anyone there Bentonville
would cut us through. This was seldom necessary, however, because there
were only two trains daily, a combination freight and passenger each
way. The last station this side of Sandia was Alexis. The state
penitentiary was located there, and the telegraphing was done by a
convict "trusty"--a man who, having been appointed cashier of a big
freight office in the western part of the state, couldn't stand
prosperity, and, in consequence, had been sent up for six years. His
conduct had been so good that, after he had served four years inside of
the walls, he was made a "trusty." His ability as an operator was
extraordinary. He had a smooth easy way of sending that made his sending
as plain as a circus bill.

The two branch trains on the branch were known as 61 and 62, and one day
62, running north in the morning, had jumped the track laying herself
out about ten hours. When she left Sandia as 61 on her return trip
south, she again went off the track and the result was sixteen hours'
more delay. We wouldn't send a wrecker up from the main line, and they
had to work out their own salvation. When they finally appeared at
Alexis they were running on the time of 62. That would never do, and the
conductor asked the operator at Alexis to get him orders to run to
Bentonville regardless of No. 62. Burke, my second trick man, was on
duty at the time, and it so chanced that he did not know the Alexis man
was a convict. He was about to give the order asked for when something
on the main line diverted him for a moment. When he was ready again,
Alexis broke him and said, "Wait a minute."

To tell a despatcher to wait a minute when he is sending a train order
is to court sudden death, and Burke said, "Wait for what?"

"For whatever you blame please, I'm going out to weigh this coal."

Burke's Irish blood was all up in his head by this time, and he said:
"What do you mean by talking that way to me? No. 61 is waiting for this
'9'; now you copy and I'll get your time sent you in the morning."

"Oh! will you? I guess my time is all fixed so you can't touch it. I
only wish you could; I'd like mighty well to be fired from this job; I
wouldn't even wait for my pay."

I had been sitting at my desk taking it all in, and was just about
ready to expire with laughter, when Burke called over to me: "Did you
hear that young fellow's impudence?"

"Yes, I heard."

"Well, what are you going to do about it? I've never had a