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CAB AND CABOOSE
The Story of a Railroad Boy
by
KIRK MUNROE
OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL
Honorary President, THE HON. WOODROW WILSON
Honorary Vice-President, HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT
Honorary Vice-President, COLONEL THEODORE ROOSEVELT
President, COLIN H. LIVINGSTONE, Washington, D. C.
Vice-President, B. L. DULANEY, Bristol, Tenn.
Vice-President, MILTON A. McRAE, Detroit. Mich.
Vice-President, DAVID STARR JORDAN, Stanford University, Cal.
Vice-President, F. L. SEELY, Asheville, N. C.
Vice-President, A. STAMFORD WHITE, Chicago, Ill.
Chief Scout, ERNEST THOMPSON SETON, Greenwich, Connecticut
National Scout Commissioner, DANIEL CARTER BEARD, Flushing, N. Y.
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
THE FIFTH AVENUE BUILDING, 200 FIFTH AVENUE
TELEPHONE GRAMERCY 545
NEW YORK CITY
FINANCE COMMITTEE
John Sherman Hoyt, Chairman
August Belmont
George D. Pratt
Mortimer L. Schiff
H. Rogers Winthrop
GEORGE D. PRATT, Treasurer
JAMES E. WEST, Chief Scout Executive
ADDITIONAL MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD
Ernest P. Bicknell
Robert Garrett
Lee F. Hanmer
John Sherman Hoyt
Charles C. Jackson
Prof. Jeremiah W. Jenks
William D. Murray
Dr. Charles P. Neill
George D. Porter
Frank Presbrey
Edgar M. Robinson
Mortimer L. Schiff
Lorillard Spencer
Seth Sprague Terry
July 31st, 1913.
TO THE PUBLIC:--
In the execution of its purpose to give educational value and moral worth
to the recreational activities of the boyhood of America, the leaders of
the Boy Scout Movement quickly learned that to effectively carry out its
program, the boy must be influenced not only in his out-of-door life but
also in the diversions of his other leisure moments. It is at such times
that the boy is captured by the tales of daring enterprises and
adventurous good times. What now is needful is not that his taste should
be thwarted but trained. There should constantly be presented to him the
books the boy likes best, yet always the books that will be best for the
boy. As a matter of fact, however, the boy's taste is being constantly
vitiated and exploited by the great mass of cheap juvenile literature.
To help anxiously concerned parents and educators to meet this grave
peril, the Library Commission of the Boy Scouts of America has been
organized. EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY is the result of their labors. All the
books chosen have been approved by them. The Commission is composed of the
following members: George F. Bowerman, Librarian, Public Library of the
District of Columbia, Washington, D. C.; Harrison W. Graver, Librarian,
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Claude G. Leland, Superintendent,
Bureau of Libraries, Board of Education, New York City; Edward F.
Stevens, Librarian, Pratt Institute Free Library, Brooklyn, New York;
together with the Editorial Board of our Movement, William D. Murray,
George D. Pratt and Frank Presbrey, with Franklin K. Mathiews, Chief Scout
Librarian, as Secretary.
"DO A GOOD TURN DAILY."
In selecting the books, the Commission has chosen only such as are of
interest to boys, the first twenty-five being either works of fiction or
stirring stories of adventurous experiences. In later lists, books of a
more serious sort will be included. It is hoped that as many as
twenty-five may be added to the Library each year.
Thanks are due the several publishers who have helped to inaugurate this
new department of our work. Without their co-operation in making available
for popular priced editions some of the best books ever published for
boys, the promotion of EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY would have been impossible.
We wish, too, to express our heartiest gratitude to the Library
Commission, who, without compensation, have placed their vast experience
and immense resources at the service of our Movement.
The Commission invites suggestions as to future books to be included in
the Library. Librarians, teachers, parents, and all others interested in
welfare work for boys, can render a unique service by forwarding to
National Headquarters lists of such books as in their judgment would be
suitable for EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY.
Signed
James E. West [handwritten]
Chief Scout Executive.
[Illustration: THE PURSUIT OF THE TRAIN ROBBER.--(_Page 156._)
_Frontispiece._]
EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY--BOY SCOUT EDITION
CAB AND CABOOSE
The Story of a Railroad Boy
by
KIRK MUNROE
Author of
Under Orders, Prince Dusty,
The Coral Ship, Etc.
