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The Young Engineers in Colorado, a novel by H. Irving Hancock |
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Chapter 21. The Trap At The Finish |
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_ CHAPTER XXI. THE TRAP AT THE FINISH A number of days passed, days full of worry for the young chief engineer. Yet, outwardly, Tom Reade was as good-humored and cheery as ever. He was sure that his eyes had played him no trick, and that he really had seen 'Gene Black in the brush. The presence of that scoundrel persuaded Tom that someone working in the interests of the W.C. & A. Railroad Company was still employing Black in an attempt to block the successful completion of the S.B. & L. Moreover, the news that Dave Fulsbee received from Denver showed that two of the officials of the W.C. & A. were in that city, apparently ready to proceed to get possession of the rival road. Politicians asserted that it was a "cinch" that the new road would fall short of the charter requirement in the matter of time. "All this confidence on the part of the enemy is pretty fair proof that the scoundrels are up to something," Tom told Mr. Newnham. "Or else they're trying to break down our nerve so that we'll fail through sheer collapse," replied the president of the S.B. & L., rubbing his hands nervously. "Reade, why should there be such scoundrels in the world?" "The president is all but completely gone to pieces," Reade confided to his chum. "Say, but I'm glad Mr. Newnham himself isn't the one who has to get the road through in time. If it rested with him I'm afraid he'd fizzle. But we'll pull it through, Harry, old chum---we'll pull it through." "If this thing had to last a month more I'm afraid good old Tom would go to pieces himself," thought Harry, as he watched his friend stride away. "Tom never gets to his cot now before eleven at night, and four thirty in the morning always finds him astir again. I wonder if he thinks he's fooling me by looking so blamed cheerful and talking so confidently. Whew! I'd be afraid for poor old Tom's brain if anything should happen to trip us up." Harry himself was anxious, but he was not downright nervous. He did not feel things as keenly as did his chum; neither was Hazelton directly responsible for the success of the big undertaking. Mile after mile the construction work stretched. Trains were running now for work purposes, nearly as far as the line extended. The telegraph wires ran into the temporary station building at Lineville, and the several operators along the line were busy carrying orders through the length of the wire service. Back at Stormburg, where the railroad line began, three trains lay on side tracks. These were passenger trains that were to run the entire length of the road as soon as it was opened. Back at Stormburg, also, the new general superintendent slept at his office that he might receive messages from President Newnham the more quickly. At Bakerstown a division superintendent was stationed, he, too, sleeping at his office. Once more Tom Reade had brought his work within sight of Lineville. In fact, the track extended all but the last mile of the line. Ties were down nearly all of the way to the terminal station. This was the state of affairs at two o'clock in the afternoon. Before midnight the last rail must be laid, and the first through train from Stormburg must run in. If, at the stroke of midnight, the first train had failed to go through, then the charter of the S.B. & L. would be forfeited and subject to seizure and sale by the state. Up from Denver some of the worst politicians had come. They were quartered at the new little hotel in Lineville. Dave Fulsbee had detailed three of his men covertly to watch these same politicians. Tom, inwardly consumed with fever, outwardly as cheery as human being might be, stood watching the laying of the rails over that last stretch. The men who could be prevented from dropping in their tracks must work until the last rail had been spiked into place. Away up in Lineville Harry Hazelton was personally superintending the laying of the last ties. The honk of an automobile horn caused Tom Reade to glance up. Approaching him was President Newnham, himself driving the runabout that he had had forwarded. "Reade!" called the president of the S.B. & L., stopping his car, and Tom went over to him. "The suspense is over, at last, Reade," exclaimed Mr. Newnham, smiling broadly. "Look! the road is all but completed. Hundreds of men are toiling. The first train left Stormburg this morning. By seven tonight you'll have the last rails in place. Between eight and nine this evening the first through train will have rolled