me parts of it are worse than
others, naturally; but no part of it, to the last inch of its
single-tracked mileage, is pretty--leaving out the scenery, which is
_grand_. That is the Hill Division.

And the men who man the shops, who pull the throttles on the big,
ten-wheel mountain racers, who swing the pick and shovels in the
lurching cabs, who do the work about the yards, or from the cupola of a
caboose stare out on a string of wriggling flats, boxes and gondolas,
and, at night-time, watch the high-flung sparks sail heavenward, as the
full, deep-chested notes of the exhaust roar an accompaniment in their
ears, are men with calloused, horny hands, toilers, grimy of face and
dress, rough if you like, not gentle of word, nor, sometimes, of
action--but men whose hearts are big and right, who look you in the
face, and the grip of whose paws, as they are extended after a hasty
cleansing on a hunk of more or less greasy waste, is the grip of men.

Many of these have lived their lives, done their work, passed on, and
left no record, barely a memory, behind them, as other men in other
places and in other spheres of work have done and always will do; but
others, for this or that, by circumstance, or personality, or
opportunity, have woven around themselves the very legends and
traditions of their environment.

And so these are the stories of the Hill Division and of the men who
wrought upon it; the stories of those days when it was young and in the
making; the stories of the days when Carleton, "Royal" Carleton, was
superintendent, when gruff, big-hearted, big-paunched Tommy Regan was
master mechanic, when the grizzled, gray-streaked Harvey was division
engineer, and little Doctor McTurk was the Company surgeon, and Riley
was the trainmaster, and Spence was the chief despatcher; the stories
of men who have done brave duty and come to honor and glory and their
reward--and the stories of some who have gone into Division for the
last time on orders from the Great Trainmaster, and who will never
railroad any more.

F. L. P.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I THE NIGHT OPERATOR
II OWSLET AND THE 1601
III THE APOTHEOSIS OF SAMMY DURGAN
IV THE WRECKING BOSS
V THE MAN WHO SQUEALED
VI THE AGE LIMIT
VII "THE DEVIL AND ALL HIS WORKS"
VIII ON THE NIGHT WIRE
IX THE OTHER FELLOW'S JOB
X THE RAT RIVER SPECIAL

THE NIGHT OPERATOR

I

THE NIGHT OPERATOR

Toddles, in the beginning,