Many of these have lived their lives, done their work, passed on, and left no record, barely a memory, behind them, as other men in other places and in other spheres of work have done and always will do; but others, for this or that, by circumstance, or personality, or opportunity, have woven around themselves the very legends and traditions of their environment. And so these are the stories of the Hill Division and of the men who wrought upon it; the stories of those days when it was young and in the making; the stories of the days when Carleton, "Royal" Carleton, was superintendent, when gruff, big-hearted, big-paunched Tommy Regan was master mechanic, when the grizzled, gray-streaked Harvey was division engineer, and little Doctor McTurk was the Company surgeon, and Riley was the trainmaster, and Spence was the chief despatcher; the stories of men who have done brave duty and come to honor and glory and their reward--and the stories of some who have gone into Division for the last time on orders from the Great Trainmaster, and who will never railroad any more. F. L. P. CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE NIGHT OPERATOR II OWSLET AND THE 1601 III THE APOTHEOSIS OF SAMMY DURGAN IV THE WRECKING BOSS V THE MAN WHO SQUEALED VI THE AGE LIMIT VII "THE DEVIL AND ALL HIS WORKS" VIII ON THE NIGHT WIRE IX THE OTHER FELLOW'S JOB X THE RAT RIVER SPECIAL THE NIGHT OPERATOR I THE NIGHT OPERATOR Toddles, in the beginning, wasn't exactly a railroad man--for several reasons. First, he wasn't a man at all; second, he wasn't, strictly speaking, on the company's pay roll; third, which is apparently irrelevant, everybody said he was a bad one; and fourth--because Hawkeye nicknamed him Toddles. Toddles had another name--Christopher Hyslop Hoogan--but Big Cloud never lay awake at nights losing any sleep over that. On the first run that Christopher Hyslop Hoogan ever made, Hawkeye looked him over for a minute, said, "Toddles," short-like--and, short-like, that settled the matter so far as the Hill Division was concerned. His name was Toddles.