CHAPTER II.

Scarcely had the youth left the railroad company's headquarters, when a

tall, spare man, with faultless dress and cleanly-shaven face, entered

the apartment, going straight to the superintendent's desk, smiling and

nodding to the clerks as he passed them.

He was Donald Minturn, the assistant superintendent, who had a smile for

every one, but as treacherous as the charm of the serpent.

"Hilloa Minturn!" greeted his chief; "you are back sooner than I

expected. By-the-way, you must have met a boy as you came in. He was

after a situation, and I was careless enough not to ask him his name.

Call him back if it is not too late. I think we might do worse than--"

"What!" exclaimed Mr. Minturn, "has that fellow had the audacity to come

here for another job? He has been discharged from his section this very

week."

"Then you know him, Minturn? Come to think of it, he told me so. How

stupid I am to-day! What is his name?"

"That he couldn't have told you himself, if you had asked him, general.

He is a sort of waif of the switch-yard. Jack Ingleside--you knew

Jack--he was engineer on the old Greyhound, afterwards took to drink and

went to the bad--well, as I started to say, Jack found this boy in the

caboose one morning as he was starting from Wood's Hollow. He wasn't

more than three years old, and how he got there is yet a mystery. Jack

took a fancy to him and gave him a home while he lived. I think the

young scamp still lives with the widow at Runaway Tavern."

"He seems like a more than commonly smart boy."

"Oh, he can appear well enough when he is a mind to. But Mr. Gammon had

to turn him off of his section for downright disobedience of orders.

Why, only yesterday he and a man named Baxter jumped on to the hand-car

in the very teeth of the northern-bound mail, and came very near

wrecking the train, to say nothing of ending their own worthless lives."

"Oh, well, if you know the boy, of course you are more competent to

judge of him than I. But I must confess he impressed me very favorably.

What news from Draco?"

So the august officials of the great Pen Yan gave no employment to the

poor boy who had come so far for a situation, whether he deserved a

better fate or not.

Meanwhile, the boy, unconscious that his fate had already been decided

upon, hastened to the Fairfax Station, to take the homeward-bound train,

which would be due in a few minutes.

The Pen Yan railway system forms upon the map of that part of the

country a stupendous letter Y. The Fairfax Fork running north-northwest

makes one branch of the arm meeting at the Big Y, as the junction is

called--the line of the upper arm, where the two tracks unite in one to

reach across a mountainous, often sparsely-settled, country for over

three hundred miles. At the time we write it was a single-track road

from the Big Y to its terminus.

The boy had to wait but a little while for the accommodation, which was

on time, and stepping aboard, he was soon homeward bound. He was

absorbed in meditations when he was roused from his rather unpleasant

reverie by the voice of the conductor, who had taken a seat near by him

to chat a few minutes with a friend.

"It is a strange coincidence, Sam, and it puts me in mind of an

adventure I had several years ago, and which came near punching my

through ticket."

"An adventure, Henry? Give us the story."

"As soon as we have passed Greenburn. I shall have plenty of leisure

then."

Without dreaming how soon he should recall it with startling vividness,

our hero, with a boy's interest, listened to the conductor's story:

"Ten years ago I was engineer on the Tehicipa and Los Angeles Road, a

branch of the Southern Pacific. Those were troublesome times. What with

the guerillas and Indians that infested the country, to say nothing of

other dangers, we never knew when we were safe, if we ever were.

[Illustration {map}]

"One evening--just about such an evening as this, too--we had barely

stopped at a way station when some one rushed up to the train and said

Gray Gerardo's band was coming to attack us.

"Gerardo was considered the worst desperado in that lawless country, and

knowing we had a lot of the yellow ore on board, I knew the outlaw was

after it.

"The conductor cut our stop short, but before I could get under way the

outlaws were upon us. From their sounds one would have thought all the

fiends from the lower world had been let loose.

"The boys fought like tigers, and it was a wild scene for a few minutes.

My fireman--a plucky little fellow he was, too--was snatched from my

very side, and with a volley of shot whistling about my head, I was

pulled from the cab.

"The wheels had begun to revolve and the train was moving on. Struggling

desperately with my captors, I succeeded in breaking from them and

sprang back upon the engine. Three or four of the outlaws followed me,

and among them was Gerardo himself, whom I knew by sight.

"He was a tall, stalwart fellow, with burning black eyes, and a

countenance that would have been handsome, had it not been for a long

scar under his right jaw. It looked like a sabre-wound, and quite

spoiled the beauty of that side of the face.