into Lineville and we shall have won the fight that has brought me many gray hairs. At last the worry is over!" "Of course, sir," nodded Tom. "Reade, don't you really believe that the stress is over---that we shall triumph tonight?" "Of course we shall, sir," Tom responded. "I have predicted, all along, that we'd have the road through in time, haven't I?" "And the credit is nearly all yours, Reade," admitted Mr. Newnham gleefully. "Nearly all yours, lad!" Honk! honk! Unable to remain long at one spot, Mr. Newnham started his car again. Reade felt a depression that he could not shake off. "It's just the reaction following the long train," Tom tried to tell himself. "Whew! Until within the last two or three days I haven't half realized how much the strain was taking out of me! I'll wager I'll sleep, tonight, after I once have the satisfaction of seeing the first train roll in!" By six o'clock Tom felt as though he could hardly stand up. Be wondered if his teeth were really chattering, or whether he merely imagined it. To take up his time Tom tried a brisk canter, away from the railroad. At seven o'clock he rode into Lineville. "Tom, Tom!", bawled Harry, from the centre of a group of workmen. "We've been looking for you! Come here quickly!" Tom urged his pony forward to the station from which Hazelton had called him. "Watch this---just watch it!" begged Harry. Clank! clank! clank! Tom Reade, gazing in fascination, saw the last spike of the last rail being driven into place. "Two sidetracks and switches already up!" called Harry. Tom threw his bridle to one of the workmen, then sprang from his horse. Out of the station came Mr. Newnham, waving a telegram. "Our first train, with passengers, has just left the station at Brand's Ranch junction, a hundred and ten miles away," shouted the president of the road. "The train should be here long before ten o'clock." From the crowd a cheer greeted the announcement. "There's nothing left but to wait to win," continued Mr. Newnham. Five hundred voices in the crowd cheered the announcement. A group of five Denver politicians smiled sardonically. Tom pushed his way gently through the crowd, glancing inside the station. There was no one there, save an operator. Closing the door behind him, Tom crossed to a seat and sank wearily upon it. Here he sat for some minutes, to be discovered by the telegraph operator when the latter came out to light the lamps in the waiting room. "Mr. Reade is all in, I guess," thought the operator. "I don't wonder. I hope he goes to sleep where he sits." Ten minutes later the receiver of one of the up the terminal station. The operator broke in, sending back his response. Then a telegram came, which he penned on paper. "Mr. Reade," called the operator, "this is for you." Tom sat up, brushing his eyes, and read:
(signed) "Dave Fulsbee."
"But that's really not Dave's way," Reade told himself in the next breath. "Fulsbee talks straight out from the shoulder. What has he to show me, I wonder! Gracious, how tired I am! If Fulsbee knew just how I feel at this moment he wouldn't send for me. But of course he doesn't know." Stepping outside, Tom looked about, espying his pony standing where it had been tied to one of the porch pillars of the station. "I'll get Harry to ride with me," Reade thought, but he found his chum engaged in testing a stretch of rails near the station, a dozen of the college students with him. "Pshaw! I'm strong enough to ride five miles alone," muttered Tom. "Thank goodness my horse hasn't been used up. Never mind, Tom Reade. To-morrow you can ride as far as you like on the railroad, with never a penny of fare to pay, either!" Unnoticed, the young chief engineer untied his horse in the dark, mounted and rode away. How dark and long the way seemed. Truth to tell, Tom Reade was very close to the collapse that seemed bound to follow the reaction once his big task was safely over. Only his strength of will sustained him. He gripped the pony's sides with his knees. "I wouldn't want anyone to see me riding in this fashion!" muttered the lad. "I must look worse than a tenderfoot. Why, I'll be really glad if Dave Fulsbee can ride back with me. I had no idea he was so near. I believed him to be at least fifty or sixty miles down the line." Tom was nearing the place appointed when a sudden whistle rang out from the brush beside the track. Then half a dozen men leaped out into view in the darkness, two of them seizing the bridle of his horse. "Good evening, Reade!" called the mocking voice of 'Gene Black. "Down this way to see your first train go through? Stay with us, and we'll show you how it doesn't get through---not tonight!" _ |
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