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Show well as safety and simplicity, the Fenl-more-Stokes model had proven superior superi-or to all competitors. The aviator in charge of the "Registered Mail" boldly bold-ly asserted that the ship was capable of twice the speed at which s-Sv was permitted to travel, but the N.-M.-W. company was content with three hundred hun-dred miles an hour content to run two daily airships the "Mail" and the "Chicago Express." Side by side stood "Old Black Lulu" and the "Registered Mail." Side by side stood President Hendricks and Kngineman Simmons. The old engineer, engi-neer, was no longer surly, but sad. He spoke in a voice half-choked with sobs : "Your pa wouldn't 'a' done It, Mr. Hendricks. Your pa was a railroad man from 'way-back, an' he wouldn't 'a' done it. You can fire me for that if you like. It's said, an' I ain't a go- . in' to take it back." His intense sadness and resentment were almost comic. Hendricks laughed a little and' tried to "jolly" the old engineer, but Simmons was in no mood for jesting. He turned away, oiled the 1448, wiped her carefully with a handful of clean waste and polished her as vigorously vigor-ously and unconcernedly as if the "R'gistered Mail" were no more than a .summer shower. But Hendricks heard him murmur once or twice: "They don't want us any more, 'Lulu.' They don't want us any more." By and by Simmons walked over to the airship and examined her carefully. careful-ly. "No chance of a break-down, I s'pose?" he queried hopefully. "No chance whatever," smilingly answered an-swered the aviator. Simmons looked about to see if there was anything with which he could tamper a bolt he could loosen, or a screw he could remove, but there was nothing. Besides, Be-sides, he would have been detected. " 'Lectricity, too," he growled. "Gasoline "Gas-oline was bad enough, but 'lectricity!" He turned away, and climbed into the cab of 1448. He carried baggage and passenger coaches for the first time in many years, and a feeling of shame stole over him as he gazed at "Old Black Lulu" and the string of cars behind her. It had all come so "suddenlike." Only a few days ago, It seemed, airships air-ships were only toys at which he had laughed. Yet one of these toys had supplanted his "Lulu" and there she stood, flaunting her triumph in his face the blue-gray hulk three times as large' as the largest car he had ever hauled and carrying his precious freight his express parcels his registered reg-istered mail ! "Old Black Lulu's" days of glory were over and so were his ! Alas, how bitter! No. 3 counted off the miles "us-always "us-always had. "Old Black Lulu" puffed -and whistled, and clicked and pounded pound-ed over the frogs, just as she always had and, by and by, she started to sing a crazy little song of her own composing: They don't want me any more " They don't want me any more " Simmons heard and understood r and answered : "You're right, old girl. They don't want you any more. 'Lulu' to tha scrap-shop, an' me to Highland Park." In a short time they passed the ninetieth mile-post, and Simmons began be-gan to look for the "Registered Mail." Somewhere along the line she would cross the N.-M.-W. tracks, headed directly di-rectly west. She had no signals to heed, as "Lulu" had, no curves to take or hills to climb; she had it so easy all plain sailing for her. She would cross the N.-M.-W. tracks at the bridge, and sail away out of sight before No. 3 could "The devil !" The captain, or motor-man, motor-man, or whatever he called himself, had told him there was no possible chance of a break-down, and yet The "Registered Mail" was wabbling wab-bling swaying swinging! She was going to drop! Some one had blundered. blun-dered. Simmons' was not the man to let a golden opportunity pass. Not he! Swiftly he calculated the distance to the point where the "Registered Mail" would fall, and swiftly ho jerked the throttle open wide. Then he "hooked her up" gave her "the-short "the-short stroke," and she responded. "Lulu!" 'Lulu'!" he cried. "You go to it, old girl! Work hard now-hard, now-hard, hard! 'Lulu,' old girl, do your bltimodost ! Go to it, 'Lulu !' " The short stroke won the dav for "Old Black Lulu." Simmons loaned out of the window and watched the airship anxiously. lowi down down it dropped, and "Old Black Lulu" plowed Into its shiny body just as It struck the bridge. They plunged into the river together the "Registered Mall" and her crew, and "Old Black Lulu," with part of her "drag." Simmons still sal on the leather-cushioned seat, his greasy, sullen sul-len face transfigured by a trimnhaut smile. "Old Black Lulu" was never sent to the scrap-shop. She lies there, at the river bottom. . still "hooked up." covered with mud and victory. And Surly Simmons never went to Highland I'ai'U, for he lived just long euoui:h to say: "They can run all the aerial mails they like when I'm under the sod hut - not In-my (hue. No. 