three years old tonight. She's a Christmas eve girl, an' has got blue eyes an' gold curls, too," said Hank, reading the message.

"So has mine, and she, too, was born three years ago tonight-and, engineer, I love her. Say that you will make The Forks on time and the hundred is yours."

"An' you bet I love my little kid, mister," said Hank, "an' in a case like this I'd make The Forks on time if I lost forty jobs."

Dell True, the conductor, came over with a clearance card and orders to meet No. 91, the local, at Emby and an extra at Hadley. After reading them to his engineer he said, "Remember, old man, not one minute better than running time today."

"Say, Dell, if I get to goin' too fast, don't you pull the air on me. I'm goin' in on time! This man's little three-year-old girl is dyin' an' I'm goin' to get him to her as fast as Nancy can turn 'em; so don't stop me-it's my job an' not yours that'll be lost."

Dell tried to remonstrate, but no, Hank had his mind made up-and when that particular engineer made up his mind that he would play, he would play if it cost his life. Dell knew it. All who were acquainted with Hank knew it. They left just one hour late, and from the start Dell and the anxious passenger knew their engineer had meant what he said. The schedule of No. 12 was twenty-five miles an hour, but they were soon touching a forty mile gaitHank taking advantage of every stretch of good track.

The coaches plunged and rocked frightfully.

Everybody was tossed about in a reckless manner. On the engine Bud Wells went through all the movements of an acrobat in trying to guide each scoop of coal to the fire-box door. Hank held to the throttle with one hand and to the arm rest with the other and raised himself from the seat with every wild plunge of the 391. She would raise to the right, then to the left, and throw herself, with all her heavy weight, to the track again, while mud and water, squeezed from the ties

and roadbed, shot up and over machinery and coaches until, before they had traveled ten miles, they were coated heavily from truck to roof. They passed a section crew at Hazel siding. The men ran for the right-of-way fences as they saw the track sinking in front of the wildly coming train. Even to the fences reached the mud and water, while the track behind the train looked like a snake.

At Emby, the first telegraph station, the local crew did the same as the section men. They ran for the fences and the operator swore ever afterward that the whole right side of the engine and train was off the rail and in the air when it passed the depot.

At Classen the order board was out. Hank was hot all over the moment he saw it and before the train came to a dead stop he was chasing Dell into the office. The agent handed this message to Dell: "Is Engineer Tulits crazy? Answer at once. A. B." Hank wrote the answer: "No, I'm not crazy. Tulits." "Say, operator, got any more orders for us?" shouted Hank.

"No, only your message. 'A. B.' is hostile to think you are bustin' his slow orders," answered the operator. At the last word the engineer grabbed the clearance card and ran for the engine. Dell heard him call, "Come on, cap, I'm goin'."

Now, to buck a dispatcher and disregard his slow orders, to grab clearances without knowing positively that there were no more orders, to leave town without the proper signal from the conductor, and to run at such reckless speed over such bad track was more than Dell could stand. But the train was moving and he had just time to catch the last open vestibule. When Hank saw his "Cap'n" safely on he yanked the throttle open and with a mighty bound the 391 responded. Dell would have pulled the air, but he remembered that it was Hank's job and not his. Trusting that the dispatcher would not turn any train loose until Tulits had been caught for sure, he sat down in one of the seats and rubbed his face with his hands.

Twenty miles more and Hadley came in sight. Here they meet the extra, just pulling in on the siding, and were to take coal and water. Again the order board confronted them. Dell, white with rage, brought this message to Hank: "Codr. True and Engr. Tulits. Why do you persist in disregarding my slow orders? Call at my

office on your arrival. A. B."

Hank coolly penciled this underneath "A. B.'s" message: "Will bust all rules and slow orders. Case of life and death. Don't bother any more. Tulits," and followed to the depot to find out more about orders, where he again grabbed the clearance card, ran to his engine and was under way. He was looking more determined than ever as he said to Wells: "Might as well be ditched for a mogul as a peanut roaster. I'm fired any way, but if nothing happens, even if I have to bust the whole time card an' the constitution of the United States, I'll get that man to his Chicago train on time. Yes, I'm fired all right." He lighted his pipe as a sort of consolation.

Thirty miles more of rocking and plunging and baptism of mud and water with no let up. At Ecken Hank expected to again be stopped and questioned by the dispatcher, but the board was “in” and with a bang they rushed by the depot, over the crossings and on to the last twenty five miles of the run. The dispatcher had evidently thought Hank crazy, but on getting his message from Hadley decided to give him clear sailing, which was taken advantage of. Ecken was the last telegraph office on the branch, and now Hank more than turned things loose. In almost as many minutes as there were miles did he make The Forks, dropping down Salmots hill like a demon. With a long pull at the chime whistle, he let every one know that No. 12 was coming and would be there on time.

