A Fool For Love

A Fool For Love, by Francis
Lynde

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Title: A Fool For Love
Author: Francis Lynde
Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8073] [This file was first posted on

June 11, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: US-ASCII
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Produced by Ketaki Chhabra and Wendy Crockett

A FOOL FOR LOVE
By
FRANCIS LYNDE
Author of "The Grafters," "The Master of Appleby," etc.

CONTENTS
I In Which We Take Passage on the Limited II In Which an Engine is
Switched III In Which an Itinerary is Changed IV The Crystalline
Altitudes V The Landslide VI The Rajah Gives an Order VII The
Majesty of the Law VIII The Greeks Bringing Gifts IX The Block
Signal X Spiked Switches XI The Right of Way

I
IN WHICH WE TAKE PASSAGE ON THE LIMITED

It was a December morning,--the Missouri December of mild
temperatures and saturated skies,--and the Chicago and Alton's fast
train, dripping from the rush through the wet night, had steamed briskly
to its terminal track in the Union Station at Kansas City.
Two men, one smoking a short pipe and the other snapping the ash
from a scented cigarette, stood aloof from the hurrying throngs on the
platform, looking on with the measured interest of those who are in a
melee but not of it.
"More delay," said the cigarettist, glancing at his watch. "We are over
an hour late now. Do we get any of it back on the run to Denver?"
The pipe-smoker shook his head.
"Hardly, I should say. The Limited is a pretty heavy train to pick up
lost time. But it won't make any particular difference. The western
connections all wait for the Limited, and we shall reach the seat of war
to-morrow night, according to the Boston itinerary."
Mr. Morton P. Adams flung away the unburned half of his cigarette and
masked a yawn behind his hand.
"It's no end of a bore, Winton, and that is the plain, unlacquered fact,"
he protested. "I think the governor owes me something. I worried
through the Tech because he insisted that I should have a profession;
and now I am going in for field work with you in a howling winter
wilderness because he insists on a practical demonstration. I shall
ossify out there in those mountains. It's written in the book."
"Humph! it's too bad about you," said the other ironically. He was a fit
figure of a man, clean-cut and vigorous, from the steadfast outlook of
the gray eyes and the firm, smooth-shaven jaw to the square fingertips
of the strong hands, and his smile was of good-natured contempt. "As
you say, it is an outrage on filial complaisance. All the same, with the
right-of-way fight in prospect, Quartz Creek Canyon may not prove to
be such a valley of dry bones as--Look out, there!"

The shifting-engine had cut a car from the rear of the lately-arrived
Alton, and was sending it down the outbound track to a coupling with
the Transcontinental Limited. Adams stepped back and let it miss him
by a hand's-breadth, and as the car was passing, Winton read the name
on the paneling.
"The Rosemary: somebody's twenty-ton private outfit. That cooks our
last chance of making up any lost time between this and tomorrow--"
He broke off abruptly. On the square rear observation platform of the
private car were three ladies. One of them was small and blue-eyed,
with wavy little puffs of snowy hair peeping out under her dainty
widow's cap. Another was small and blue-eyed, with wavy masses of
flaxen hair caught up from a face which might have served as a model
for the most exquisite bisque figure that ever came out of France. But
Winton saw only the third.
She was taller than either of her companions--tall and