Produced by Melissa Er-Raqabi, Ted Garvin, Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE LAST SPIKE AND OTHER RAILROAD STORIES BY CY WARMAN NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1906 _Copyright, 1906_, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Published February, 1906 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. CONTENTS PAGE THE LAST SPIKE 1 THE BELLE OF ATHABASCA 31 PATHFINDING IN THE NORTHWEST 49 THE CURE'S CHRISTMAS GIFT 61 THE MYSTERIOUS SIGNAL 85 CHASING THE WHITE MAIL 107 OPPRESSING THE OPPRESSOR 119 THE IRON HORSE AND THE TROLLEY 135 IN THE BLACK CANON 151 JACK RAMSEY'S REASON 165 THE GREAT WRECK ON THE PERE MARQUETTE 181 THE STORY OF AN ENGLISHMAN 193 ON THE LIMITED 211 THE CONQUEST OF ALASKA 219 NUMBER THREE 237 THE STUFF THAT STANDS 253 THE MILWAUKEE RUN 273 THE LAST SPIKE "Then there is nothing against him but his poverty?" "And general appearance." "He's the handsomest man in America." "Yes, that is against him, and the fact that he is always _in_ America. He appears to be afraid to get out." "He's the bravest boy in the world," she replied, her face still to the window. "He risked his life to drag me from under the ice," she added, with a girl's loyalty to her hero and a woman's pride in the man she loves. "Well, I must own he has nerve," her father added, "or he never would have accepted my conditions." "And what where these conditions, pray?" the young woman asked, turning and facing her father, who sat watching her every move and gesture. "First of all, he must do something; and do it off his own bat. His old father spent his last dollar to educate this young rascal, to equip him for the battle of life, and his sole achievement is a curve that nobody can find. Now I insist he shall do something, and I have given him five years for the work." "Five years!" she gasped, as she lost herself in a big chair. "He is to have time to forget you, and you are to have ample opportunity to forget him, which you will doubtless do, for you are not to meet or communicate with each other during this period of probation." "Did he promise this?" "Upon his honor." "And if he break that promise?" "Ah, then he would be without honor, and you would not marry him." A moment's silence followed, broken by a long, deep sigh that ended in little quivering waves, like the faint ripples that reach the shore,--the whispered echoes of the sobbing sea. "O father, it is cruel! _cruel! cruel!_" she cried, raising a tearful face to him.