Altus Times-Democrat (Altus, Okla.), Vol. 19, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 7, 1921 Page: 3 of 12
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TIMES-DEMOCRAT, ALTUS, OKLAHOMA, APRIL 7, 1921
there
CHAPTER
At Sand Creak Siding
is a general proposition, I don't be-
lieve much In the things called
* hunches." But there are exceptions
»o all rules, and we certainly uncov-
ered the biggest one of the lot—the
hogs und I—the night we left Port-
land «nd the good old Pacific coast.
It wus this way. We had finished
the construction work on the Oregon
Midland; and'were on our way to the
<raln, when I had one of those queer
Kttle premonitory chills you hear so
much about and knew just as well ns
<iiuld he that we were never going
to pull through to Chicago without get-
ting a Jolt of some sort. The reason
If you'll call It a reason—was that,
just before we came to the railroad
"tatlon, the boss walked calmlv under
« ladder standing in front of a new
building; and besides that, it was the
ihlrteenth day of the month, a Fri-
day, and raining like the very mis-
chief.
Just to sort of toll us along, may-
be. the fates didn't begin on us that
Night. They waited until the next
<lay, and then proceeded to shove ns
!a behind a freight-train wreck at
Wldner, Idaho, where we lost twelve
fcours. It looked as If that didn't
amount to much, because we weren't
due anywhere at any particular time.
Hie boss was on his way home for a
■ittle visit with his folks in Illinois,
»nd beyond that he was going to meet
« bunch of Englishmen in Montreal,
tnd maybe let them make him general
manager of one of the Canadian rail-
roads.
So Mr. Norcross was In no special
hurry, iuld neither was I. I had been
cpnfldential clerk and shorthand man
for the boss on the Midland construc-
tion, and he was taking me along part-
y because he knows a cracking good
stenographer when he sees one. hut
rjostly because I was dead anxious to
go anywhere he was going.
But, if it hadn't been for that
"welve-hrtur lay-out - we would have
•sughf ti* SiOttrfoy nighr train on
Pioneer Short Line, Instead of the
-rain Sunday morning, and there
would have been no meeting with
Mrs. Sheila and Maisie Aim; no tele-
cram from Mr. Chadwlck, because it
•wouldn't have found us; no hold up
at Sand Creek siding; In short, nothing
would have happened that did hap-
pen.
It was on Sunday that the jolt be-
can to get ready to land on us. Right
-oon after breakfast, with the help of
t little Pullman berth table and roe
s-nd m.v typewriter, Mr. Norcross
-irned our section into a business office,
saying that now we had a good quiet
fay. we'd clean up the million or so
■Ids and ends of correspondence he'd
t een letting go while we were tussling
'or the Midland right-of-way through
:he Oregon mountains.
From where he sat dictating to me
-he boss was facing forward and now
uid then an absent sort of look came
nto his eyes while he wtis talking oft
Ms letters, and it puzzled me because
t wasn't like him. One of the times
after he had given me a full grist of
•etters and had gone ofT to smoke
while I typed u thousand lines
*rom my notes to catch up I made
a discovery. There were two people
n Section five just ahead of us a
oung worprfn and a girl of maybe fif-
teen or s». and the Pullman Was the
ld-fasli*'ned kind, with low set-
backs. I put It up that In those ab-
sented Intervals Mr. Norcross h id
uee» studying the back of the young
v<mnn's neck. I was measurablv sure I
y wasn't the little girl's.
Along in the forenoon I made an ex- '
<"use to go and get a drink of water
out of the forward cooler, and on the
™y bBok 1 took a Rood square look
at our neighbors In Number Five. The
young woman was pretty enough to
start a stopped clock—only "pretty"
isn't Just the word, either; there
wasn't any word, when you come ritrht
lown to It. And the little girl wa*
simply a peach—a nice, downy, rosy
peach; chunky, round-faced, sunny-
haired. Jolly; with a neat little turned-
JP nose and big sort of boyish laugh-
ing eyes that fairly dared the world.
