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j PUBLISHED
Vou. I, No, 44. ) WEEKLY.
Copyright, 1993, by David C. Cook Publishing Company.
DAVID C. COOK PUBLISHING CO., ELGIN, ILL., AND 36 WASHINGTON ST., CHICAGO. ,
October 29, 1904.
THE HUMP SWITCH: A Story of Halloween and No. 14.
rou ever see the scrap heap of
ay repair shop? It
mournful -looking pile of nothing.
steam chests and
to be poked over
some old ‘tub that’s on the way to the heap “
itself.
chunk of No. 14 in a heap t!
ad who hasn’t hair on his
hand to it jus
own before he swung into the cab and wen
ol i ren
No. wal a fine piece of machinery in
wood-burning engine
i
By H. I. CLEVELAND.
idly down the gra ade, gaining speed e
¢ giving any ar’ te pp ‘hing
trains, the Culver boys fled over the moun-
t to ir homes. ! ain line w
bl ’ a dang i set.
It happened that afternoon that No. 14.
lyin, t Dale Creek to the east of the
IIump, received an or o take five cars
of coal and go wi as ‘run to
Tapper's, five miles west of the I ip, and
there tak iding to let the president’s
special pass. } w the e
r best day, an old
Sonim d= been reconverted into coal- Bob who had brown hair’and blues eyes—
urner, She had a le-a-minute speed her firema
in her all drivers, and heard fire- Bob had. ‘been planning to have a Hal-
men say. th: when s g -her loween of Lis own that night, but unex:
best in a tight place she'd earry two hun- pect order to go ont on the road ended
- dred pounds of steam and-hold it. all thonght of pleasure. . Ife growled as he
Of ¢ fed his fire, b as his grow! usually car-
i ried a smile with it, No. ua id no atten- .
: tion to his but akin
: st as she cou ignal to
. start came, and Grady, giving the throttle
* en. ull, made the main line and
~ sterted west. Ilis allowed running time to
oA \ ‘apper’s was short, but. he knew the met-
ath tle of No. and let her have her- head.
7 Into the mountains the short train shot,
' but the grad 0 n hills, cutting out
stayed there for rs, and that’s where forty and fifty miles an hour just as th
r No. and | Bob Herrick sinade their. ever-- ack rran e quick dusk of the
Iactiag fam mountains came and the whistle blew for
The ewitch ran up hill and down hill. the passing of the Lump. east end of
d it had two or three, bad kinks in it, the switch was safely crosse ut, when
u and it was’ no mo a a switch for the we: came in sight, Bob Herrick
! the overland or fruit freights than No. 14 let out a mighty yell to Grady. He saw
po eee was to be put on a slow, ac ation the du d freight cars, saw them too late
v4 train. Everybody hated the IIump, and to prevent a crash
\ everybody talked about it but the president Did Grady jump? No, he shut off,
: f the line, until, one Ialloween night, versed No. 14, applied his air and waited.
: when he found out what it was and ended Did Bob jump? Not-a bit of it! He
it-then and ther By permission oy threw himself on the hand-brake of‘ the
t was all of a mile long, and it. was S. 8. McClure Co, engine and set -it ight as he could.
} “guarded by ordinary targets and lamps, Then No. 14 was into the cars, pounding,
but it was so crooked and so up a wh smashing, grinding and groaning, making
its way that it. took all the air of any a Hallo pween | sight pitiful to behold.
ie train to hold it there and keep the main Vee . Grady hrown out of the cab win-
of line clea 5 piled me twenty cars one HE KNEW HOW TO RUN HER, IF HE WAS ONLY A FIREMAN. AND II DID RUN HER! dow. and st ruck his head. The cab it-
7 night ing to keep- going over th self, Partially smashed in, held Bob Iler-
: uoantain- ale, “and the ‘ump had no good They were ready for. any rough sport, IIal-) it to stop. Then the train crew would |rick fast. The coal cars broke away from
name at alh loween not meaning to them the old-fash-| have to remove the light and shunt the| the engine and pile au with the caboose
That the case, the boys over a ioned and innocent sports of long’ ago. ears back i safety before the special in the ditch. When it was all over Bo ;
Culver Hach oughtn’t to have picked “ But,” said Jake, “ lookin’ at them cars| could go on, . found No. 14 still holding t! track and
out for the spot of thei alloween Soke an’. thinkin’ how near to home we air, “ Supposin’,” said. one of the boys nm the west side of the freight cars, Her . .
