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0 ; PAGE SEVEN. DO ON BEST PROPERTIES IN EL PASO. ' . - EL, PASO DAILY HERALD, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 190L G VE LOWEST f t I V We are We s- 1 1 A. P. COLES & Office Oregon Street, Brouson Block. Wild Race The Thrilling Adventure Which Bad its Start in the Little Station on the Mountain Side While the Operator Slept at His Post. By J. Percy Barnltz, in the Argosy for ' With the approach of spring had come the long threatened outbreak on the Navajo Indian reservation. A large party of bucks had started on an expedition of murder and robbery in the direction of the San Francisco Mountains, closely pursued by several troops of cavalry from Fort Defiance. Orders had been issued that addition al cavalry from Fort Wingate be sent bv rail to Flagstaff in an endeavor to head off the hostil redskins, and. to- rather with the troops already in par- suit, surround and drive mem duck unon thA reservation. Flagstaff, then a lonely little station on the Atlantic and Pacific railway, is situated on the eastern slope of the San Pmnriani Mountains, the road de scending by a series of long, sweeping curves to the broad plateau stretching away to the Continental Divide. Although but early April, the weath er bad been oppressively warm for sev eral days. . Standing at the window of his little bedroom over the station, late one afternoon. Frank Barton, the night telexraDh operator, was abstractedly watching the heated air rising in dan cine waves from the brown Arizona plain below the mountains. He was mentally deprecating the cir cumstances which had forced him to tike a nosition in that almost wilder ness. But he consoled himself with the thought that he was yet young and one of the best railroad telegraphers to be found anywhere. Brides, had it not been for his diss! pated habits, he would now be filling a responsible position with tne great, railway company in the east which had finally dismissed him from their em ploy after repeatedly warning him of the danger of his course. He would quit this infernal whisky drinking; there was nothing in it but trouble. He would brace up, be a man, and see whether full application of his abilities would not put him again upon the main line of success from which he had sidetracked himself. But he was so nervous this evening; he must have something to steady him. He wouM go over to the board shanty bearing the euphonious name, "The Cattle King's Rest," and take one drink before going to work. An unusual number of rough, rollick ing fellows were in the little frontier saloon, and before he was aware of it, , now offering a bargain on 122 feet We have some Choice Bargains Left on Texas Street. V t Have for Sale the Cheapest pieca of Property on South Stanton Street. This. Price will only Stand for a Few Days. The Pierson Hotel Property: - St. Louis Street and G. H. Railroad. This is a bargain for somebody. Call and get our Prices. If they With Death. March. Barton's one drink had been multi plied many times. It was quite dark -when he started back to the station. The day man had the lamps lighted and was impatiently awaiting his coming. "Same thing over again," he savagely muttered as Barton came through the doorway. "Are you going to keep me nere waiting tor you ior nours every night. Frank?" he added. "I'm get ting tired of it. and if you continue it much longer I'll make a complaint at headquarters. Look out for orders for Forty Six; there's a troop f-pecial com ing west from Wingate, and the pass ing point, will likely be between here and Canyon Diablo. Keep the instru ments adjusted; a storm is moving up the mountains, and the wires are work ing bad. Good night. And Barton found himself alone be fore he could reply to the day man, As the storm drew nearar, the night air became suddenly cold and damp. Barton shivered, closed the door, and prepared to build a fire in the stove. He had hardly finished this work and settled himself in the chair before the instrument table when he heard train Forty Six the famous Overland Flyer reported forty minutes late. Shortly afterwards the telegraph rat tled out his station call of "F. S.." and he received the following order from the train dispatcher at Winslow: Order No. 14. To Conductor and Engineer train Forty Six. Flagstaff: "Train Forty Six and troop special Sixty One will meet at Cosnino. Forty Six will take siding. (Signed.) "Harwood, "Dispatcher." Barton signed O. K. for the order. and lighted" the red lantern. The storm had broken over the moun tains in all its fury, and when he open ed the station door to hang the lantern on the signal arm outside, a rush of cold air extinguished the flickering ilame. Curse it! he said to himself. "Who can keep that battered old lamp light ed in a storm like this? Forty Six can't make up any time on the grade between Williams and the top of the mountain. I'll flag her when I hear her coming." on Kansas, THIS IS FINE WAREHOUSE PROPERTY. He closed the door with a bang, re lighted the lantern, and threw himself into a clumsy rocking chair beside the stove.. The wind dashed the sleet and rain against the window panes with great force. The telegraph wires sighed moaned and shrieked alternately, as the blasts of wind struck them with greater or less violence. Occasionally the