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Show w y rE were building the spur track j Vv wnicn runB nortfl from Mar- I T " tin's Junction to the Dalefleld i Gold Mines, and we were not having j a very pleaeant time of it. Young Gorman, who waB in charge, was kill-! kill-! ing himself by day, trying to be in a I dozen place at once, and worrying 1 his soul out by night, explaining to !! the Old Man why he had not accom- jj pliehed the impossible and run his ' line acrosa short cuts where the Lord 1 had evidently never intended a rail-1 I road should go. There were several reasons why 8 Gorman was unusually anxious to live I up to the Old Man's expectations. In the first place, the Old Man had the - name of being a hard master, and he ' usually lived up to his name. He i never accepted excuses from hiB men. I; Either they made good, or they failed. l Those who failed the Old Man once I were never given a chance to fail I him a second time, while those who I j made good under him could count on H I securing a recommendation which I I would be taken at it face value any- I I where in that part of the country. Then there was the girl There Is "'A usually a girl in the case when you I vT see a young fellow breaking his neck I I " to make a name for himself, but in -y-'l Gorman's case it was a little different I '! from the general run The girl was) Al the Old Man's daughter, and as she m was her father's confidante in almost t i all his affairs, Gorman knew that ip;l every good stroke he made carried V't him one degree higher in her favor; so he got out early and came in late, I and seemed to fret because Nature in- slsted on a few hours sleep each day. ; t''I Also, the Old Man had an inkling - of how Gorman felt toward bis daugh- ter, and if ever one man required P J'iS brick of another, without furnishing him ths straw, the Old Man required y: It of Gorman on the Daleneld spur, r'' ll ul or - Gorman's exertions and his doing the work of two men during i-' J that spring and summer, the brick A;': jj would not have been delivered on I ;i j contract time had it not been for H "Nerves" drifted into camp one eve- mM nlng toward the last of April and r asked for a Job. He was not a very ' awe-inspiring figure, but men were ' hard to get, and harder to keep, so 1 1 Gorman gave him a pick and sent htm H I down to report to Nixon, who was vPf V blasting a thirty-ton boulder oft the right of way. And it was there that "Nerves" was christened. Nixon got his dynamite placed, and f&v'- I ordered his men out of the way while ;&' ! he touched off the fuse. Either the fuse was a little shorter than usual, Upv or Nixon a little slower, but at any ibMl rata, beore he had got Quite out of range, the blast want off. Nixon was jjra1' knocked down by a piece of flying B&V rock, which cot an ugly gash in his Iffigji head and left him unconscious for a HregS few seconds. BEg It really didn't amount to anything. 9Sh The man crowded around Nixon, who Bjjfet Was up almost before they had jpgt reached him, and in a few minutes KPH was able to resume his progress Hk9 (toward camp. BBS However, they had to carry a man HfiM bade to camp, after all. The new Mjflffl man toppled over almost stmultan- wSm vsousry with Nixon, and It was not THE NERVE OF "NERVES" By CHARLES FINDLAY CARTWRIGHT until after a dozen or so hatfuls of cold water had been dashed in his face that he showed any indications of returning consciousness, and even then he was so weak that he toddled into camp with a man supporting him on each side. "Where you hit, kid,r Nixon asked anxiously, as soon as the boy opened his eyes. "I I'm not hit," he stammered. "Not hit" Nixon cried "Then whut the blazes you kickin' up a row about?" "I think it's my nerves, sir," the boy said weakly. "Nerves nuthin'l" Nixon roared disgustedly. dis-gustedly. '"Well, come on 'Nerve6.' We'll git you back ter camp, an" find you a nice, ladylike job darnln' socks fur the boys You hadn't oughter be out here with us men. One of us might swear an' shock your nerves." And that was how "Nerves" came by his name. Probably the paymaster paymas-ter had his real name on the pay roll, but even he jelled "Neres" when he-called he-called him up for his week's pay, and the rest of us naturally fell into lino without making any inquiries "Nerves" got along in an inconspicuous inconspi-cuous sort of way, doing odd jobs about camp for a couple of days, until the Old Man ran up from the Junction to see how the work was progressing, bringing his daughter with him. The Old Man's visit resulted in an attack of the blues for Gorman, which oven the half-hour's chat with the Old Man's daughter was not able to dispel. dis-pel. Half a dozen of our men had quit the previous week and gone up to Dalefleld to work in the mineB, and Gorman had not been able to replace them. Consequently, our progress had not been all that might have been desired. The Old Man was not one to ask for excuses, as I have said before It was only results which interested him. And when the results were not what they should be, he was not at all backward in saying so. But for "Nerves,' the Old Man's visit proved a period of unalloved Joy, for he succeeded in attracting the attention of the Old Man's daughter, and their acquaintance grew quickly into a kindly interest on her part and a dog-like devotion on hiB. After that, Gorman, who was really too busy to notice anything not connected with his work, gave