but there 2 are boys that think and boys that suggests we "jest give “a president a joke| Jake, ““the engineer don't see the red light | pilot was gone, her headlight smashed, her
don’t, and the Culver boys belong he | right here.” —he’s i lam-bang then in ma | stack turned over, but she was on the rails
latter class. They couldn’t be made to The brothers didn’t understand him, but | cars.” and still steaming.
think, even if you sprinkled gold dollars Jake’ had his plans figured out, an they “TWuh!? rejoined Jake, “if he don't se Ye forgot the “special in his anxiety to
right a ao of. them good enoug! ot r one thing—aj]’em he’s jest goin’ -to some paint | discover Grady, t Grady had a broken
Th of Halloween No. 7, having too] joke that takes a ch on hum: ife, ff th’ sides of his train—that’s all!” shoulder a as uconscious He looked
_ much 0 a get o the “Divide | that’s going to scare somebody out of his erhaps it was, and then maybe it w: for the conductor and brakeman -of the
with and being in a, hurry, shunted ten or| clothes and wits, isn’t a joke. always/not. Jokes of this kind too often end in|train, but they were in the wreck of th
twelve empty box cars in on the Hump, liked Gentleman Ed's definition of a joke:| tragedies. The law forbids them, and com- boose and could not get themselves out
' set the brakes and blocked the wheels andj“ Something that pleases everybody and|mon sense calls against playing them, but | unaided. Then he thought f the special
we on its way. They were going to pick] hurts none. e Culver boys wi heedless ; the we e| and frantically ran here there for a
a the empties up the next a he Culver Jake’: 's joke wasn’t of this kind. It was}alone in th untains; a wron, allow-|red light, but all the sigkes were broken.
boys were sitting in the grass. watching] too near being serious to be a joke; and, nm spirit Was on them, and they yielded The only thin ng suggested itself
~ the cars go in, when Take, the oldest, if Jake had been a hoy that stopped to|to Jake’s specious arguments. to: his mind 0 ‘natant was to climb
drawled out: think before he went. over a fence, he’d One after the other the blocks were re-| No. 14, open her whistle and go west to
: “T hearn how the president's goin’ over] have seen it. owever, what he proposed oved from the cars and then the brakes} warn the. Special of the wreck. - Ie knew
: th’ line ter-night to do was this: The next train to pass the|set free. It took very little effort on tha train from the east was due for a
t “Yep.” says Pete; and the other boys} Tump was to be the presiden special, | ugly switch to set the first car in motion] couple of hours. The west must be pro-
: nodded their hea nd it wasn’t due until about seven o’clock | and have two others follow it. They rolled | tected, and the time ia which to do it was
| “It's Halloween.” said Jake, digging his }—just after dark came down the ra ly at first, the boys on top carefully |s hort~dangerously sho!
i heels in ine Bround- he special was due from the West and; keeping them under control, but, when a Sixteen-year-old Rob | vot. into the broken
i id Pete; and the others | had a long grade to climb it would}|steep descent in the TIump was. struck, cab and found No. 14, so far as steam was
bobbed thle hea ‘once more, ch the Ilump, Jake proposed to free! Jake, who was on the first car, lost control | concerned, in goo “tonilition. He kne
) s thin’ ” Jake went on, “ we'd | several of the empties on the Hump ‘and | of his, became frightened and ay ran ow to run her, if he was only a fireman, ;
to ribie" an’ , tie lo: let the 11 down so near the main|down the side ladder on we ped fro: e did run her! In all ir ancient ~ :
5 horses! tails up an’ the like. line that red light placed on their end |'The other boys follow ‘sto ory the peaks that surrounded the,
vf s brothers made no comment on this.| would be seen from the special and cause The cars, now entirely “free, moved rap-| IIump never heard such a racket as To! sb
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