udge. A big crowd
of men and women stood around jeering and laughing at the plight of the
bluecoats. Pushing his way through the crowd, Jack climbed up into the
cab closely followed by his little escort.

"Sergeant Fealy," he said in a voice loud enough to be heard a block,
"get up on that tender, have your men load their rifles, and shoot the
first d----d man that raises a hand or throws a missile. And you," this
to the engineer, "shove that reverse lever over and pull out."

"But, my God, lieutenant," expostulated the engineer, "this is my home
and if I pull you fellers out of here they'll kill me on sight--besides
look at the track ahead. I'd run over and kill a lot of those people."

"There's no 'buts' about it. This train is going in or I'll lose my
commission in the army; besides if these people haven't sense enough to
get out of the way let 'em die."

Mr. Engineer started to expostulate farther but the ominous click of a
.38 Colt's was incentive enough to make him stop and then he shoved her
over and gave her a little steam--just a coaxer.

"Here, you blasted chump, that won't do," and with that Brainerd reached
over and yanked the throttle so that she bounded away like a hare; at
the same time he gave her sand. It's a great wonder every draw head in
the train didn't pull out, but fortunately they held on. The crowd on
the track melted away like the mists before the summer's sun, and beyond
a few taunting jeers no overt act was committed. The engineer didn't
relish the idea of a soldier running his engine and became somewhat
obstreperous. Brainerd grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and landed
him all in a heap in the coal. Then he climbed up on the right-hand side
of the cab and took charge of things himself. There were myriads of
tracks stretching out before him like the long arms of some giant
octopus, but all traffic was suspended on account of the strike and the
main line was clear. The train flew down the line like a scared rabbit
and in thirty minutes reached the camp at Blake Park. I had arrived
there that morning from the south for special service and when I saw
Brainerd climb down off of that engine his face was smutty, but his eyes
twinkled and he came towards me with a broad grin and said,

"Hello, Bates, where in thunder did you spring from?"

There wasn't much time for talking because the great city was groaning
beneath the grasp of anarchy, and until that power was broken, there
would be n