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Show given point; then stopped and slowly backed : nto the sheds. "Gen '.men," said the superintendent, superintend-ent, "tb -Iron Mountain is over on the tenth ti ik. You have three minutes to reacl it" He then hurried to the front oi 'the train. Australian Jack leaped i om nls cab and waited. His face wai as pale as death and his lips twitched Soldiers tell us the bravest men lost heir nerve after the battle. "Jack, ny boy," said the superintend superin-tend " ra've done me a good turn tonight, i- id I fear I've done you an 111 one. I g .t this message for you at Brookfieli and wouldn't deliver it then because ecause " "For fe r I'd flunk," said Jack. He took the ' paper mechanically. He didn't stai , as the superintendent expected, ex-pected, bu folded It and put it in his pocket. "I saw t e boy hand you the message," mes-sage," said i the engineer, 'and you read it and looked at me. That told the- story. ; j knew then my poor old mother wai dead, because she had been very ill and my sister had agreed to tell me how she was just before we started. I k rew the worst had happened hap-pened when 'ou did not give the message mes-sage to me.' i And Jack sat down on the step of le tender and buried his face in his a ms. The supe: mtendent reverentially took off his iat and lqoked across at the network . of tracks and moving switch engine 3. He appreciated his subordinate's ievotion to duty because he himself hi d risen through efforts of a kindred I ature. The Criterion. An eminent railroad man said some years ago: "They will build engines that will beat a mile a minute dash with a heavy train, but to operate them successfully you'll have to invent something besides flesh and blood." And the tenderfoot who has clung to a fireman's "seat-box" while the machine ma-chine under him was spinning out the miles at that rate will vigorously second sec-ond the statement. But that statement was made back yonder In the nineteenth century. This is the twentieth. The Burlington had completed its eastern cut-off to the Mississippi river, and one locomotive was covering the division between Brookfleld and St. Louis, 175 -miles. The Northern Pacific express reach-x reach-x ed the mid-Missouri division fifty minutes min-utes late. The engine hauling It was sending aloft a geyser of steam from the safety valve and quivering all over as if enraged that In spite of its best exertions this dishonor had attached to it And the engine driver was mean enough to slander it by saying, "She just wouldn't make steam." If the machine could have talked it would s have said something about "nerve." A helper leaped into the cab as the engineer stepped off, and ran the engine en-gine down to the tracks leading to the that meeting; guess they don't want us there." The superintendent looked , at the floor and said nothing. It seemed to the impatient men in the rear car that the express and baggage men at Macon wduld never get through. At last the signal was given and. the train started out on the new St. Louis cut-off. After Af-ter creeping through the yards, it came into the open and plunged through the rich farming lands, where the early pioneers of the middle west had fought Indians, leveled the great forests and made history. The rock-ballast rock-ballast roadbed was as level as a billiard bil-liard table, and Australian Jack had struck the schedule gait before the officers of-ficers realized It At a tiny station, ten miles northwest of Paris, the superintendent su-perintendent noted his watch. Within With-in ten minutes the roar of the rushing express train started the echoes In the drowsy county seat of Missouri's democratic dem-ocratic Gibraltar, Monroe county, and a minute afterwards the red lights on the rear car were disappearing in the direction of