At the second call to dinner Mr
Norcross told me to strap up the ma-
chine and pnt the files away in the
frtps and we d go eat. He was pretty
quiet, breaking out one®, in the meat
course, to tell me that he'd Just had a
forwarded telegram from an old friend
0 hl" 'hat would stop us off for a
lay or two in Portal City, the head
darter* of the Pioneer Short Line
farther along, pretty well Into the lee-
-am and black coffee, be came to life
i<*ln to ask me If | had noticed the
roung lady and the girl in the Pull-
in.i s.' -ttoi. ne*t to our*.
I told h'ia 1 had. and then, because
had Dev. r know n him to bother his
wad for two minute* in
'boot any woman.
fcvck, MHl Ux;
I Portal City—and to find that out he
[ must have asked the train conductor-
adding that when we reached Portal
It would be the neighborly thing for
me to do to help them off with their
hand-bags and see that they got a cab
If they wanted one.
"Sure I will," says I. "That Is, If
the lady's husband Isn't there to meet
them. Her suit case, has her name.
'Mrs. Sheila Macrae,' on it."
The boss has a way of muking two
up-and-down wrinkles und a little
curved horseshoe line come between
his eyes when he is going to reach
for you.
"There are times. Jlmmle, when you
see altogether too much," he said
sort of gruff.
"'Macrae,' you say; thai is Scotch
And so Is 'Sheila.' Most likely the
names, both of them, are only hand-
downs. She looks straight American
to me."
"She Is pretty enough to look any-
thing." I threw In, just to see bow he
would take it.
Right you are. Jimmie," he agreed
"I've been looking at the back of her
neck all day. There are so many
women who don't measure up to the
promises they make when you see 'em
from behind. fou catch a glimpse of
a pretty neck, and when you get
around to the face you find out that
the neck was only a bit of bluff."
If I had been eating anything in the
world but Ice cream I believe it would
have choked me. What he said led
up to the admission that he had been
making these face-and-neck compari-
sons for goodness knows how long,
and I couldn't surround that, all at
once. You see. he was such a picture
of a man s man In every seuse of the
word: a fighter and a hard-hitter
right from the jump. And to a man
of that sort women are usually no
more than fluffy little side-issues a«
Eve said when they told her she was
made out of Adam's rib.
That ended the dining-car part 0f
It. The sure-enough, knock-out round
was bought at the rear end of our
Pullman, which happened to be the
last car in the train. As we walked
back after dinner Mr. Norcross gave
me a cigar and said we'd go out to
the observation platform to smoke.
When we reached the door we found
the young lady and the girl standing
at the rear railing to watch the track
unroll itself under the trucks The
young lady was wearing a coat with
a storm collar, but the girl had a fur
thing around her ne- k. and her stockv
chunky little arms were elbow deep iff
a big pillow muff to match, though the
chiHy n'ght WaSn>t eVe" halr"way
The boss stepped out on the plat-
form to close the side trap door which
with the railing gate on that side, had
been left open by a careless rear flag-
man. Just then the big "Pacific type"
^ri7S,J)U,1,nR US ,et out a whistJe
screech that would have waked the
dead, and the air-brakes went on
7nu. r *1? ,ha' Sh°wed "ow beautl-
hi n, L railroading was on
the Pioneer Short Line.
Mr. Norcross was reaching for the
,hp trap and the Jerk
1 ,hrow blui. Km it snapped the
fh™* ,T°mU" an<1 "'<■ eirl away from j
the railing so suddenly that the little
one had to grab for hand-holds; and
when slip did that, of course the big |
muff went overboard.
At this, a bunch of Ihlngs happened.
snrf u lTWlnk- Th" ,rai"
and Jiggled to a stop; the girl squealed.
