Page:Cy Warman--The express messenger and other tales of the rail.djvu/247

Rh that was the last Jones heard of the order to discharge him, for the conductor was too proud to report the fact that a little man weighing less than one hundred and forty pounds had cleaned out the crew with his naked hands. The story of this fight and how it came about was related to the writer by the travelling engineer himself.

"We've got a cranky engineer," the old brakeman had said to the new brake man, who boasted that he was off the stormy division of the "Q," and that he had not yet met an engineer who could tame him. "The only way you can handle him is to go at him dead hard from the jump; cuss him good and plenty, and, if necessary, thump him, and he 'll be your friend."

"Cussin's like walkin to me," said the "Q" man, "and when it comes to a scrap, that's me Prince Albert," and he went up to the head end. When he had arrived at a point immediately under the cab window, he began a torrent of blankety blanking that made the engineer dart his head out of the window to see what was the matter. The moment that