ing to shake him from her. Once he had lost his
footing on the running board and only saved himself by clinging to the
hand rail while the rolling steed beat and thrashed him against her iron
side.

"Never ask me to do that again," he shouted, as he shook his clenched
fist at the engineer. The latter laughed, then asked:

"Why?"

"Because it is dangerous; I nearly lost my life."

"And what if you had?" said the engineer, and he laughed again. "Why,
don't you know that thousands would rejoice at the news of your death
and scarcely a man would mourn? Don't you know that at thousands of
supper-tables to-night, working men who could afford to buy an evening
paper read your name and cursed you before their wives and children?
Nearly lost your life! Poor, miserable, contemptible scab."

"Never apply that name to me again!" shouted Guerin, and this time it
was not his fist but the coal-pick he shoved up into the very face of
the engineer.

"Why?"

"Because it is dangerous; you nearly lost _your_ life."

The engineer made no reply.

"And what if you had?" the fireman went on, for it was his turn to talk
now.

"If my action makes me contemptible in the eyes of men, how much more
contemptible must yours make you? I take the place of a stranger--you
the place of a friend; a man who has educated you, who has taught you
all you know about this machine. Right well I know how I shall be hated
by the dynamiters who are blowing up bridges and burning cars, and I
tell you now that it does not grieve me. Can you say as much? Here's a
copy of the message that went out to your miserable little world
to-night--read it, it will do you good. I fancy your friends will be too
busy cursing you this evening to devote any time to mere strangers."

Cowels took the message with a jerk, turned the gauge lamp to his corner
and read:

The Denver Limited left to-night, two hours late, Fireman George
Cowels as engineer, and Time-keeper Guerin as fireman. Cowels is the
man who wanted the grand master thrown out of a hall in Chicago. He
was a great labor agitator and his desertion is a great surprise.

HOGAN.

_Later_--It is now understood that Cowels, the scab who went out on
engine Blackwings to-night, was bought outright by a Burlington
detective. This fact makes his action all the more contemptible. He
is now being burned in effigy on the lake front, and the police are
busy trying to keep an inf