Oh. my muff.- and skj|)fH.(, down
mLZ . d,"W'r the general
direction of the Pacific coast; the
young woman shrieked after her
Maisje Ann come back here—you'll
be left, aud then took her tui-n at
disappearing by the same route; and.
on top of it all. the boss Jumped off
and sprinted after both of them, leav- j
ing a string of large, man-sized
•till three or four car-lengths to go
when the tank spont went up with a
clang and a clatter of chains and tii«t
old "Pacific type" gave a couple of
hlBsen and « snort.
"They re going!" gritted the boss,
sort of between Ms teeth, and with-
out another word he grabbed thoso
two hobbled women folks up under
his arms, jusi as if they'd been a
couple of sacks of meal, and broke
into a run.
*®sn'» ■ morsel of use, yon know.
Old Hercules himself couldn't have
run very far or very fait with the
handicap the boss had taken on, and
In less than half a minute the "Paci-
fic type" bad caught her at ride and
the red tall lights of the train were
vanishing to pin points In the night.
We were beautifully and artistically
When he saw that It was no man-
ner of use. the bosa quit on the handi-
cap race and put his two armfuis
down while he still had breath enough
left to talk with.
"Well," he said. In his best rusty-
binge rasp, "you've done it' Why, in
was pi ore talk, In which ft
turned out that the young woman and
her cousin were to have been met at
Portal City by somebody she called
•Cousin Basil," but there wouldn't be
■ «»y scare, because she bad written
•head to say that possibly they might
stop over with some friends in one ef
the apple towns.
Then Mr. Norcross said he wouldn't
miss anything by the drop out hut an
appointment he had with an old
friend, and be gaessed that could wait.
listened, thinking maybe be would
mention the name of the friend, and
■tter a while he did. The forwarded
Portal City telegram the boss had got-
ten just befor* we went to dinner In
the dining-car was from "Uncle John"
Chadwicfc. the Chicago wheat king,
and that left me wondering what the
mischief Mr. Chadwlck was doing
■way out in the wild and woollv west-
ern country where they raise more
apples than tbev do wheat, and more
mining stock schemes than they do
that two of the bandits bad been left
behiud. 'these two reset (he switches
for the main track, leaving everything
as they had found It, and then
crossed over to the auto
I was just thinking that all this
mystery and kidnaping and gnn play
must lie sort of bard ou the voting
woman and the girl, but. though my
half of the allotment was shivering
a little and snuggling np just a grain
closer to me. she proved that ahe
hadn't lost her nerve.
"Did ron see the name en that car
when the engine went past te get in
behind It?" she asked.
"No," said (he boss; and I hadn't,
either.
We had been marooned r(>r nearly
an hour when I struck a match and
looked at my watch. Mr. Norcross
was doing bis best to kill time for the
.votingwoman, and be was just in the
exciting part of a railroad siorv, telling
about a right-of-way fight on the Mid-
land. wben the little girl grabbed my
arm and said: "Listen!"
I did, and brnfce In promptlv "Ex-
cuse me," I called to the other two
but 1 think there's a train coming."
II"; boss cut his story short and
we all listened. It seemed that I was
wrong. The noise we heard was more
Hke an auto running with the cut-out
opeu than a train rumbling.
"What do you make it. Jlmmle*
catne from the boss' end of the tim-
"Motor car," I said, pointing m the
darkness toward the east.
My guess was right. In less than
•minute we saw the nght* of the car
It stopped a little way below the water
tank and about a hundred yards north
cf the track, or maybe less, and four
men came tumbling out of it If
Just as if They'd Bean"
Sacks of Meal.
the name of common sense,- couldn't
you have let me go back after that
muff thing?"
It was the young woman who an-
swered the boss.
"I—I didn't stop to think!" she
fluttered, taking the blame as if she
bad been the one to head the proces-
sion. "Isn't there any way we can
stop that train?"
