Page:Cy Warman--The express messenger and other tales of the rail.djvu/139

Rh "What time did you pass the spur?" demanded the Colonel.

"Precisely at 5-55," said the conductor, now somewhat alarmed at the manager's air.

"Is there a siding between here and Coyote?" asked the Colonel, and the superintendent, being at a loss to make out what the manager was driving at, started to leave the car, but was called back.

"There is not," was the conductor's reply.

"Perhaps," said the Colonel, "there was not when we went down, but there is now, for I saw a locomotive standing there."

The conductor laughed as the superintendent had done, but the Colonel offered to risk a case of champagne that he had seen no ghost train, and the superintendent took the bet as the easiest way of settling an argument which was about to become embarrassing.

When the special reached Green River the party went into the eating-house, where supper had been ordered, and, as was his habit, the Colonel sat at the same table with the train and engine crew.

"What did you shut off for just this side of