the Mississipi. There was but one more stop until the Missouri Mis-souri river was reached, and the superintendent su-perintendent knew Jack would make the run of his life to Old Monroe. The next ten miles was made in eight end one-half minutes. Then the round-house. Then there was slowly ( backed up to the long line of vesti- 1 buled coaches that had come in from the coast, a double compound, a type recently adopted by the road. The coupling was made so gently that the most sensitive passenger could . not have told when the tender touched the front express car. The engineer, "Australian Jack," as the boys called him, walked over to the fireman's side and looked down the depot platform, where trucks of baggage and express were being noisily wheeled about A tall man with an iron-gray mustache emerged from the crowd and walked up to No. 850 Jack's engine. He was superintendent of the lines in Missouri. Mis-souri. "Jack," he said, "we're nearly an hour late. The president and two of the directors are along, and they want to catch the Iron Mountain at Union Station In the morning. There's a big consolidation meeting of the southern lines at Memphis tomorrow and they have to be there. They won't wait for them if they're lateT Blossom lost time out of the junction because he was afraid of the new track work, and the 'big uns' are 'most wild. Ypu understand what this meansto me." . . -Australian Jack touched his hat and inclined his head a little, but said nothing. As the superintendent turned turn-ed away a messenger boy rushed up toward 850. The official stopped him and took the message from his hand. He said: "Never mind; Jack don't want that now. I'll give it to him at the station." When 850 started there was no slipping, slip-ping, of the drivers, no sudden jerk and Bhutting-off the steam. The engineer clasped the lever, with a velvet touch and the wheels began to move. The start was so, gradual that the great men, who were smoking their cigars in the rear compartment of the president's presi-dent's car, frowned and wondered if the man at the throttle was of the sort that could gather up that fifty minutes min-utes out of a schedule that called for nearly sixty miles an hour." "I think Jack will make it all right," said the superintendent!' "but I'm afraid I played, bin a ;stsf jryvtrJekrito-nigbji jryvtrJekrito-nigbji aiudjjoper;toi.'?irhjc(h he wiifch&vfep-forgjye wiifch&vfep-forgjye meoKhe Iwsleajlns-itheiiiruthiYr. iL'WhatswM ta)S?'basKedqthEEipreBl-T dent .sJalswnhta hz& sx-rro-g .sJsoo ttWfJKjad ..a,,jjice,Liadfpen fUnwejyk,fo& seja't'.da'n ju'hsfor'etaf ting ; th J;eiegrajlj boywen.t.'t.org jtheVnT.-, not 'get the' resgeiust jth'ejan J, took.jtwsjfoni' 'f)k;$fai$v'tf.' slaAly . said, plotter Js' dead, con ciufle&b.f UpMrte,n3e;nV 'wi&L, aJ "ft" "ff VT' V,set; Md..jLjLidn';.teIl Euh;",:. f"' " .,,." ' '-"And' n"e ; Js'"' ignorant drnts rSis'for- tune?" said' ohevo'f. the aijictdrs? dClw 'fHcnirseV answ'ere$;'thevsurpVrn-S-J toenl:-t;ih1git W djfigefb'us1 i reVMrn-ffoW-Vhileimkiiighb SorV'pf run he has to maketonilkl?' h' speaker" fudged fro'itf sh'afp experience. 4 iVJfh"e Wfr smoked "tfieirf cfgaors In'W' i len "'TW gmootn-toiling ars-beS gahatd: gather' niomentuhY; tutx; there wasssris erklng ate winging' iofdthe solid' traln-4 just at. eas slipping: along as -a tmeumatic-ttra'd .buggy, anight; run over a velvet carpet. ,isl r. .Ike-, .superintendent ex-plainedhe flletenqes, between Ae stations; nd-the ewwho ihad; thpusandat jitak,, on thS; success. of; tha;run. gpt,flt pape,f ; and figured.: Jh rate at whtqhih$ inyeg were being thrown bIynd(J;,s'J'hi1"hir5-ly-f our miles ,lo. Macon . were jnadee in y thirty-nine mlnutesttg.iiuni'ergus ; coal switcneaJln3laisn'cbunri' being responsible for tha loss qf flyetmin-S flyetmin-S jit(."s Tbls madfi'ffili,tVdtey be- jil Vft4 ""i-aUwy'agajies i . .lQqm.i.r shijoK their'neddi.1""' t0 3oJ ' ''Bo'y.;',' saId. ;t.he'' peStaeSt, afraid the jig Is uV He'irneefiAiake It It's queer they refused to postpone engine settled down to work. The rate was increased to ten in eight minutes; then in seven; then In six, which was the limit,-and which was held" without deviation. The president dropped back in his chair. He knew the man in front was doing everything humanity could accomplish. Out of every ten miles traversed he was placing plac-ing four minutes against the fifty-five on the debit side, and if the gait was kept up to the city limits the train would back Into Union station exactly on time. As the early dawn of the June morning morn-ing crept over the Mississipi, the limited crossed the line of Andraln and invaded the soil of old Pike, the starting point of so many of Missouri's worjthy sons. Some of the passengers, scenting the approach to the river, walked out into the vestibules to look at the scenery in the twilight - Then they noticed something of which they had been unaware while lying in their chairs that the mileposts and other objects were whizzing past them at a rate they had never before experienced experi-enced in all their lives. Itwasiax4-to Itwasiax4-to believe Jhatitiat--gen'fly . rocking -faain was annihilating distance at the rate of eighty miles an hour,; but that is the story the mileposts told. ' At Old Monroe there was a wait. The dispatcher had calculated on a run of only sixty miles an hour out of Macon, and had permitted a northbound north-bound train to leave West Alton on the limited's supposed lost time. The president and directors frowned and began to look anxious again. Ten minutes were placed on the wrong side of the ledger. The officials from their observatory glared at the innocent inno-cent freight engineer, and the president presi-dent said something, the Sunday school books' don't approve of. It seemed so long this time before 850 struck the maximum that the president thought the engineer must have abandoned the task. He suggested sug-gested that the superintendent go forward for-ward and see what the matter was, but that gentleman said: j "Wb are on a gradual grade and (have an uflUSually heavy train. He's jdoing the bqsJfc,ihaic&nj!,L,4hink he'll fQe todiRl bfija .enoicO aauo Us tfc.'OEaiBtTifcingnJfefc, Pjiclse? SfavM?M& oltreadabeufc! fS??1 153 tMfTSygtem,,JiWhpBj 8Jfia WVwas, Shears'! Ja?i ii ipasengerg during Jhe, tipgmj central Missouri division. Alongyjereo ,.?V .SOf.waicpyj,, !ereafe0jS-tP.5enggr.ciiar. jeaj jized. Oiy were,oQniJt.;,and Jh9' trajk jleapeiI,,oye,tV i tia3$ s'Pd; " T'snioptoa, joWiV'n9.-.w? heav,pg.pr; , civy. piterajea thip'peaj;anVe ,of. ,d"ay j tKa. pftefoldgtijat tnejwal pjes" " i lrPeS 9y?-.ay.a. pancake, j it," said the" presfflent'Ittfewi Jbe much traveL over, jtnC" streets' this i (ikjr, ioyotihln he'asfeed; thVsii-ip'arintenmt1 thVsii-ip'arintenmt1 ff3 M-WlaM ":"TBeretf be! iome75fhat, o$x& afia fikt)ie ;crrancis. ''"if !L;we!;d6n'f ftrfke" aijyAin-'Vou'll reach' -'the0 sta? fat ft '"'m Wi 30 Alorig tlie ndin'gr" tggiinst'f acS around tW 'iumbertyara's1, ( warehouses? gluiworkSnd-f (actbrtes'theneWe racking Fate1 was hel a Tvl tb? na'alk-Wke' tenacity. At onecrossfng5 a iteani''e8J caped'annlhllatioS 'by' hardly io-aaVs breath; ariahfca inea-who doo'ked taA 6ftBe 'flassi wftid&w8 ltt'thd rear -could see-'ttre djilvepiana-JseVeral peoplei gesi tfcyiat'ihg "Sag sifakittg' atHelf JJstsiJ'n tner:,airecUo'ni''ipWi!eman;taiaIIng in &''aloon asi)rseoleds!and wrote something1 -rn-lii'sJ aiote6okjoc'sath'i:a oiir; and i-ihisn.-the1 train shot! up: on theefevatedi'-'flewJ jast itassdaiwlwit levee' warehcnlsei, arbtfns;l3ie .1 tenet-'innl?-M the'-sbiftnerffsatefrlctilanfi ftin"o6k:one strand ot-lfeeJwsbfuoUtli of Union station and followed it to a |