The boss said there wasn't, and I
know |he only reason why he didn't
say a lot of other things was because
he was too jnuch of a gentleman to
say them in the presence of a couple
of women.
So far as we could see. the surf
royndings consisted of a short side-
track. a spur running off into the hills
and the water tank. The siding
switches had no lights, which argued
that there wasn't even a pump man at
the tank—as there was not. the tank
being filled automatically by a gravity
pipe llnd running back to a natural
reservoir in the mountains.
By this time the boss was beginning
to get a little better grip on himself
and he laughed.
"We've all earned the leather medal
I guess," he chuckled. "It's done now'
and It can't be helped."
"But isn't there anything we can
■ 8a'd the young woman. "Can't
we walk somewhere to where there is
station or a town with people jn
S"1 L?" J* on the job 1 "bould
probably have called to the men as
they came tramping over to the side-
Coupla of track. Hut Mr. Norcross had a dif-
ferent thiuk coming.
"Out of sight—quick. Jimmie!" he
whispered, and in another second he
"I did." she asserted, showing tbat
her eyes, or her wits, were quicker
than ours. "I had just one little
glimpse of It. The name is 'A-l-e-x-a,'"
spelling it out.
Mr. Norcross started as If he had
been shot.
"The Alexa? That Is Mr. Cliad-
wlck's private car—they've kidnaped
him!" Then he whirled short on me.
"Jlmmle, are you man enough to go
with me aud try a tackle on those
fellows over there In that auto?"
I said I was; but I didn't add what
I thought—tbat it would probably be
a case of double suicide for us two to
go up against a pair of armed thugs
with our bare hands. The young wo-
man put in her word.
"you mustn't think of doing such a
thing!" she protested; and she was
still telling him all the different rea-
sons why he mustn't, when we heard
the creak and grind of the stolen en-
gine coming back dowu the old spur.
After that there was nothing to do
but to wait and see what was going
to happen next. What did happen was
as blind as all the rest. The engine
was stopped somewhere In the gulch
get busy and do s tinetblng. it wm a
safe bet I hat I he Alexa was carrying
her owner, and in that case Mr. Mm
Chadwlck and h>< (rain orei
somewhere hack In the hills,
an engine, and with a good |u,
of ataying "pui ' until somebody Hn'-I
go and hunt them up.
"We've got to Dad, out what thea***
done with Mr. Chs£|rlck," Mr. Mar-
cross broke out. 4qd thea: "It can't
be very far to wjieril they bava left
the engipe.; and' if they havea't crip
pled it—" If« stopped short aa« slang
a question at the two women: "Will
you two stay here with Jimmie «Mie
I go and see what I can flnd la that
gulch V
They hoih paid me Hie compliment
of saying that they'd atay with we.
but lite young woman suggested that
It might be just as well If we ahaald
all go up the gulch together. So we
piked out in the dark, the bosa bHj*-
Mrs. Sheila to hobo along aver
the cross-ties of the apur, and the lit-
tle girl stumbling on behind with a*.
We had followed the spur track ni»
the gulch for maybe a short qaarter
of a mile when we came to the en-
gine. As we had feared it might »>e.
the big machine was crippled. Thcr*
was a key gone out of one of the c».n-
necting-rod crank-pin straps; one
miserable little piece of steel, maj lie
eight inches long and tapering o-w
way, and half an inch or so thick lb»»
other; but that was a-plenty. We
couldn't make a move without It.
I thought we were done for, but Mr.
Norcross chased me up into the cab
for a lantern. With the light we be-
gan to hunt around in the short grass.
I had been sensible enough to show
the little girl the other connecting-rod
key, so she knew exactly what to Icok
for, and it did me a heap of gt*»«*-
when it turned out that she was t!.»
baA of us and out of sight from our ' one who found the lost bit of steel.
hiding-place, and pretty soon the two
men who bad gone with her came hur-
rying across out of the hill shadows
making straight for the auto. A min-
ute or two later they had climbed
Into the machine, the motor bad sput-
tered, and the car was gone.