ILLUSTRATED
New York
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers
Copyright, 1892
by
Kirk Munroe
This edition is issued under arrangement with the publishers
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. PAGE.
I.--"RAILROAD BLAKE" 1
II.--A RACE FOR THE RAILROAD CUP 8
III.--A CRUEL ACCUSATION 16
IV.--STARTING INTO THE WORLD 22
V.--CHOOSING A CAREER 27
VI.--SMILER, THE RAILROAD DOG 34
VII.--ROD, SMILER, AND THE TRAMP 40
VIII.--EARNING A BREAKFAST 52
IX.--GAINING A FOOTHOLD 59
X.--A THRILLING EXPERIENCE 66
XI.--A BATTLE WITH TRAMPS 71
XII.--BOUND, GAGGED, AND A PRISONER 79
XIII.--HOW BRAKEMAN JOE WAS SAVED 86
XIV.--THE SUPERINTENDENT INVESTIGATES 92
XV.--SMILER TO THE RESCUE 99
XVI.--SNYDER APPLEBY'S JEALOUSY 106
XVII.--ROD AS A BRAKEMAN 115
XVIII.--WORKING FOR A PROMOTION 121
XIX.--THE EXPRESS SPECIAL 126
XX.--TROUBLE IN THE MONEY CAR 135
XXI.--OVER THE TOP OF THE TRAIN 142
XXII.--STOP THIEF! 148
XXIII.--A RACE OF LOCOMOTIVES 155
XXIV.--ARRESTED ON SUSPICION 161
XXV.--THE TRAIN ROBBER LEARNS OF ROD'S ARREST 168
XXVI.--A WELCOME VISITOR 174
XXVII.--THE SHERIFF IS INTERVIEWED 180
XXVIII.--LIGHT DAWNS UPON THE SITUATION 186
XXIX.--AN ARRIVAL OF FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 192
XXX.--WHERE ARE THE DIAMONDS? 198
XXXI.--ONE HUNDRED MILES AN HOUR! 205
XXXII.--SNATCHING VICTORY FROM DEFEAT 211
XXXIII.--A WRECKING TRAIN 217
XXXIV.--ROD ACCEPTS THE LEGACY 223
XXXV.--FIRING ON NUMBER 10 231
XXXVI.--THE ONLY CHANCE OF SAVING THE SPECIAL 237
XXXVII.--INDEPENDENCE OR PRIDE 245
XXXVIII.--A MORAL VICTORY 252
XXXIX.--SNYDER IS FORGIVEN 258
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE PURSUIT OF THE TRAIN ROBBER _Frontispiece_
PAGE
ROD BLAKE WINS BY A LENGTH 15
SMILER DRIVES OFF THE TRAMP 42
IN THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY 82
ROD ASSISTS THE YOUNG MAN TO THE "LIMITED" 132
THE SHERIFF HANDS ROD THE LEATHER BAG 202
IN THE RAILROAD WRECK 214
"HE LAUNCHED HIMSELF FORWARD" 240
CAB AND CABOOSE:
THE STORY OF A RAILROAD BOY.
CHAPTER I.
"RAILROAD BLAKE."
"Go it, Rod! You've got to go! One more spurt and you'll have him! There
you are over the line! On time! On railroad time! Three cheers for
Railroad Blake, fellows! 'Rah, 'rah, 'rah, and a tigah! Good for you, Rod
Blake! the cup is yours. It was the prettiest race ever seen on the Euston
track, and 'Cider' got so badly left that he cut off and went to the
dressing-room without finishing. Billy Bliss was a good second, though,
and you only beat him by a length."
Amid a thousand such cries as these, from the throats of the excited boys
and a furious waving of hats, handkerchiefs, and ribbon-decked parasols
from the grand stand, the greatest bicycling event of the year so far as
Euston was concerned, was finished, and Rodman Blake was declared winner
of the Railroad Cup. It was the handsomest thing of the kind ever seen in
that part of the country, and had been presented to the Steel Wheel Club
of Euston by President Vanderveer of the great New York and Western
Railroad, who made his summer home at that place. The race for this trophy
was the principal event at the annual meet of the club, which always took
place on the first Wednesday of September. If any member won it three
years in succession it was to be his to keep, and every winner was
entitled to have his name engraved on it.