faint, far away howl of the coyote broke weird and mourn fully through the raging of the storm, causing Barton to shift uneasily in his chair. The liquor he had drank began to take effect. His eyes slowly closed, his head dropped upon his breast, and he breathed iong and regularly. "F. S. F. S.," rattled the sounder up on the table, first with clock-like reg ularity, and finally with quick, nervous jerks. The sleeping operator never moved; his head had fallen farther forward up on his breast, and his arms hung list lessly toward the floor. Far up the mountain side, shining through the gloom like a twinkling star, appeared the headlight of the lo comotive drawing the Overland Flyer. Iarger and brighter became the light; presently a low. distant rumble, gradually increasing into a roar, then a long, sharp whistle which the howling winds gathered in their arms and smothered, and train Forty Six swept past the t tat ion of Flagstaff. Frank Burton gave a start, rubbed his eyes, and, as his practised ear caught the familiar call of "F. S.." quickly stepped to the instrument and answered it. "Forty Six there?" asked the dis patcher at Winslow. "Not yet," replied Barton: and just then his eyes fell upon the clock dial The hands pointed to 10:25. His face grew ashy pale, and a strange numb ness crept over him as his sleepy brain recalled the roar of a pasting train a few minuter before. Seizing the lantern, he reeled out upon the station platform, peering into the darkness. Staring out of the night at his white and haggard face were to two red tail lights of the rapidly disappearing train. He was dazed as the horror of the situation dawned upon him. There was no telegraph station be tween Flagstaff and Canyon Diablo. and, as Cosnino was but fourteen miles east of Flagstaff and twenty-two miles west of Canyon Diablo, the troop spe- tial had already passed the latter place ami waa hurrying toward the meeting place. leaning heavily against the side of ihe building. Barton gazed down the stretch of wet track until it was lost to view in the darkness beyond the yellow path of light which streamed from the station window. He could hear the distant rumble of the train rushing to to certain disaster. Kepe the safety valve popping Jim." said Engineer Murray, of train Forty Six, to his fireman as he glanced from his watch to the quivering hand of the steam gauge; "we ve drifted well and Corner First Street. are tiot the Lowest don't btty. held our own. Now that we've done with Dry Fork trestle and hit the level, I'll pull her wide open, an' I'll go you a wett s pay we make Winslow on time. Hello! See that " Bang' came the warning crack of a torpedo from beneath the heavy wheels. Murray quickly reversed, shut off steam, pulled out tne sand lever, and, throwing on the air brakes, stopped the train with a suddenness that brought the passengers excitedly to their feet. Conductor Blake jumped down, and, running forward, met the engineer. . "Go back!" shouted Murray; "there's something wrong. A riderless horse, saddled and bridled. dashed across the track not twenty feet ahead of the engine, then came a torpedo sig nal to stop, and a dark object rolled out from the rails." Several hundred feet behind the train they came upon the form of a man ly ing on the wet ground. He was hat less, covered with mud. and his face smeared with blood, which oozed from a cut on the head. Blake held his lantern close to the man's face, while Murray wiped away the blood with a clean bunch of waste he took from his jumper. "Why. great God! It's Barton, the night man at Flagstaff!" he cried as he looked at the white, set countenance. 'He has papers In his hand; what's it mean? Tearing the crumpled sheets from the unconscious operator's grasp, he held them up to the lantern and read the orders to meet train Sixty One at Cosnino. m For a iiKiment the two men stared at each other, speechless. Then, tender ly picking up the injured man, they can-led him into the baggage car. "Forgot the orders! Tried to head us off down the mountain, and did it to! But how he did It, God only knows. I don t! exclaimed Blake. "Hustle now. Murray," he continued. as they laid Barton on some seat cush ions on the car floor, "we've no time to lose, or we'll lay Sixty One out at Cos nino. Close shave that! If we'd passed Cosnino ahead of Sixty One there'd a -been 'more whites killed than the red devils'll get a chance at in a month, eh. Murray?" The train steamed on to Cosnino, reaching there just as the special rounded ihe curve beyond the siding. The soft May breezes were blowing across the New Mexican "mesa", when Barton, sitting in an invalid's chair on the veranda of the Albuquerque hos pital, told an interested audience of railroad men the story they had so anx iously waited to hear. Told how ho had performed the seemingly impossible feat of beating an express train down the rugged sides of the Rocky Mountains, astride' an Ari zona mustang the story of his wild race with Death. "You see. it was this way." !ie be gan, I bad made up my mmo while listening to Forty Six running surely into the greatest head on smash that could happen anywhere, to go back into the office, take the rifle off the wall and S. Oregon Street, - - 130 feet front on and Campbell by 260 feet on shoot out my miserable wasted life. It seems now like a