'Lulu' -oli girl not - in ti,m," Aerial Mail By LYDIA M. D. O'NEIL 1 1 (Copyright.) "By and by, Surly, they won't need you nor your Lulu any more. They'll have airships to carry the niail an' express, ex-press, an' then it's 'Old Black Lulu' to the scrap-shop an' you to Highland Park, Surly Simmons. An' I'll be sit-tln' sit-tln' up in one o' them airships, all dressed up in goggles an' gloves an' ' things, steerin' the aerial mail an' lookin' tony. Aw, say, now, Surly ! That bolt like to clip me on the head. Don't be so reckless, throwin' things around like that. As I was sayin' " "Shut up, you thick-head, you ! You couldn't steer a band-car. An' there won't be no aerial mail in my time, cub. Let 'em run all they like when I'm under the sod but not in my time." But Surly was perceptibly disturbed by the idle banter to which he was being be-ing subjected to daily. "Old Black Lulu," officially known as Engine 1448, was his darling. He abhorred electric locomotives, automobiles, gasoline launches, airships anything and everything ev-erything that was not run by steam power. "Old Black Lulu" was good enough for him, he said. "Old Black Lulu" and the "drag" of express and mail cars she carried were good enough for anybody. Simmons did not know that the big trunkline was already contemplating the building of a few airships for the purpose of conveying mall and express, ex-press, or his mind would have been more troubled. It was rumored that the Continental Airship company was In the process of forjnation, and a continental con-tinental airship line would mean more speedy delivery of mail and express, cheaper rates, and, therefore, considerable consid-erable pecuniary loss to the railroad company. This threatened competition competi-tion must be met and defeated ; so, while Simmons growled and swore, the railroad company planned and experimented. experi-mented. By and by there came a young Englishman Eng-lishman from the other side of the Atlantic, with a little money in his pocket nnd a grim determination to earn more much more. By night he dreamed of cogs and wheels and screws and propellers and dynamos and ohms ; by day he worked on these dreams and made thera come true. He didn't become famous ; he wanted want-ed to marry.' But he hadn't sufficient money, and no influential friends. One day his dreams and his labor came to an end. That was the day that his small model of the Fenimore-Stokes Fenimore-Stokes airship was finished, tested, and found perfect. Then Fate brought him Into contact with Hendricks, the recently elected president of the Never-Mind-What Railroad company. Hendricks wanted an airship, and Fenimore-Stokes wanted want-ed money. Each supplied the other's demand. Fenimore-Stokes sold his patent outright, and went home to Merrle England nnd his sweetheart. Hendricks went his way, rejoicing In the knowledge that he had secured . the means to combat the Continental Airship company, which was still nonexistent. non-existent. The Never-Mlnd-What company built two large airships after the pattern of the Fenimore-Stokes model, and then hastened to build more, because, firstly, first-ly, the Continental Airship line had become be-come a reality, nnd, secondly, because of two daring mail nnd express robberies rob-beries which occurred only four or five weeks apart nnd defied solution. Five mall clerks nnd three express messengers had been found dead in their cars, with their skulls crushed. A sixth mall clerk died without regaining re-gaining consciousness, nnd a fourth express messenger became so hopelessly hopeless-ly Insane that no clew could be obtained ob-tained from his confused, Incoherent speech. All the most vnluable express packages pack-ages were missing, boxes broken open nnd safes dynamited. In (he mail cars not one registered letter or parcel had been overlooked. In both instances, No. !i, drawn by "Old Bluck Lulu." with Surly Simmons at the throttle was the train selected by the marauders. maraud-ers. It hurt Simmons more lhan any one knew, but thnt did not mend matters. mat-ters. The N.-M.-W. company decided (hen to convey express and mail by means of the Foniiuoro-Slokos airships; so they broke a bottle of wine over the gray mclal body of the llrst man-made bird and christened her the "Registered "Regis-tered Mall." The second they named the "Chicago Express." When he heard of it, Surly Simmons broke two bottles of wine over "Lulu's" "Lu-lu's" black nose, saying to her: "If you ain't worth two o' Iheiu Hying -machines, then you can't, run two miles lu four minutes." "Lulu" assuredly could run two miles In four minutes; but she sighed, nevertheless, nev-ertheless, and her Iron heart throbbed convulsively. The "Registered Mall" made three trial trips between her lei'iulnals Now York ami a lown half-way bel weofi' the K.aslern and Western coasls- safely anil speedily, oil the fourth day she Rtarleil west with her tlrsl cargo ,if ex. pr"ss anil registered mall al the rale of three hundred 'miles an hour. Only re illy had the airship been Utilized for practical purposes, and herelofo v I wo hundred miles an hour hud hivn the maximum average speed attained. In I'ju mailer of speed, us |