The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rainy Day Railroad War, by Holman Day

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Title: The Rainy Day Railroad War

Author: Holman Day

Last Updated: January 3, 2009
Release Date: September 18, 2007 [EBook #22666]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAINY DAY RAILROAD WAR ***

Produced by David Widger

THE RAINY DAY RAILROAD WAR

By Holman Day

1906

[Illustration: Cover]

[Illustration: Frontispiece]

THE RAINY DAY RAILROAD WAR

CHAPTER ONE--THE TRYING-OUT OF ONE RODNEY PARKER, ASSISTANT ENGINEER

All at once the stump-dotted, rocky hillside became clamorous and
animated. From the little shacks sheathed with tarred paper, from the
sodded huts, from burrows sunk into the hillside men suddenly came
popping out with shrill cries.

Three men, shouldering surveying instruments, stopped in their tracks
on the freshly-heaped soil of a new railroad embankment, and gazed up at
the hillside. The railroad skirted its foot and the sudden activity on
the slope was in full view. "Your lambs seem to be blatting around the
fodder-rack once more, Parker," observed the man who lugged the transit.
He was a thin, elderly man and his tone was somewhat satirical.

The men were running toward a common center, uttering cries in shrill
staccato and sounding like yelping dogs.

Parker drove the spurs of his tripod into the soft soil and stared up at
the hillside, his tanned brow puckering with apprehension.

"I don't think there's much of the lamb to that rush," observed the
third man; "they sound to me more like hyenas after raw meat."

"It will be Dominick they'll eat, then," said the elderly man.

"I'm afraid you put the Old Harry into 'em last week when you took their
part and straightened out Dominick's bill of fare," he went on. "They
probably think they can get quail on toast now if they yap for it."

"I believe in letting dagoes fight it out among themselves," announced
the third man with much derision. "Helping one of 'em is like picking a
hornet out of a puddle. You'll get stung while doing it."

The men on the hillside had knotted themselves into a jostling group
before the doo