horrible story I'd reaa instead or reality. "Well, just as I was about to do that very thing, something I don't know what it was, I guess it was the Al mighty but, anyhow, something said to me, -faanrord ranch! Quick: San ford ranch!" and Just that quick I said to myself, 'I'll try it; I might's well die trying to save 'em; yes, a blame sight oetter that way than dying the worth less wretch J ve been lately.' And try it I did, winning out against death by aoout twenty leet. "There s a trail from the Sanford ranch to Flagstaff which runs at right angles with the railroad and crosses the track thre miles west of Cosnino. This trail is so steep that it is used only in coming up the mountain, and i ve neara the Doys say that have come up there that anyone who couldn't ride a horse when it was walking on its nma legs had no business to try to cnmu it. "The distance from where the trail crosses the track to Flagstaff is tiiree and one half miles, while the distance the train had to run to meet that point was eleven miles. Bucking Bill Har mon, with his roan bronco from the Sanford ranch was up at the Rest with a lot of other cow punchers, making a night of it. Bill and his roan had crawled that trail more times than any other fellow in that section, and I fig ured that his horse could go df-v n it on the run if any animal could do so alive. "So I grabbed the torpedo and the train orders and ran over to the front of the saloon where the horse was pick eted, cut the lariat, and. mounting the brute, started tor the trail on a mad run. "Over the edge of the trail went the roan with a leap; I closed my eyes and threw my arms around the beast's neck. The animal gave a loud snort of fear and tried to stop, but it might as well have tried to stop the world turn ing around the impetus was awful 'I did not experience the sensation of flying that night; I don't think any one else ever has. Why, I'm sure that bronco took leaps over a hundred feet in length, and when its feet would strike ground again I felt like I was being hie on the spine with a sledge hammer. fhe breath was knocked so com pletely out of me that a terrible chok ing sensation seized my throat. The rowth of grease wood clutched at my logs and nearly pulled mo out of the saddle. My heart felt as though it would fly out of my mouth, and I thought I was dying. Suddenly the frightened steed slack ened, and 1 knew we were gettiug on more level ground. , "A low, distant, hollow rumble, fol lowed by a locomotive whistle, reached my ears, it was Forty Six crossing the Vy Fork trestle! "The neadlight loomed out of the night, and I could tell that the engi neer was increasing speed by the quickening exhaust of the engine. It was still a quarter of a mile to the railroad. both THBRS, 'Oh! God. I prayed, 'let me beat the train! I yelled. 'Go! Go!' at the now crazed mustang, and my voice sounded to me, weak, faint and far away. "I peered steadily ahead in the dark ness. There was the track now almost before me, and the rails, reflecting the glow from the headlight, looked to my burning eyes like fiery serpents. "I nulled with all mv mlp-ht fin tTiA bridle reins and slid from the saddle, reaching out my hand with, the torpedo, I felt its spring catch clasp the cold steel, and then the heat from the loco motive firebox scorched mv face. I felt an awful shock, and knew nothing .un- "i i recovered consciousness here in the hospital." "Here, Barton, take a niD o' this: von look weak," said a ruddy faced, con ductor, offering the invalid a flask. What! Booze? No. more for me. Cooper; no more for me. Read this read it loud to the boys." "The Central Railwav "Office of the General Manager. ' April 28, 1884. Mr. Frank Barton, "Albuquerque, N. M. My Dear Frank: "My private car, in which my fam ily, were returning from Los Angeles, was attached to A. and P. train Fortv Six the night of April 7th. If you will come to my office when you have re covered irom your injuries and will take the pledge, I will give you im-. mediate employment. After you have kept the pledge for one year, I will re instate you in the position you held when required to leave the service of this company. I believe I can make a man of you yet. Will you do it? "Sincerely your friend, James A. C order, ' General Manager. "Boys," said Barton, straightening up in his chair with an effort, "I'm going to do it." And he did. DOES IT PAY TO BUY CHEAP? A cheap remedy for coughs and colds is all right,' but you want something that will relieve and cure the more se vere and dangerous results of throat and lung troubles. What shall you do? Go to a warmer and more regular climate? Yes, If possible; if not pos sible for you, then in either case take the ONLY remedy that has been in troduced in all civilized countries with success in in severe throat and lung troubles, "Bosche's German Syrup." It-not only heals and stimulates the tissues or destroys the germ disease, but allaws inflammation, causes easy expectoration, gives a good night's rest and cures the patient. Try ONE bottle. Recommended many years by all druggists in the world. Get Green's Prize Almanac. Sold by all dealers in civilized coun tries. Like bad dollars, all counterfeits of DeWitt's Witch Hazel Salve are worth less. The original quickly cures piles. sores, and all skin diseases. Fred ' Schaefer, druggist.