116 THE COUNTRY BOY 



enough on it to keep the farmers from stepping 

 on. Jap Libby not only got on, but then com- 

 plained about the way we ran the engine. 

 He asked JNIr. Palmer why he didn't pull her 

 wide oj)en and let her tear down through the 

 town, at which JNlr. Palmer would frown. We 

 always hated to see Jap come worse than any- 

 one else, as he knew the rules were to keep 

 out of the cab. Still he didn't mind them; 

 so jNIr. Palmer and I had smiles Tor one whole 

 trip when we heard one day that Jap Libby 

 had left town for good to go over to Tacoma 

 to work with some Chinamen on a tunnel. A 

 few days later we heard they had an accident 

 and many Chinamen were killed and Jap 

 Libb}^ was hurt. This accident was plainly 

 the fault of the company and they were 

 anxious to settle. Jap was foxy and when 

 they came to the hospital he told them he had 

 no desire to break the company, that he was a 

 railroad fireman and if the}^ gave him a good 

 job when he got well he would call it square; 

 so they signed papers to that effect. He was 

 out in about a week and was firing on an extra 

 freight run. The engineer told him to drop 

 the damper soon after he rej^orted the first 



