reason why he didu't say a lot of other things was because he was too much of a gentleman to say them in the presence of a couple of women. So far as we could see, the sura rounding consisted of a short sidetrack, a spur running off into the hills, The siding and the water tank. switches had no lights, which argued at that there wasn't even a pump-mathe tank as there was not. the tank being filled automatically by a gravity to a natural pipe line running back reservoir in the mountains. Py tins time the boss was beginning to get a little better grip on himself and he laughed. "We've all earned the leather medal, I guess." he chuckled. "It's done now. and It can't be helped." "But 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 ln it?" 1 saw Mr. Norertss look down at her skirts and then at the girl's. "You two couldn't walk very far or very fast In those thingj you are wearing," he grunted. "Besides, we are in one of the desert strips, and It staIs probably miles to a night wire direction." tion In either a question at the two women: "Will you two stay here with Jimmie while I go and see what I can find ln that they came tramping over to the sideMr. Norcross had a dif- We trailed off together up the track, two and two. the boss walking with the young woman. After we'd c.ounted a few of the cross-tie- s, the girl said: "Is your name Jimmie Dodds?" And when I admitted it: "Mine is Maisie Ann. I'm Sheila's cousin on her mother's side. I think this Is a great lark ; don't you?" "I can tell better after It's 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 kiddie 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 bit harder to get acquainted with his half hand-holds- 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 stop us off for a day. or two in Portal City, the headquarters of the Pioneer Short Line. Farther along, pretty well into the icecream and black coffee, he came to life again to ask me if I had noticed the young lady and the girl in the Pullman section next to ours. I told him I had, and then, because I had never known l ira to bother his head for two minutes in succession about any woman, he gave me a shock; said they wore ticketed to Porlal City and to rind that out he must have asked the train conductor-add- ing that when we reached Portal It would be the neighborly tiling for me to do to help them off with their hnnd-hng- s and see that they got a cab if they wanted one. "Sure I will," says I. "That is, if the lady's husband isn't there to meet thein. Her suit case has her name, 'Mrs. Sheila Macrae,' on it." The boss has a way of making two wrinkles and a little curved horseshoe line come between his eyes when he is going to reach for you. "There are times, Jimmie, when you see altogether too much," he said, sort of gruff. And thing around her neck, aud her stockv, chunky little arms were elbow deep In a big pillow tmiff to match, though the April night wasn't even half-wa- y chilly. the pip- - CHAPTER FRANCIS LYNDE Son THE WRECKING OF THE WRECKERS a By y CHAPTER II Mr. Chad wick's Special Of course, as soon as the skip-oof the four hold-umen gave us a free hand we knew It was up to us to busy and do sjmethlng. It was a safe bet that the Alexa was carrying her owner, and ln that case Mr. John Chadwick and hlj train crew were somewhere back ln the hills, without an engine, and with a good prospect of staying "put" until somebody should go and hunt them up, "We've got to flf rmi vhat they've done with Mr "awick," Mr. Norcross broke ?nt. "And then : "It can't be very far to where they have left the engine, and If they haven't cripBe stopped abort ar.d slung pled ut p pt f it" "I've Got It!" She Cried. lucky things this side of MesopotaHow the dev how in thunder did you manage to turn up here?" And all that you know. The explanations, such as they were, came later. As a matter of course, the talk jumped first to the mysterious hold-u- p and kidnaping and the reason why. There had been no violence the pistol shots had been merely meant to scare the trainmen and there had been no attempt at robbery; for that matter. Mr. Chadwick hadn't even seen the kidnapers, and had known what was going on until after It was all over. mia! "I've changed my mind, UnI'll take the job." cle John (TO BE CONTINUED.) A genuine friend w'll indorse at leaat nine out of ten of your boasts. J |