Page:Panama-past-present-Bishop.djvu/242

222 a locomotive, but in a swift automobile mounted on flanged wheels, that looks like a taxicab disguised as a switch-engine. This motor-car is painted the regulation light yellow of Panama Railroad passenger-coaches, and you can scare a shirker out of a wet-season's growth by yelling, "Here comes the Yellow Peril!" But when the



Yellow Peril—also known as the "Brain Wagon"—does come by, as likely as not it is empty; for the General frequently drops off to take a closer look at a steam-shovel, or a group of compressed-air drills, or a new drainage-ditch, or anything else that has attracted his interest. Presently he will come past, perched on top of a loaded dirt train, or walking at a good swinging pace over rough railroad ties and slippery fragments of