"I've cot it—IV* got it!" «t>e cr>""d;
CHAPTER II
Mr. Chadwick'a Special
Of course, as soon M the skip-out
or the four hold-up men gave ui it
free huid wq knew ifcjrti. up ta.Aa
-Mr. and Mrs. Curtis J. Holt will
leave the last of the week in their car
for California, stopping en route at
Miami, Arizona, to visit Mrs. Holt's
sister, Mrs. Gamble. They will return
to Altus in August.
. 5^',.H,arris and sister, Mrs. Beau-
Iah Hightower, of Ardmore, were
guests of their brother. Klmer Harris.
ver Sunday. Guy and Beaulah will
attend the Rotary convention at Wich-
ita this week.
(To be continued)
A Farmer Cured of Rheumatism
"A man living on a farm near here
came in a short time ago completely
doubled up with rheumatism. I hand^
ed him a bottle of Chamberlain's Lini-
ment and told him to use it freely'' says
C. P. Rayder. Patten Mills, N. Y. "A
few days later he walked into the store
as straight as a string yid handed me
a,d.?'lar sayitJR. Rive me another bottle
of Chamberlain's Liniment; I want it in
the house all'the time for it cured me."
Mrs. Josh Kirby left last week for
U^ew Mexico where she was called t<.
the bedside of Mrs. Leach who is re-
ported to be very low. She will re-
turn here this week.
V\ ANTED — Clean cotton rag> at
Times-Democrat office. 6c per U>.
According to the Bible, it took J..-V
ua to make the sun stand still, but al-
most anybody can make a moons 1 in -
still.
"Out ftr Sight—Quick, Jimmie!"
Whispered.
itr
I saw Mr. Norcross look
. ., -v down at
!". „ ,r,g aD(I then at the girl's.
"You two couldn't walk very far
or very fast In those things vo'u are
wearing," he grunted. "Besides, we
are in one of the desert strip*, and It
is probably miles to a night uir
I |on in elthL- direction."
I We trailed eff together np the track,
I two and two. the boss walking with
the young woman. After we d coi -.ted
I a few of the cross-ties, thP eir|
j "Is your name Jimmie Podds?"
when I admitted jt. 'Mine is Mius.V
Ann. I'm Sheila's cousin on her moth-
er^ side. I think thl, is a great lark-
don t you?*'
"I can tell better after it's over." |
said. "Maybe we'll have to stav here
all night."
"I shouldn't mind." she came back
airily "I haaan't been up all night
since I was a little kiddie and our
house bunied down."
We reached the big water tank, and
the boss picked out one of the square
footing timbers for a seat. It seemed
said :
And
ments on the foolishness oTwomen fln<,,ne ,f
as a sex trailing along behind him as
he new.
Right then It was my golden moment
to play safl> and sane. With three of
them off and lost in the gathering
night, aotaebody with at least a grain
of sense ought to hare Mood by to
harder to get acquainted with his half
of the combination than I was w th
mine but after a little the voun-
man thawed out a bit and made" b'm
talk-to help pass away the tin,... I
the ,ltt" *,rt and '
and listened. When the young w
pull the emergency cord if the train "! b^r "^i ,,art'Nl- 'be boss told
should start. But. of ,-ourse. I had to rallr, JdmT" m"Hf' how hed
take a chance and spill the gravv .n ! IS ,h<" '«*t college.
over the tablecloth. The stop was at I J - - of things that I'd never exen
. blind .tiling » lhf
tain desert, and when I squinted up 1
ahead and saw that the engine was !
taking water. It looked as If there
were going to be plenly of time f„r a I
bit of promenade under the stars So ' not l,» .nit tJ '
izroff "n,, ^ j wb^jrv zSLzrzz.::*:
Amon«st them, tber had fon— ,k. I "5? dldn t .aw
ty woman can make a mangum hhn-
self inside out that way. just for her
amusement.
