Railroads -- United States -- Design and construction -- Fiction; Western stories
“‘What,’ said he, ‘on a foreign road?’ ‘Yes,’ said I, offhand like.
Then I turned to the old man. ‘Now, Mister MacBayne,’ said I, ‘I want
you to tell Charlie here that when those engines pass out of his
division, they come absolutely under my control.’
“‘Oh, that’s all right, Hen,’ said Charlie, speaking up breathless.
“‘Yes, I know it is,’ said I, ‘but I want you to hear Mister MacBayne
say it. Remember, when those engines leave your division, they belong
to me until I see fit to bring ’em back.’
“The old man was looking queerer than ever. ‘See here, Hen,’ said he,
‘what devilment are you up to, anyway?’
“‘Nothing at all,’ said I. ‘I just want two engines. You can’t run a
railroad without engines, Mister MacBayne.’
“‘Well,’ said he, then, ‘how about me--what do you want of me?’
“‘Why, I’ll tell you,’ said I. ‘Why don’t you hook your car on to No.
6 and go back to Pittsburg to-night?’ You should have seen his good
eye light up at that. Getting out of the state suited him about as
well as anything just then, and he didn’t lose any time about it. When
he had gone, Charlie said:--
“‘Now, Hen, for heaven’s sake, tell me what you’re up to?’
“‘Not a bit of it,’ said I. ‘I don’t see what business it is of yours.
You belong back on your division.’
“‘Well, I ain’t going,’ said he. ‘I’m going wherever you go to-night.’
“‘All right,’ said I; ‘I’m going to Shelby’s vaudeville.’
“That surprised him. But he didn’t say anything more. You remember old
Shelby’s show there. I always used to go when I was in Buffalo of an
evening.
“But about 11:30, when the show was over, Charlie began to get
nervous again. ‘Well, Hen,’ he said, ‘where next?’
“‘I don’t know about you,’ said I, ‘but I’m going to stroll out to
Chaplin’s yard before I turn in, and take a look at our cars. You’d
better go to bed.’
“‘Not a bit of it,’ he broke out. ‘I’m going with you.’
“‘All right,’ said I, ‘come along. It’s a fine night.’
“Well, gentlemen, when we got out to the yards, there were our cars in
two long lines on parallel tracks, seventy on one track and fifty on
another--one thing bothered me, they were broken in four places at
street crossings--and on the two next tracks beside them were
Charlie’s two engines, steam up and headlights lighted. And, say, you
never saw anything quite like it! The boys they’d sent with the
engines weren’t anybody’s fools, and they had on about three hundred
pounds of steam apiece--blowing off there with a noise you could hear
for a mile, but the boys themselves weren’t saying a word; they were
sitting around smoking their pipes, quiet as seven Sabbaths.
“When Charlie saw this laid out right before his eyes, he took
frightened all of a sudden--his knees were going like that. He grabbed
my arm and pulled me back into the shadow.
“‘Hen, for heaven’s sake, let’s get out of here quick. This means the
penitentiary.’
“‘You can go,’ said I. ‘I didn’t invite you to the party.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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