Lost For Nought

Southland Times, Issue 11983, 1 March 1892, Page 4

Lost For Nought

tj We were sitting in the son on the I toath dde of the Montana Union Depot | in Butt©, when Jim told ma the story. §T There was a tremor in hta voice and a | moißtare in his eyes that marked how | T deeply his feelings were moved by the £ tale « ohance remark led him to tell. % Everyone who knows Jim Cook — and I who doesn't know the ragged engineer, \ one of the oldest men in the Onion T Pacific service ? — knows that his heart | is built in proportion to his massive | frame. Touch him right, and no woman !' eonld be more tender; rile him, and no ~fi grizzly could be more fierce. Jim has | feen exciting times in the service of the | Union Pacific, and his mind is stored | with reminiscences of the early days of | transcontinental railroading. I We had been chatting in a rambling, : desultory way of snow-bound trains, f { when the subject was suddenly shifted, |; t and I happened to mention the robbery t. of a Northern Pacific train near Fargo. t Jim's manner changed instantly. j" He had been leaning forward, resting %. his elbows on bis knees and supporting % his chin with the palms of his hands. % Now he sat bolt upright; his eyes flashed f and bis whole manner seemed to in- | dioate that his brain was conceiving a p flood of eloquence his tongue could not r- fashion into words. One could see i- tragedy in his face, but the next minute | the expression changed to one of pity. ;•- Then he began to talk. I wish an i adequate idea of bis manner of telling it r could be given with his story. He |^ seemed to see the thing he was describ- | 'Hold up,' said he. ' I never was in but one, and I never hear of one that I doesn't call up the ghost of poor Charlie | White to haunt me. Charlie was an | express guard in the early days. A I- pluckier little man never breathed. He k had been a telegraph operator in 'Frisco I before he got on our 'run, and I knew I him first-rate. Knew bis wife, too, for I he was married — a little pink and white | wax-doll sort of woman, who looked like % ft saint. We had long runs in those |> days: Our division— Charlie changed I with me— extended from 'Frisco to B — ' t. (I've forgotten the station named by I Jim). '■ *One afternoon— we left at 2.20— as | We were pulling out of the Depot at %,- 'Frisco I got the bell. As I .brought | her to a stand I saw the Wells Fargo jjL- 'run up to the express car and band I Charlie a square tin box with a grip |: * handle. Looking back as she got her %r head again I saw tbe express agen | making a motion to Charlie. Leaning > half out the door Charlie slapped his belt I- and smiled. &K * Just behind them 1 saw something |< else— two rough-looking, bearded men, |/ swinging up one after tbe other on the |f rear platform of the last car. Tb^n I | thought nothing of it ; afterwards I I knew they had been shadowing the exK press agent. I 'All afternoon I had an uneasy feelI' ing. Every engineer is a bit super- §';.' stitious, I suppose, and I remembered !. that I wondered if my uneasiness wasn't I; a premonition of bad luck. We ran p along without mishap during the early |s evening, but when we stopped to take I water about 9 o'clock I caught sight of I a dark figure stealing along in the I shadow of the express. i-- 'I called to Tom, my fireman, to see I" who it was, but when he turned it was | gone. This didn't bother me much at | the time; it might have been a brakie or | the conductor, but I hadn't noticed any % conductor. | ' While we were tearing away again |: , at a pretty good pace I suddenly caught | a clicking sound like the putting on of r brakes. It was a trifle UDgrade at that | point, and 1 hadn't called fer 'em. Tell- | ing Tom to keep her going as she wan, | I climbed back over the tender to see t what was the matter. fc 'Just as I got over the rear I noticed t; % widening gap between the tender and 'py the express, and realised that we were - uncoupled, and that the bell rope had %■ been cut ; at the same time I saw one of | | the bearded men standing at the brake- £ wheel of the express. He bad me c covered with a six-shooter, | 'As I clambered back to the cab I I heard a shot; then half a dozen of them I in quick successioii. 'Road agents !' | Tom yelled in my ear as I took the f; lever. I brought her up as quick as I i, could, and held her ready to run for- | ward or backward as circumstances v might decide. -. 'The train had almost come to a standy still when I saw a gleam of light cut ? through the night about midway of tbe ; " car. Then that streak of light was : darkened by the lengthened shadow of 1 a man, which moved crosswise of the ;■ train, and seemed to melt out into the night, * Get bsck, Charlie 1' I yelled, for I thought he was about to look out for the ■. cause of our stopping. { 'Open your head again and I'll blow r it off/ said a voice beside me. Turning f- I saw a man at each of the cab's front windows. They had jumped up on the pilot and crept back alongside of the ■ , boiler. : 'There seemed to be a dozen of the ;; robbers. Not more than two had come | on the train I am sure. The whole thing | had been planned. Those near tbe enP gine, with the exception of the two at ;f the cab windows, made a rush for the i express car. As they ran into tbe stream of light coming through the open door, a shot fired from the darkness to the left of the train tumbled one of them to the ground. The others fusilladed the spot from which tbe shot appeared to come, and then two shots fired under the trai^ j -■ from the other tile, and another shot I from away out in the dark, J^'id ODe o f the thieves out cold, and caused another ? one to howl. • 'The trainman were beginning to fight. Mv 100( j got warm. I had a p good S'^.ghooter under the seat, and if v fb^6 fellow at the cab window had only U-isken his eyes off me for a moment I'd 5 been out there helping tbe boys. Those %. at the rear of the train then joined those l in front, and all made a daah at the open I door of the express. They were all in a f. bunch in the light. %■ 'The first man to enter the door stood f^i moment and tben fell outside in the "crowd. The shot came from the darkness away out to the left. Another man tried it. As be fell on his face in the car the others, who bad been watching, fired a volley at tbe flash off in the dark. The next man who tried to enter the ttaJft lucowded, I