The bos* asked her if ahe were
wan i enough, saying that If she were
had whipped the young woman over
the big footing timber to a standing
place under the tank among the
braces, and I had done the same for
the girl.
What foUowed was as mysterious
as a chapter out of an Anna Katherine
Green detective story. After doing
something to the switch of the unused
spur track, the four men separated. One
of them went buck to the auto, and
the other three walked down the main
track to the lower switch of the short
siding, which was on the same side of
the main line, as the spur. Here the
fourth man rejoined them, and the
girl at my elbow told us what he had
gone back to the tar for.
"He has lighted a red lantern." she
whispered. "I saw it when lie took
it out of the auto."_
I guess it was pretty plain to all of
us by this time that there was some-
thing decidedly crooked on the cards,
but if we had known what it was. we
couldn't very well have done anything
to prevent It. There were only two
of us men to their four; and, besides
there wasn't any time. The lantern-
carrying man bad barely reached the
lower switch when we heard the whis-
tle of a locomotive. There was a train
coming from 'he west, and a few se<s
onds later an electric headlight showed
up on the long tangent beyond the
siding.
It was a bandit hold-up. all right
One of the men stood on the track
waving the red lantern; we could see
him plainly in the glare of the head- 1
light. ~~
ICE USERS NOTICE
l
Phone 79 for Your Ice Requirements
You will find us at the Altus Ice Cream
Co. from 6 a. m., to 8 p. m.
OTY KE DELIVERY 00.
I Announcement
aaceeiMloa
cave tae a
ticketed te
pillow thing before I had" a i I?.r 'haf "" nl*bt waa*'t
tuck, and the I«mm bad each th. a "**' human rt
two h. - _ *Th "f tbr down to the tin, of her
two by an arm and was telling them
that they'd be left to a dead moral
<*rtat»ty If they didn't run They
coolda t ran b~aa»e their oklrta were
CaahMaabi/ narrow, and there *a«
"Too ma;
she 'old rfii
to the
The ho**
at
she
clear
tip* of her pretty Angara
tf you want to."
**T «hs*n"{ nMnd ft
I
**ed fe'e cigar Thea
Before you could count ten they had
made a dying switch with the single
car. kicking It In On the siding. Before
the car had come fully to a stop, the
engine was switched la behind it. cou- , i
pled oo. and the reversed train, wtth I
the engine pushing the car. rattled , •
^ **>ur th*t l*d Off into
the hilla; clattered away and was 1<
to sight and hearing in less than
ml—tai
ft was
We wish to announce that we have taken j
over the Morgan Grocery Co., at II 2 S. Main !
St., and solicit a liberal shcye of your patron- jj
The store will be run on strictly cash bas- f
is. You will find the price and service right. |
We quote below a few of our specials: |
| 4 lbs. best Peabody Coffee $1.00 ■
I Sun Gold Flour, per sack *_ 275i
~ 2.25 I
.75 I
1.00 f
i.oo I
1.00 =
.10 I
.75 |
U5
1.15 |
.10 \
i Golden Grain Flour, per sack
- Best Corn Meal, 25 lb. sack
I 20 bars Laundry Soap
| 1 4 lbs. Pinto Beans _
I 14 lbs. Rice
SS- f No- 2 Snow Ball Corn, percan" 1111 11
and then, as near as we could make ! | Koyal OOrghum, per gal.
ss r11 Can ,syruP. per gai::::::::::
| Mrs. Tucker s Shortening, large size
Chum Salmon, per can
to jj
J
aatll after the train was i I
•a itched and gone that ae d.acvtarad
A. Mollouf
PHONE 58
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Forgy, Burney B. Altus Times-Democrat (Altus, Okla.), Vol. 19, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 7, 1921, newspaper, April 7, 1921; Altus, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc287368/m1/3/: accessed April 24, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.