TALES OF THE ROAD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 305, 21 December 1912, Page 18

TALES OF THE ROAD.

THE LITTLE CONQUEROR.

(By WHIi liAWBON.)

Her driving <wireels were enormous and flat-footed; with broad treads to bold their ground on a greasy road; ehe had a beautiful, shiny fly-wheel spinning at( the eide of her rather narrow boiler, and her funnel, towering high above the ordinary traffic of the road, rocked and roared as ehe hauled her three wagons of 10-tons each along the level stretch. She was the idol of the man who drove her, and because she had never been held by any load on any road, they called her the Little Conqueror. Her rivals were. the Black Hand and Old King Coal, though the latrter had in late years taken to an agricultural life, hauling a number of ploughs around a paddock. The Black Hand was etiil on the road. In fact, ehe was running just about an hour ahead of the Little Conqueror (they were both hauling wool to the railway). Through the wortd of sunlight and clean air and pleasant fields the Little Conqueror snorted, in reality a blot on the landscape, a discordant note tearing through a perfect symphony of nature's orchestra; yet since utility comes ever foremost in Anglo-Saxon lands, the traction engine's was a necessary note and as musical as any of the others to the ear attuned to her song. So ehe progressed with clumsy agiKty up hills and down dales, over bridges and across bad places at the same steady pace. And! quite suddenly her men realised that they had overtaken the Black Hand. This engine had made a mesa of ■things. When approaching a railway crossing where the low road rose on a hump to cross at a level, her front wheels being relieved of much weight by the drag of the wagons, had skidded off the road on to the cattle-stops. Then the couplings broke, and the weight falling suddenly on the front wheels caused them to crash through tihe cattle-stops tiH the smoke bos rested on the permanent way, and all the efforts of her powerful driving wheels could not back her off. In any case, it was impossible to keep her fire going because the water was all at the forward end of the boiler and there was danger of melting the tubes. The Express was due to pass within 15 minutes when the Little Conqueror arrived. Already a lineman, who happened to be on the epot, had gone off to stop the train, so there was no fear of a collision. Still, it would not do to hold up the Express for long. Tho Black Hand's wagons had rolled back to the level again, and the Little Conqueror having been uncoupled from her load, took them a little distance, all wobbling in the steering, because they were running backward. That done, she snorted up to the Blaxik Hand. The sizzle of steam from a leaking gland sounded very like laagh-ter while thj Black Hand was rumbling with rage and chagrin. ♦Taking to the rails V the Little Conqueror giggled. "You'd better be civil," growled the Black Hand. "Come on, yon lame duck," hissed her rescuer, and with reversed engine jerked backwarde. But the Black Hand only groaned. "Better turn round and give a decent pull, hurry up, or that swagger exprese engpne will see mc." "She would laugh," agreed the Little Conqueror, as she turned about and backed up to her task. Just then there rang a clarion note away down the metalled way; it was the Express taking notice of the lineman's little red flag. Presently the huffy-look-ing, big-wheeled railway engine came creeping up to the scene of the accident; her cow-catcher paused just a foot away from the Black Hand's smoke-box. Trainmen and passengers came along to see what had happened, and the Hack Hand"c disgrace was complete. Not that the express engine made any unkind remarks; after a few exclamations of surprise, she dropped off into a doze—these common road-engines made her very tired.. The traction-engine men were working with desperate speed to get the line clear, and the trainmen were assisting a,s much as they were able, which was not very much, for the methods of the road-drivers are beyond the ken of other men. They fastened chains to the top spokes of the Black Hand's driving wheels; the other ends of the chains were made fast to the Little Conqueror. Then the end of a long beam was thrust under the Black Hand's smoke-box to act as a lever. The Little Conqueror's driver moved her ahead till the chains were taut. "When you're ready," he shouted to the men with the lever. At that, every man who could get a grip on it, strove to pull the lever down. The Black Hand'e smoke-box rose an inch. "Pull away," yelled the Black Hand's driver. And the Little Conqueror pulled; snorting and belohing smoke, ehe pulled for her life. Her drivers slipped, gripped, slipped again and then book hold in real earnest. The Black Hand began to rise and roll backward. "Hurrah!" someone shouted. Just then the beam snapped, spilling the men right and left, but fortunately hurting no one. Now, it all lay with the Little Conqueror." It was "a haj-d, long pull, and it seemed for several moments that the Black Hand would sink into the cattlestops again. But once again the Little Conqueror justified her name. By slow degrees, the cripplod engine's w-heels came clear of the line, and, with brakes on, she rolled down the hump on to the level. The express engine woke up with a snort, her whistle blew, and with passengers jumping and clambering aboard, the train pulled away, leaving the men of the road alone on their domain.

The Black Hand quite uninjured, was preparing for her journey again, while the Ldttle Conqueror took the lead, and passed over the hump with triumphant ease to lurch down the other side with •wagons pushing and tumbling behind. Some miles further on, she passed the paddock where Old King Coal tramped steadily round and dragging his six ploughs after him. Perhaps the Little Conqueror felt pleased to be on the good road, and perhaps she longed for the sheltered life 'he led; however that may be, she snorted eherrily onward and came at last bo the railway township where the wool in the first two of her wagons was transhipped to railway trucks. In the last wagon the loadingwas chaff, and this had to be delivered to a warehouse standing in a blind street. This, of course, necessitated that the engine and wagon should proceed along the main street far a short distance. But against this, there is a law th.it traction engines must not traverse the main streets of the nioro ambitious townships. Moreover in this case the police station had to be passed. To load chaff into

draye for thai ehort distance was too expensive to contemplate. The Little Conqueror's driver was a seasoned lawbreaker, wnd at a pace that did not make too much noise, he turned her into the main thoroughfare.

A large policeman lounged at the gate of the station, and bis eagle eye saw the Little Conqueror as she came round the corner. It looked rather as though she was trying to sneak past the bobby unobserved, but he was too alert for that. Still, her driver cent her. Amazed citizens stood to stare at his audacity: the lounging constable did not move, he just ■watched" t|ie little Conqueror as 'he would a suspicious character trying to pass unnoticed in a crowd, and the Little Conqueror came puffing proudly up the street. When she was opposite the police station, the constable stirred. By degrees hie limbs became ambulistie —they moved and, consequently, he walked over to the engine-driver. "What do you mean by bringing your engine here?" "Want to get this ohafT to A. and J.'s." "Can't help that. Under Bye-law 5010 I arrest this engine—and I hope she comes quietly," he added with a grin. He took the name of the driver and the •number of the engine and strolled back, to watch for more daredevil engines which might dare to break a Bye-law. «And the Little Conqueror, making uproar enough to waken the dead* swaggered insolently along the forbidden ground to deliver her load of Chaff.