THE IRON HORSE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12355, 27 January 1926, Page 12

THE IRON HORSE

A Romance of East and West

The "Times" has secured thech has been novelised by Edwin C. romance, "The Iron Horse," whl exclusive rights to the stirring Hill, from William Fox's picture romance of that name.

CHAPTER XXVIII. In these final months of studendoue effort, as the great roads drew together, the Nation echoed to their > thundering pace. The newspapers East and West printed daily bulletins of the racing rails. Men gambled thousands upon the speed and courage of their favourites as they bet upon the 'swiftness and endurance of thoroughbred horses. From the halls of Congress and the White House itself to the village stores, the mining camps and the cattle towns "the thrilling battle between the Titans, striding* toward each other with levelled lances, overrode every other topic, even the presidential victory of a national hero. The year drew to its close with the Union Pacific doggedly emerging from the Wasatch Range which divides Wyoming and Utah, cne thousand miles out of Omaha, victor over cold, thirst, fatigue, Indian ferocity and the ceaseless hostility of Nature itself; with the Central Pacific striding resolutely forward over the last stretches of the rock-ribbed and waterless deserts of Nevada, three hundred and sixty miles west of .Sacramento, within easy striking, distance of the Utah border and the Great ..Salt Lake. Three hundred miles separated the funous giants. Each massed its strength, arraying every resource-, of power and loyalty and shrewdness' for the last terrific leap into space. Upon the timbered heights of the Wasatch foothills, where the earth resisted like granite and bitter winds cut to the bone, crouched the eastern giant, breathless from frightful toil, searching the western desert for the first Sun flash from the metal of its advancing foe. Ten thousand Irishmen, asking only for their red meat, their pay, and a boss without fear or favour, braced themselves against the Coming assault of a strange hew army drawn from the other side of the world, ten thousand blue-bloused :Chinese, the Occident against the Orienti The advantage was now all with the" Central, striding, forward over the level snowless desert while Charles Crocker, laughing in his great beard, watched the Mongolians shuffle forward and hurled defiances at Casement and Marsh raging in their winter-locked mountain prison. Cutting loose from his base,, the Californian struck northward through the drear and arid land. "like a magician - he snatched from the air itself hta endless tons of materials and threw them at the feet of the chatterbot/..yellow horde. Ever he called lot soCed. "A mile a day!" he boomed to Brandon. To Davy he had taken a strong liking, seeing in the young man the stuff he most admired, loyalty, untiring energy, quick wit, the rare and uncommunicable gift of handling men. Before the road had leaped clear of the Sierra he made Davy his special aide, working him relentlessly, almost as hard as he drove himself. "A mile- a day. Now is our chance. To hell with the cost!" With Brandon as his lieutenant, Crocker leaped every morning like a ravening tiger to the new day's challenge. Before sunrise they were breakfasting in’ their end-of-track headquarters, with its rolling office, dining car and bunk cars; its travelling machine and repair shops. As they ate, the camp of Chinese awoke and prepared for .toil. The desert air showed blue with the smoke of their endless firea. and the chopping chatter of .their unfamiliar speech. Through the camp moved the chief bosses, Irish to g man, rallying the yellow army to the day's supreme effort. At sunrise they were strung out in their thousands straight into the brightening horizon, and far to the west, under rolling -clouds-of dust, came the caravans, ceaselessly proffering to the insatiable road their burdens of iron and cedar wood. Exulting in the fierce spirit of the great race, Davy threw himself with every ounce of bis virile manhood into the, driving toil. Outdoing even his inexhaustible chief, he quickened the, pace to two miles a day, then to two and a half, then to three. Crocker threw him

no compliments, but Brandon flushed with pride at the sight of the chief's face tue night he reported to the headquarters car: . "Five miles and three-quarters, sir! Crocker barked to his telegraph operator and sent a taunting msesage to Casement and Marsh. Back came Casement's retort: . “You and your damned Chinamen can't beat me and. my Irish at rail-lay-. nights later Crocker handed a yellow slip to Brandon, Casement's glee-, i'ul summary of a world-beating performance: • "Six miles this day!. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!" That -night they sent for the assistant superintendents and head bosses, read the riot act. mixed hard words with promises of golden reward, and prepared to extinguish the leaping pride of Jack Casement and his terriers. And the next day seven miles of . new and shining rails were bolted down > over the desert. Casement came back with seven and ahalf. Crocker beat it by a few hundred yards. , ‘enough' you wild mandarin or I'll shame you* before the world with a full eight miles," goaded the little general of the Union Pacific. Crocker pondered, then went over tne situation with Davy. They saw that the patient endurance of their Chinese could not hope to cope- with the high strung dash and sheer physical power of the Union Pacific Irish in such daily contests. It was a case for guile, for the shrewdest of planning, if the Central was to seize and hold the record. Davy sent for Pat Casey, elevated to chief boss, and prouder of his post than a commanding general. "He's a cunning devil," Davy had said to Crocker. “Let's see what he thinksof our chances." - • The end of the talk was a message from Crocker to Casement: • "The Central promises ten miles in one working day." Tugging at his red beard, the little general telegraphed to Vice-President Durant in New York. Durant replied, "It can't be done!" and to Crocker himself he wired. “Ten thousand dollars that you can't lay ten miles in one day before witnesses.'* "We'U set the day and notify you," Crockar replied. Th 9 weeks flew. There was no time for tbonght. Toil and sleep, with three square meals, crammed the twenty-four hours of every numbing day. For neither army was there a breathing spell. Hourly bulletins passed between the two headquarters, goads to more desperate effort. The Central Pacific, one hundred miles west of Ogden, found the tongue of the Union Pacific only 25 miles east of that desert town and whipping forward like a lash. As the Central raced on, the Union Pacific entered Ogden like a conqueror, Sags waving, brass bands playing, artillery banging salutes. Beaten in its striving to shut the Central out of Utah, it nevertheless struck westward without a cause, Working nigjit and day shifts toward the north-west and up the bold ridge of Promontory Summit. Treacherous Marsh nodded, understanding^. "By the way," he called, as he left the bar. "Miriam had a new proposal yesterday, from young McAllister, of New York." He waited, tesingly. Davy bit v hhhds and a paralysing grade slowed progress to a crawl, and out beyond on the desert Crocker and Brandon, seeing the approaching giant stumble and falter, grasped the chance that destiny had flung them Day and night they drove their Chinese, in fierce sun glare and in the yellow illumination of bonfires. Mile after mile, in the last stretch of forty, they held the pace. Then came the night when only* sixteen miles apart upon Promontory Ridge, they caught the twinkling gleam of the campfires of the Union Pacific crew. "Now we'll show 'em!" said Crocker. “To-morrow we'll lay those ten miles. They can't get back at us." (To be continued.)