Frank L Packard

The Spotter By Frank L. Packard From Railroad Stories , September 1935. Digitized by Doug Frizzle, December 2018 for Stillwoods.Blogspot.Ca             and      https://franklpackard.blogspot.com/ It was a pitch-black night in the late fall, no snow, but freezing hard, as Budd Masters slowed the Fast Mail, eastbound, for the water tank at the foot of Devil’s Slide. The big racers drink heavy on the mountain grades, and here and there a water tank is strewn along the right-of-way for their refreshment. At the foot of the Devil’s Slide there was no other thing but a water tank. Pete Leroy was handling the shovel end of it that night in the cab, and he was back up on the tender and had the spout down almost before Budd Masters, with a nicety of precision, had his train stopped where the spout could do business from the word “go.” The Fast Mail didn’t have any time to throw away jockeying for position, and Budd Masters wasn’t the man to throw it, anyhow, in that or any