Snyder Appleby or "Cider Apples" as the boys, with their love for
nicknames, sometimes called him, had won it two years in succession, and
was confident of doing the same thing this year. He had just obtained,
through President Vanderveer, a position in the office of the Railroad
Company, and only waited to ride this last race for the "Railroad Cup,"
as it was called in honor of its donor, before going to the city and
entering upon his new duties.
Now to be beaten so badly, and by that young upstart, for so he called
Rod Blake, was a mortification almost too great to be borne. As Snyder
left the track without finishing the last race and made his way to the
dressing-room under the grand stand, he ground his teeth, and vowed to get
even with his victorious rival yet. The cheers and yells of delight with
which the fellows were hailing the victor, made him feel his defeat all
the more bitterly, and seek the more eagerly for some plan for that
victor's humiliation.
Snyder Appleby was generally considered by the boys as one of the meanest
fellows in Euston, and that is the reason why they called him "Cider
Apples"; for those, as everybody knows, are most always the very poorest
of the picking. So the name seemed to be appropriate, as well as a happy
parody on that to which he was really entitled. He was the son, or rather
the adopted son, of Major Arms Appleby, who, next to President Vanderveer,
was the richest man in Euston, and lived in the great, rambling stone
mansion that had been in his family for generations.
The Major, who was a bachelor, was also one of the kindest-hearted, most
generous, and most obstinate of men. He loved to do good deeds; but he
loved to do them in his own way, and his way was certain to be the one
that was contrary to the advice of everybody else. Thus it happened that
he determined to adopt the year-old baby boy who was left on his doorstep
one stormy night, a little more than sixteen years before this story
opens. He was not fond of babies, nor did he care to have children about
him. Simply because everybody advised him to send this one to the county
house, where it might be cared for by the proper authorities, he declared
he would do nothing of the kind; but would adopt the little waif and bring
him up as his own son.
As the boy grew, and developed many undesirable traits of character, Major
Appleby was too kind-hearted to see them, and too obstinate to be warned
against them.
"Don't tell me," he would say, "I know more about the boy than anybody
else, and am fully capable of forming my opinion concerning him."
Thus Snyder Appleby, as he was called, because the name "Snyder" was
found marked on the basket in which he had been left at the Major's door,
grew up with the fixed idea that if he only pleased his adopted father
he might act about as he chose with everybody else. Now he was nearly
eighteen years of age, big and strong, with a face that, but for its
coarseness, would have been called handsome. He was fond of display, did
everything for effect, was intolerably lazy, had no idea of the word
punctuality, and never kept an engagement unless he felt inclined to do
so. He always had plenty of pocket money which he spent lavishly, and was
not without a certain degree of popularity among the other boys of Euston.
He had subscribed more largely than anybody else to the Steel Wheel Club
upon its formation, and had thus succeeded in having himself elected its
captain.
As he was older and stronger than any of the other members who took up
racing, and as he always rode the lightest and best wheel that money could
procure, he had, without much hard work, easily maintained a lead in the
racing field, and had come to consider himself as invincible. He regarded
himself as such a sure winner of this last race for the Railroad Cup,
that he had not taken the trouble to go into training for it. He would not
even give up his cigarette smoking, a habit that he had acquired because
he considered it fashionable and manly. Now he was beaten, disgracefully,
and that by a boy nearly two years younger than himself. It was too much,
and he determined to find some excuse for his defeat, that should at the
same time remove the disgrace from him, and place it upon other shoulders.
Rodman Ray Blake, or R. R. Blake as he signed his name, and "Railroad
Blake" as the boys often called him, was Major Appleby's nephew, and the
son of his only sister. She had married an impecunious young artist
against her brother's wish, on which account he had declined ever to see
her again. When she died, after two years of poverty-stricken widowhood,
she left a loving, forgiving letter for her brother, and in it committed
her darling boy to his charge. If she had not done this, but had trusted
to his generous impulses, all would have gone well, and the events that
serve to make up this story would never have taken place. As it was, the
Major, feeling that the boy was forced upon him, was greatly aggrieved.
That the lad should bear a remarkable resemblance to his handsome artist
father also irritated him. As a result, while he really became very fond
of the boy, and was never unkind to him, he treated him with an assumed
indifference that was keenly felt by the loving, high-spirited lad. As for
Snyder Appleby, he was jealous of Rodman from the very first; and when,
only a short time before the race meeting of the Steel Wheel Club, the
latter was almost unanimously elected to his place as captain, this
feeling was greatly increased.