him a kindly word in passing and even put a stop to Nixon's Nix-on's teasing, which was a vast relief It was not until the middle of August Au-gust that the Old Man's visits began to be a source of pleasure to Gorman. Gor-man. By that time, his hard work had begun to tell, and it looked as though we would complete the contract con-tract by the middle of September in time to pick up the flfteen-thouaand-dollar bonus for the companv, and ithe Old Man grew almost cordial. It . ! was quite a feather in Gorman's cap, ; for everybody, including Gorman and the Old Man himself (though he did not say so), had thought that Gorman would do well to finish within the time the contract allowed, which was I October first. Gorman was evidently progressing j with the girl as favorably as with his jwork, for the lines gradually began to disappear from his forehead and the worried look from his eyes, and one Sunday he ran down to the Junction and spent the day with her, which j was the first real day of rest he had enjoyed since spring However, it was the very' next day j after Gorman's day of rest that our j real troubles began Johnson, one of the sub bosses, inarched his entire squad of nine rncn over to the Dale field Mines, then only three miles distant, dis-tant, claiming that he had been of-1 fered a dollar a day more than our' scale. And the next day a dozen more men left, giving the same rea- j son. That night Gorman sent "Nerves"! down to the Junction with a note for the Old Man, and when he got back' the next morning the mystery of the delay was explained The mining company had offered the railroad, as jan Inducement to build the twenty-flvo twenty-flvo mile spur track, a cash bonus of I fifty thousand dollars, to be paid j thirty days from the fifteenth of the month following its completion. This meant thirty days grace to them if they could delay us until after the fifteenth, and as the Dalefleld Mining Company was known to be temporar lly in financial difficulties, owing to an unexpected panic back East, the delay would get them out of an exceedingly ex-ceedingly embarrassing position. The Old Man also added a few lines which, construed into plain Euglish, meant that he expected the Dalefleld 6pur to be completed by the fifteenth, regardless. Gorman swore softly, muttered something to himself about throwing up the job. which he didn't mean, and then went out and sweated and planned until eleven that night. When he came in and threw himself him-self into his hammock without undressing, un-dressing, "Nerves" was waiting for him. "Mr. Gorman." he said, "I'd like to try my hand with a pick again, tomorrow. to-morrow. The cook can get along with out me." "All right 'Nerves,' " Gorman replied re-plied sleepily. "We need all the men we can get right now." "Nerves" arose, hesitated a moment, mo-ment, and then remarked sheepishly. "She told me to help you all I could, Mr. Gorman " Gorman sat up "Hallo, 'Nerves,' are you a victim, too?" "Nerves" blushed but stuck to his Iguna, "She's a mighty fine girl, Mr. Gor-j Gor-j man,'' he said. I Gorman rose ' Right you are : Nerves. We'll shake hands on that '' "I suppose you're engaged, aren't you?" "Nerves" asked. ' Well, umph, you're going a little too fast, 'Nerves,' " Gorman laughed. "You see I've got to make a name for myself, first." "If there's anything I can do to help," "Nerves" ventured. "Why, thank you, old man. I'll remember re-member that," Gorman replied, and ' Nerves" went out- For a week we heard nothing more of the increase in pay at the Dalefleld Mines. Nevertheless, things did not run smoothly. Little things began to happen, calculated to discourage a man and to cause small delays One morning, one of the big rollers suddenly sud-denly stopped, and two hours were lost before one of the men found a small nai! wedged in against the piston roL It was the following Monday that Johnson came back Gorman always admitted that he made his biggest mistake when he allowed Johnson to I go to work that second time. How-ever, How-ever, we needed every man we could get, and JohnBon told an apparently straight story. He claimed that the Dalefleld people had paid him what they promised one week and had then reduced him to the old scale. Johnson didn't try any "monkey" business in the way of tampering i .with our machinery, or trying to roll! rocks down on our engine, and after a couple of days Gorman seemed to forget that he had ever left us Nevertheless, I did not feel exactly easy, and Nixon was openly suspicious sus-picious of him Whether he would have found a chance to harm us or not, if circumstances had not played into his hands, it is hard to say, but the week after he came back soroe-; soroe-; thing happened which gave him a 1 chance and he took advantage of it. The "something'' happened Saturday, Satur-day, and it was a prettv serious affair in a railroad camp The cash with which to pay the men failed to arrive. Usually the paymaster and another ' man went down to the Junction on the engine and brought it up as far j as they could, and from there drove ; over to the camp with it in a buggy. It was always in cash, for there were no banks to cash checks. This time, however, the paymaster came back without any money. No, he had not been held up. It seems that the Old Man had made arrange ments with the bank to forward to him, each Friday, to the Junction, sufficient money to pay off all bis camps There had been a mistake made