At the depot were the superintendent, the master mechanic and the chief dispatcher-all there to discharge the en

gineer. Nancy stopped in the train shed with her nose to the bunting post. In an instant the officials were in the cab and Hank heard from their own lips. that he was discharged-fired-canned!

"Couldn't help it; 'twas a case of life an' death," he said, as he got down on the left side of his engine and nervously felt all the bearings. As he stepped to the right side he met face to face the man for whose sake he had lost his job.

"Say, mister, I-I-I'm fired! I got you here on time. There's your train, an' I hope you'll find that kid of yours alive -but I-II'm fired though," he stuttered.

The officials saw this stranger hand Hank a purse and with it a small white card, and heard him say, "If they won't put you back to work when you show them this card, let me know. God bless you, Tulits, and may you have a merry Christmas," and with a hearty hand shake he ran across the platforms and boarded the Chicago train.

Hank looked at the purse and then at the card in a dreamy sort of way and muttered: "One hundred dollars an' a white card for my job! Guess I was an easy mark sure enough. Poor starter for next year's Christmas." He turned the card over, then right side up, and read:

The next day after Christmas, when Hank was getting ready to leave The Forks with No. 11, the office boy handed him a letter from Mr. Cazzler, saying in part:

"Baby alive and improving. Here is a small shin plaster for the sore spots on your body from that fierce ride of yours day before yesterday," and the rough old engineer had just time to wipe away a tear and hide the new hundred dollar check in his wallet, when Dell called out, "Bo-o-o-ard!"

For nearly twenty years the question of automatic block system as a preventive of railway wrecks has been before the International Railway Congress. It is to be discussed again at the coming May session in Washington, the initial report to be presented by C. H. Platt, general superintendent of the western district of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. It is of very great interest in view of the widespread newspaper discussion of block signals in connection with recent railway accidents, to refer to the previous actions already taken on this subject by the International Congress-the highest and most authoritative railway body in the world.

Automatic block signalling was first suggested as a subject of inquiry at the Brussels Congress in 1885. The question was discussed at St. Petersburg in 1892, at London in 1895, and at Paris in 1900.

These conclusions were reached by the St. Petersburg Congress: "With regard to the use of apparatus arranged so that the trains themselves work the block apparatus, the section considers that the question should be left open until further data are obtained. With respect to apparatus which are entirely automatic, it is the opinion of the Congress that it would not be possible to rely on their working for ensuring safety."

The London Congress gave this official endorsement: "Two block systems are in force, automatic and non-automatic; those who have employed the automatic block system maintain that it gives sufficient security, and they have supplied proofs in support of their statement. On single lines the automatic system gives security for both up and down traffic."

So far the Congress has been extremely careful, almost timid, in its utterances on this subject. At the Paris session in 1900 greater experience seems to have made the officials more certain, at least the Congress gave this lengthy decision: "Two quite distinct arrange

ments have been tried; the one consists of insulated contacts scattered over the track, permitting separate or continuous block operations to be effected, such as announcing trains, clearing signals and setting signals to danger and clearing sections; the other consists of an insulated track arranged with a view to obtaining complete working of all block operations, with or without the assistance of the signalmen.

"In so far as 'prohibitive contacts' are concerned, the Congress appreciating the advantages which may arise from the use of such contacts, which merely prevent the signalmen from clearing a section before the train has actually left it, is of opinion that it is essential that the system should ensure that: (1) The block system can not be cleared before the last vehicle of the train has left the section; (2) the block cannot be cleared before the last train, which may have been permitted to enter a section, has actually left the section, that is to say, that it shall be impossible by the use of a fixed contact to avoid covering any train; (3) in stations and at junctions, the use and position of the contacts should be arranged to meet the. requirements of the traffic, so as to avoid giving rise to difficulty in the service or disturbance in the working of the block system, and this should be attained without the intervention of a complicated system of keys or other source of weakness; (4) on single lines, the automatic action of the trains on the same contacts should be distinct for each direction of running; (5) that the movement of men and trolleys should be without action on the block system and more particularly incapable of clearing the block.

"In respect to the absolute automatic block, intended to dispense with human labor, the Congress, while appreciating the theoretical advantages which may arise from the use of the insulated track in order to meet the requirements named above, considers that it would be premature to formulate a definite opinion