Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 109: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

____ WITHOUT GLOVES. At the ee Pap ‘Hickman, Coughlan o another fell in behind the boss. Leonard turned and ran in the opposite direction. For just an imstant the men paused to watch the fleeing figure. Sam King laughed aloud, and turning, made for the shelter of the timber. Coughlan cursed under his breath, and old Pap Hickman chuckled. : As they passed the empty flats the top loader shouldered a pinch-bar. “The roof’s beginnin’ te burn!” eried Hickman, pointing to the little red flames that licked at the edges of the car roof. But the roar of flames in the hay shed drowned his words. Neely sprang for the ladder at the end of the car. “Tl let off the brakes!” he shouted. “Vou. boys shove!” A bright light— brighter, whiter than the red light of the flaming hay—shot across the rolling smoke clouds, accompanied by a noise that drowned the crackling of the flames. _ The _ ™en turned to see the tracter rounding the blazing hay shed. “My God!” cried Coughlan. “ He can’t git through there! It ‘Il cock him!” ““Go back! Go back!” yelled Neely, dancing about on top of the car; but the tractor came on, and the next moment was lost in a sheet of smoke and flame that whipped around the corner of the shed. The next instant it reappeared and, without stopping, cut around the end of the car and took its place on the track. With a whoop, the third man who had followed Neely seized the chain that dragged at the trac- _tor’s draw-bar, and made it fast to the box Car. Shielding himself as best he could from the flames, Coughlan set his pinch-bar beneath a wheel, The brakeshoes.slackened creakily. “Let ’er go!” roared Neely; and clam- bering down the ladder, he placed his shoul- der to a wheel. The tractor’s exhaust roared. Coughlan bore down on his pinch- bar. The men pushed and strained. And the car moved! Slowly at first, then faster, until it was clear of the flaming shed.. A hundred feet down the track Neely applied the brakes, while Coughlan and the others blocked the wheels. The tractor eame to 579 a halt, and all- hands attacked the blazing roof of the car with snow. It was but the work of a few minutes to extinguish the blaze, and when the last spark went black the men stood and erinned into each other’s faces.. ‘ Where’s the other feller?” ed Neely, glancing about him. As if in answer to the question, a man stepped around the corner of the car. It was Andy Moore, and his grin was the broadest grin of all as Coughlan gripped his hand.. ‘“‘ Well, I'l be damned!” quoth Coughlan, as the other hand came to rest on Leonard’s shoulder. - » “We couldn’t of made it without the ingyne, greener,” said Moore, and turned abruptly: to Neely. “ Say, boss, if I should happen to quit up to Number Nine, would you give me a job? I kind of like the work down here better, an’ besides they’s a few things about this here fightin’ game I want to learn if the greener a Wise me up to em. 77. ~ Neely liad “Try it an’ see,” he said. “I don’t never hire men offen an- other man’s crew—but if a man should happen to quit, that’s different. ’ CHAPTER XX. THE NEW FOREMAN. ESS than a week after Christmas three . men stepped from the caboose of the log train at Number Eight and in- quired for Sam King. One man carried a tripod and a black case, another a slidmg rod fitted with a painted target, and three pairs of snowshoes, while the third carried a thin metal chain and a huge suit case. Neely forwarded them to Number Nine, via an empty log sled pens Leonard’s tractor. ‘“ Surveyin’?” asked the greener, by way of friendly conversation as the outfit moved slowly up the log road. “No, not exactly,” answered the man with the tripod. ‘“Gomg to run some levels.” “ Railroad?” == “No. I don’t know exactly what is wanted. Mr. Blodgett told us to report to Ol =COMICHOO S (EC) = =