somewhere, and the money had failed to reach the Old Man. Some of the camps were inconvenient to reach, and it would be three days, anyway, j before the money could be brought to , the Junction. Therefore, the Old 1 - - I Man had notified the paymasters not I to come back until the following Saturday, Sat-urday, when there would be a double ' pay-day. j Our men grumbled a little, as was to be expected, but they seemed to take it good-naturedly enough, and it was not until the last of the week that we noticed any unusual dissatisfaction. dissatis-faction. At sundown, the men, instead of 'dispersing to their shanties as usual, (ranged themselves in line and stolidly awaited Gorman's coming. They were evidently in an ugly mood and would make no response to either Nixon's oaths nor my questions; so, I finally, we likewise sat down and Waited for Gorman to arrive He csme up about dusk. ' What's ' the trouble?" he asked looking at the man. "The blankety-blank Idiots want to see you about something," Nixon re-i re-i plied. Gorman went over, to the men, and one of them, who knew a little more English than the others, stepped out as spokesman And then Gorman found out the whole trouble They wanted their pay. "Meester Yohnson" (Johnson was a Norwegian and still spoke the language"! said that the company was "busted" and would pay no more wages "Meester Yohnson" had told them that they were fools to work when they would get nothing i for it. They would work no more until they had their last week's wages. The best that Gorman could get out of them was a compromise. If he would get the money and pay them for their last week's work that night they would go back to work the next morning. Otherwise they would quit for good At seven o'clock. Gorman and my-1 self got Into a single-seated buck-j board and started down to the June-1 tion after the money. At the last moment "Nerves." who went down on j every possible occasion, asked to be I 2 , 5 5 Hong, and Gorman finally told him to crawl up behind which he did, snuggling himself down into the bottom of the buggy as best he could Nixon, with his hip-poeket bulging, had gone to look for "Meester Yohnson Yohn-son " We had two miles to drive before we reached the engine. The other twenty odd miles we traveled on the "dinky." The money was ready for us at the Junction, and by ten we were In the buckboard again and on our way back .ti.t!ie..caJnp- Tne 8w,ft rtde on the dinky had cooled Gorman's snger somewhst, and he was half-dozing over an unligbted cigar and answer-lug answer-lug In monosyllables to "Nerves " who was talking over the back of the ' seat, when suddenly two horsemen rode out from behind a boulder and shouted. "Hands up!" It came so suddenly snd the two men were so close that there was nothing to do but obey. My hands went up immediately. Gorman hesitated hesi-tated a moment and made a motion toward his rifle lying across his lap, but one of the men shoved a pistol in his face with a growl, and Gorman, with a groan, also raised his hands. "Nerves" had ducked into the bottom of the buckboard at the first com-j com-j msnd. ".ind now that money you've got." one of the men said, still covering us, while the other reached for the two I rifles. I was Just putting my band under j the. seat for the money and mentally I kicking both Gorman and myself for f not having foreseen some such attempt on the part of the Dalefleld people, j though it w as still hard to believe i that they would carry matters to such an extent, when from the side of the road came a second command. "Drop that gun. Johnson." I did , not recognize the voice, which WM not at all surprising considering ths amount of excitement that was crowded into the next few seconds The two men wheeled and sent two shots in the direction of the voice. It was the needed diversion. Our mules sprang forward and I grabbed the lines, trying to keep them in the narrow path which served for a road, while Gorman seized his rifle and sem a half dozen shots in the direction of the horsemen-It horsemen-It was not until we were within quarter of a mile of camp that I was able to bring the frightened mules to a standstill Nixon and five or six Norwegians had already started out to meet us. and together we went back along the road. There was no sign of the two horsemen, horse-men, but st the side of the boulder, Nixon stumbled across a body. He truek a match and held it near the fsce "By the Eternal, if it isn't 'Nerves!'" be ejaculated. ' "No," Gorman said slowly, "Just a plain case of nerve " The plucky little beggar had slipped out of the back of the buck-board buck-board unseen, stolen over to the side of the rosd, and unarmed, commanded command-ed two desperate men to throw up their hands. For a wonder, he didn t die. We managed to get him back to camp before be-fore he bled to death, and a doctor from the Junction did the rest. By the night of the fifteenth, "Nerves" was able to read two telegrams which Gorman brought in for his Inspection. The first Gorman had sent, and It read: "Have finished. Do I win?" The other was from the girl, and "Nervee's" face lighted up with a peculiar smile, as he read it. "You win. Gold bless 'Nerves,' " it said. "Nerves" is now forty years old, and assistant general manager of one of the Western lines. He haa never married, and I have often wondered but no. I suppose not That would savor too much of romance for real life. (Copyright, The Frank A. Muruev Co. i |