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. OU R SHORT STORY I

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OU R SHORT STORY i swrer JIMMY'S FAST! RUN. Bm name was Pete—just plain Pete—this f "descendant of Ham; this destroyer of men's .reason and faith in humanity. I was suspicious &of him from the beginning. He had a. peculiar flook in his eye, and when he smiled and showed ia double row of ivory that one would give five .^etws of his life for, you would be thoroughly iOonvtEcsd that underneath it all waa a settled tpurpoee to rob you of your soul before he left you. I lighted a cigar, picked up my bag, and •started for the dqpot. "liold on boss 'till I light dis yer lantern, iaod I'll tote dat grip for yo' I waited until he had lighted his lantern— o4d, battered amd> greasy^-and altogether we imtarted. It was only a. block to the station, and 'it was half an houx until train time, but I dad -not purpose- to impend* that'half hour in that hotel •ii I could help. it. The memory of a supper that was enough to break the rivets of a cast- won constitution stilI- haunted me-a horrible nightmare—in iteeif sufficient to drive a mall anywhere. At the depot I found the usual crowd of darky loungers—you always find 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 ail kinds of positions. Besides the door hung the old square depot light, three sides glass and one si-die tin, with a. dirty kerosene lamp inside it. It w eaid that Dumas pere inherited hi* great power of imagination from his ritgro ancestors. It must be true, for a diarky is nothing if not imaginative, and for a crowd to get together 'without trying to see who can spin the biggest yarn is an impos^hility. Thia crowd proved no exception to tha rule, amd were in the thick of the fray when we arrived'. I did not war t to ca*» a damper on their enjoyment, so retired into the shadow, seating myself -on a truck, my ears open, and quietly puffing my cigar listened. Fete j oined! the crowdi, sitting down on the edge of thf platform. He raised up hi, eld lantern, be looked intently at the blaze a moment, as if for inspiration* and set it down again. The subject under consideration ivai foot-racing, and a fellow whose name proved to' be Miws had just tinwhed telling of a lightning sprinter he « "knowed ober in Loozianaii." Pete turned around and cleared' his ilrroai. The crowd settled back in re^p.tful silence—-hey knew Pete. He ga.ve 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 runnier if you seed 'im. Did you ebbpr known Swift Jimmy, who ua-ter pull ol' 151 ober on de Cotton Belt ? What, nebber did ? Say, wbar you been all your life: nebber been outen dis yer town ob Cactus since yo' was boa. has you? "Now, nipper, listen to me. I knowed Jimmy when I was in San Tome, ebber since "Pete." i was no biggffrtl dat," raising his hand a.bout two feet above the platform. "He was a sprinter, he was. Jes wait till I done tol' yo' tlbout. jes QBe ob his runs I knows about his makin'. Dis yer ain't no lie w'at I'se gibin' you, kase I was dar and w'ern I -^ees a thing IJ sees ii. It was one night, just about like this, only de moon was a shinin' an' ol' 151 was a bowlin' along about a hundred an' thirty mile an hour. De train was late, and Jim was a settin' her move along a bit to kinder ketch up like, when all of a. sucltfent Jim 'spected dar was somethin' wron wid one ob de cylinders? by de way she was pound in' and thumpin'. He always had a s'picion like ob dat cylinder, was sure de head would! blow out some day, so he always carried an extry one in de cab. "An' sure's yo' bo'n in about a minute, piff, bang, out goes de head. 'I "Now what dees yo' spose Jim dotte ? You spsc* he was skeared ? No. sab; nary kfar. He jes says to Big Jake. who was stcl-iu, 'Here Jake, take hole ob dis yea" ebber w'le I gaas out an' fixes dat omery cylinder. Don't choke her down any, jes let her hum along easy like jes like she's goin. "Wid dat, Jim he reached up an' took down da,t extra head, grabbed a wrench, kind o' (tightened) up hig jacket lilke, and Jumped outem de cab. W'at you specks he done then ? He knowed w'at he could do. He jes run along side ob die engine, put on de new head, and screwed it down tight. Den he took a big chaw of tobacco and trotted along side ob de cylinder for a while to see dat she didn't leak stood square in front of Pete.* any, and w'em he found she was rumnin' ri,ght 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 runain', but 1 oain'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- somsdever, dat this was about de best run he ebber made, kase de road was mighty pcrely built in them days. and some ob de tiee stick in' out made it bad forright easy runnin'. Then he drapped his wrench once or twicet, and had to file off cJ-3 cylinder head in six o' sebben places afore shed fit. But that was dead easy fo' Jim." I walked out of the shadow, up into the light, stood square in front of Pete, and looked him squarely i,n the eye. He never moved. I took out my cigar oase—it contained but a solitary cigar-a good one I had bought in a m'œIJ1!G of abeenjt-mi^idfod ecctravagance. I gave it to Pete a.nd said nothing. He took it with a smile of innocence that would; borrow a doila.r at any place*, and said "Thanks, boss." I

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