"Well, knowing it was life or death with me, I pitched one after another

of those fellows off the cab, until only Gerardo was left. It surprises

me now that I could have done it; but a man never knows his strength

until put to the test. Then, you see, being on my own footing gave me an

advantage, while some of them, losing their hold on the moving engine,

fell off without any assistance of mine.

"I grappled with Gerardo, just as he was boarding the cab and before he

could establish his position, I hurled him, heels over head, down the

side of the track. At the same moment, however, I heard a sharp report

and felt a stinging sensation in my right arm, where the outlaw's bullet

had struck me.

"The firing had nearly ceased at the rear of the train, and feeling that

in another minute we should be safe, I sprang to the lever and threw the

valve wide open. With snorts and shrieks of defiance to our enemies, the

old engine obeyed me, soon gaining a rate of speed which I knew would

out-distance the baffled outlaws, whose yells I could still hear above

the thunder of the train.

"As my excitement abated my arm began to pain me fearfully, and I found

the member disabled for further use. My fireman gone, my situation was

critical, and I was wondering how the rest of the boys had fared when I

heard some one behind me.

"Half expecting to meet one of the outlaws, I turned, and was glad to

see one of the brakemen, who had come to my assistance.

"'We have repulsed them, but they are following us,' he said, in reply

to my anxious questions.

"'Well, let them follow,' I answered, 'if they think they can overtake

my Bonny Bess. Give her more fuel, Ned. You will have to be my--'

"I did not finish my sentence, for at that moment, as we shot around a

curve, great tongues of fire leaped from the track ahead of us. It was a

bridge in a blaze of flame, and in the light of the burning structure I

saw a dozen of Gerardo's band waiting our coming.

"We were going at lightning-like speed, and we were within twenty rods

of the fire when I discovered it, so I had no time to hesitate upon my

course of action. Quick as a flash I realized the trap Gerardo had

laid--our situation. To stop was to throw ourselves into the hands of

his followers, which meant death. The bridge was still standing. It

might hold us to cross over. There was at least a chance. To stop was

hopeless.

"All this seemed to come to me at one thought. I would keep on. Bonny

Bess was doing her prettiest and I gave her a free bit; that is, in our

parlance, 'linked her up.' My left hand was on the lever and my gaze was

fixed on the burning bridge, which hung, a network of fire, over the

glowing river, thirty feet below.

"I heard the shouts of the amazed outlaws above the roar of the train,

and then I felt the bridge quiver and tremble beneath me, as we were

borne over its swaying spans, amid a cloud of ashes, smoke and cinders,

which fairly blinded me.

"The blazing girders overhead sent out their forked tongues of fire,

and from the timbers below leaped up the sheets of flame until we were

enveloped in the fiery shroud. Blinded, stifled for a moment, I then

felt the cool night air fan my face, and the engine no longer shook as

if upon uncertain footing.

"We had passed the bridge in safety, and I drew a breath of relief. Then

another curve in the track brought us into full view of the burning

structure, and feeling we were now safe from pursuit, I checked the

engine's speed, so we could watch the fire.

"We hadn't watched long before a cloud of sparks flew into the darkness,

and one span of the doomed bridge fell into the water. The other must

soon follow.

"I felt a dizziness creeping over me then, and the next I knew I was

lying on the ground, with an anxious circle of men and women bending

over me. You see my arm had been bleeding all of the time, and the loss

of blood, with the strain of the awful ordeal, had been too much for me.

"But my arm had been bandaged, and I was soon able to resume my old

post, which I did, running the train to Los Angeles without further

adventure.

"Strange enough, Gerardo and his followers were not seen after that

night. But I had got tired of that country, and I soon after came up

this way. I have never regretted it, either.

"But now comes the strange part of my story, and which recalled my

adventure so vividly. There is a man on this train who is the exact

image of Gerardo!"

"Whew!" exclaimed the other. "Do you really think it is he?"

"I can't say. The likeness is perfect, even to the scar."

"I have heard of cases where two persons looked so much alike you could

not tell them apart."

"Very true, and this may be one of them. There is a slight difference

here, too, for this man wears side-whiskers. But his beard is not heavy

enough to conceal the scar."

"Do you remember where he is going?"

"To Woodsville; and he inquired for Jack Ingleside. Seemed surprised

when I told him Jack was dead. Said he was a relative, and he asked all

about the family. Here we are at the Big Y. This is as far as I go."