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OU R SHORT STORY

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OU R SHORT STORY .V: SWIFT JIMMY'S FAST BUS. His name ■was Pete—just plain Pete—this I descendant of Ham; this destroyer of men's reason and fatbth in humanity. I was suspicious yof him from the beginning. He had 3,' peculiar look in his eye, and when he smiled and showed is double row of ivory that one would give five .iyeaM of his Life for, you would be thoroughly '•conviine^d that underneath it all was a settled t-purpose to rob you of your soul before he left you. I lighted, a cigar, jpicked up my bog; and started) for the depot. "Hold' on boss 'till I light dis yer lantern, and ru tote dat grip for yo' I waited until he had lighted his lantern- old, bartered and) greasy-and altogether we .started. It was only a block to the station, and ;it was half an hour until train time, but I did not purpose to"tpe-nd that' half hour in that hotel if I could heip it. The memory of a supper that was enough to break the rivets of a cast- aron oonstitutkm still haunted me-a. horrible nightm ana.—in itself sufficient to drive a man anywhere. At the depot I found the usual crowd of darky loungers—you always tind them there, regardless of time or weather. Some sat propped up against the building, others lay at full length on the .platform, sprawled out in all kinds off positions. Besides the door hung the old square depot light, three sides glass and one aide tin, with a dirty kerosene lamp inside it. It w said that Dumas pere inherited his great powe-r of imagination from his negro ancestors. It must be true, for a. diarky is nothing if not imaginative, and for a crowd to get together Swithout trying to see who can spin the biggest yam is an impossibility. This crowd proved ro eSceptioETto thgrtcle, and were in the thick of the fray when. Ave arrived. I did not wart 'to cast a damper on their enjoyment, so retired into the shadow, seating myself on a truck, my ears open, and quietly puffing my cigar listened. Pete joined the crowd, sitting down on the edge of th< platform. He raised up his old lantern, be looked intently at the blaze a moment, as if for in^tpiration* and set it down again. The subject under consideration was foot-racing, and <i fellow whose name proved to be 110.1". had just finished! telling of ,JI, "lightning sprinter he "tnowed obec in Loo zi. anna." Pete turned around and cleared1 hw ifh-rna-i. The crowd settled back in re-ipwtful silen-cs—they knew Pete. He gave one quick look in my direction, then, turning his eyes towards his fellows, said ''You call him. a, runner. Say! You don't know a runner if you seed 'im. Did: you ebber known Swift Jimmy, who usier pull ol' 151 obec on de Cotton Belt ? What, nebber did i' Say, whar you been all your life: nebber been outen dis yer town ob Cactus since yo' was bo'n. has you? "Xow, nigger, listen to me. I knowed Jimmy when I was in San Tone, ebber since "Pete." t was no biggern dat," raising hi.'? hand about two feet above the platform. "He was a sprinter, he was. Jes wait -till I done tol' vo' aIbout jes one ob his runs I knows about his makin'. Dis yer ain't no lie w'at I'se cjibin.' you, kase I was dar and w'en I sees a thing I sses it. It was one night, just about like tms, only de moon was a shinin' an' ol' 151 was a bowlim' along about a hundred an' thirty mile an hour. Do train was late, and Jim was a settin' her move along a hit to kinder ketoh up like, when all of a, suddent Jim 'spec-ted dar was somethm' wron wid one ob de cylinders by de way shs was poundin' and tliumpm'. He always had a s'picion like ob dat cylinder, was sure de head would blow out some day, so ht:, always carried an extrv one in de cab. "An' sure's yo' bo'n in about a minute, piff, bang, out goes de head. "Now what does yo' spose Jim done? You spec' he was skeared ? No» sah; narv kfar. He jes says to Big- Jake. who was stokiu,' 'Here Jake, take hole ob dis year ebber w'le I goes out an' fixes dat ornery cylinder. Don't choke, her down any, jes let her hum along easy like jes like she's go-in' "Wid dat, Jim he reached up' a<n' took down dat) extra head,, grabbed a wrench, kind o' (tightened! up his jacket lite, and Humped outen. de cab. W'at you specks he done then ? He knowerl w'a.t he could1 do. He jee run along side ob da engine, put on de new head, and screwed' it down tight. Den he took a big chaw of tobacco and trotted along side o-b de cylinder for a while to see dat she didn't leak f I '-41 stood square in front of Pete." any, and w'en he found she was runnin' right smooth he jes jumped back in de cab, pulled her wide open, and rove in Houston on time. "Now. they do tell some big yarns about Jim's fast runnin', but I cain't tell if dey be all so or not, but I knows dis is. caise I was dar, and seed it myself. Jim tole me how- soni-edever, dat this was about de best run he ebbet, made, kase die road was mighty porelv built in them days. and some ob de ties .stickin' out made it bad forright easy runnin'. Then he drapped his wrench once or twicet, and had to file off d's cylinder head in six o' sebben places afore she'd fit. But that was dead: ea-sy fo' Jim." I walked out of the shadow, up into the light, stood square in front of Pete, and looked him squarely in the eye. He never moved. I took out my cigar ca.se-it contained but a solitary cigar—a good one I bad bought in a miomjs<nii of abser-(t- m i^i-JJed eixtravagance. I gave it to Pete and said nothing. He took it with a mile of innocence that would borrow a dollar at any place, and said "Thanks, boss."

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