' The others kept watch until he re - 1 appeared at the door. Something was wrong. Two others got in to help him. Then one of them whistled, and my man ' at the window jumped off and ran back to the train. 'That was my chance. Out came the gun from under my seat, and I got a snap-shot at Tom's man, but missed bun. As he turned on me Tom struck h 6 arm with a wrench, knocking the pistol from bis hand. He jumped off into the darkness. We backed her slowly up towards the train, firing as we went. ' Suddenly a dark form rose up on Tom's side of the track and threw something into the tender. Tom and I both fired at the man. He staggered up against the cab steps and groaned. Tben by a superhuman effort he caught the band-rail, and just as we were preparing to give him another shot, he dragged bis face to tbe lighc. 'It was Charlie ! We had both hit him !' 'Pull out, Jim, and save the box 1' ' That was all be said. It was the box he had thrown into the tender. No matter how much there was in it, tbe stuff wasn't worth the life of tbe boy who saved it to the company. While I lifted Charlie up into the seat Tom threw the old engine wide open, and we ran away from tbe train, robbers and all. ' It was 40 miles to the nearest station — a small Government post. Tom fed and worked the engine. I sat on the seat beside Charlie and held him up. The rattle and rumble of the wheels accused me at every revolution- ' They seemed to be repeating the words 'You have killed him ! You have killed him !' Tom made those 40 miles in an hour ; good time over that road and tbat day, but it seemed to me an age. As we were running in Tom gave them bell and whistle both, and then, when she came to a stand, he fired two shots. The bluecoats were out in a jiffy. ♦ Everything was told in a few words. Charlie was carried into the quarters and turned over to the surgeon, a fine old fellow named Hamilton. With an escort of 20 men we ran back to the trainThe iobbers bad left. Finding the express empty of treasure they had tried to go through the train. There were | too many revolvers among tbe passengers, however, and they drew off. 'When we reached the post again Sur- | geon Hamilton walked np to the cab. ! 'Are you Jim Cook V said he. I nodded. 'Take these to Mr White's wife ;' and he ! banded me Charlie's watch, a bank book, and a bunch of keys. He told me to tell you,' the surgeon went on, ' not to feel bad about that shot. The road •gents found him with that last volley, and ho would have gone under anyhow from hie other wounds. His body will go back with you on return, and I will trive you a letter to the express company.' 'Tom cried like a child. I couldn't cry, my brain seemed to be on fire ; I was thinking one minute of how reproachfully Charlie had looked at me when he swung into the cab with a dying effort, and the next of a frail little woman in 'Frisco who was patiently awaiting Charlie's return. •The company gave her a pension, but she didn't need it long,' 'Wbat was in the box V I asked. ' Certificates of stock in a wild cat mining scheme.' i Why ,' 'It was like this,' said Jim, wiping his eyes and bringing his story to a close, 'The express agent saw that somehow the fact that a shipment of treasure was to be made had leaked out. At the last moment he substituted a lot of worthless securities. He Haw that he was shadowed on the way to the train, and be acted up at the depot jußt to throw the robbers off the scent, and to make them believe tbat the shipment was really being made by our train.