Coogan

“ He started at the bottom, and he went up. Call boy, sweeper, wiper, fireman—one after the other. Promotion came fast in the early days, for, the Rockies once bridged, business came fast, too; and Coogan had his engine at twenty-one, and at twenty-four he was pulling the Imperial Limited.
“Good goods,” said Regan. “That’s what he is. The best ever.”
Nobody questioned that, not only because there was no one on the division who could put anything over Coogan in a cab, but also because, and perhaps even more pertinent a reason, every one liked Coogan—some of them did more than that. ”

“ Do you remember that?”
“The smash was on the Devil’s Slide,” said Coogan.
“That’s it,” cried Carleton. “I knew you’d remember.”
“They’re always there,” said Coogan simply, “always there. It is a bad track. I’m a railroad man and I know. It’s not properly guarded. I’m going to work there and take care of it.”
“Work there?” said Regan, the tears almost in his eyes. “What kind of work? What do you want to do, Chick?”
“Just work there,” said Coogan. “Take care of the Devil’s Slide.”
The super and the master mechanic looked at each other—and averted their eyes. ”

“ As Strong Men Talk. CARLETON kept his word—twelve hours—and then from the division rose a cry like the cry of savage beasts; but Regan was like a madman. “Curse him!” he said bitterly, breaking into a seething torrent of words. “What did you let him go for, Carleton? You’d no business to. You should have held him until Coogan could talk, and then we’d have had him.”
“Tommy”—Carleton laid his hand quietly on the master mechanic’s shoulder—“we’re too young out in this country for much law. I don’t think Coogan knows or ever will know again what happened in the cab that night. ”

“ That was Chick Coogan—all except his heart. Coogan had a heart like a woman's, and a hard luck story from a 'bo stealing a ride, a railroad man, or any one else for that matter, never failed to make him poorer by a generous percentage of what happened to be in his pocket at the time. Who wouldn't like him! Queer how things happen.
It was the day Coogan got married that Regan gave him 505 and the Limited run as a sort of wedding present; and that night Big Cloud turned itself completely inside out doing honor and justice to the occasion. ”

“ And so, while Regan growled and swore, and Carleton knitted his brows in perplexed protest, the doctors had their way—and Coogan, Chick Coogan, went to the Devil’s Slide. Officially he was on the pay roll as a section hand; but Millrae, the section boss, had his own orders.
“Let Coogan alone. Let him do what he likes, only see that he doesn’t come to any harm,” wired the super. ”

“ Coogan came back he labored, bent over the little desk where the engine crews signed on and off, scratching painstakingly with a pen. Clarihue caught a glimpse of the sheet in passing before Marley hastily covered it up—just a glimpse, not enough to read a single word, just enough to marvel a little at the wiper's hand. Marley was a pretty good penman.
Marley, of course, being on night duty slept daytimes, but the afternoon Regan brought Mrs. Coogan back to the cottage he must have heard them coming, for he was standing in the little sitting-room when they came in. ”

“ Coogan looked upon him with respect. “I never thought much of you before, Mike Kallaher, but you’re the only man I know that could pick up a horse.” She turned to his wife. “It’s no wonder you’re a meek woman, Mary, but you ought to be proud of a man like that, sure.” ”

“ Regan and Carleton were alone over their pedro at headquarters, except for Spence, the dispatcher, in the next room. It was getting close on to eleven-thirty. The Imperial Limited, westbound, with Coogan in the cab, had pulled out on time an hour and a half before. The game was lagging, and, as usual, the conversation had got around to the engineer, introduced, as it always was, by the master mechanic. “I sure don’t know what to do for the boy,” he said. “I’d like to do something. Talking don’t amount to anything, does it, h’m?—even if you can talk. ”

“ I’d have taken the same stand you did. But you’re wrong. Coogan wasn’t drunk that night; he never touched a drop. I wouldn’t be telling you this now if he had, would I?”
“Sit down,” said Carleton.
Dahleen took the chair beside the desk, and, resting his feet on the window sill, stared out at the lights twinkling below him. “Yes, I gave him the flask,” he said slowly, as though picking up the thread of a story, “for a wedding present. The day he came back to his run after the little woman and the baby died he had it in his pocket, and he handed it to me. ‘I’m afraid of it, Jimmy,’ he said. ”

“ I can’t talk to him, what?”
“A man’s got to work a thing like that out for himself, Tommy,” Carleton answered, “and it takes time. That’s the only thing that will ever help him—time. I know you’re pretty fond of Coogan, even more than the rest of us, and that’s saying a good deal, but you’re thinking too much about it yourself.”
Regan shook his head. “I can’t help it, Carleton. It’s got me. Time, and that sort of thing, may be all right, but it ain’t very promising when a man broods the way he does. ”

“ The youngest engineer on the road and top of them all, would have been excuse enough for him to show his oats, and, within decent limits, no one would have thought the worse of him for it—Coogan never turned a hair. He was still the friend of the bo and the man in trouble, still the Coogan that had been a wiper in the roundhouse; and yet, perhaps, not quite the same, for two new loves had come into his life—his love for Annie Coogan and his love, the love of the master craftsman, for No. ”

“ Sivinty-wan I was last birthday. 'Tain't old for a man, but a woman—indade he's a foine lad, an' 'tis myself that ses ut."
Down at headquarters Mrs. Coogan's praise went a long way, and after Carleton and Regan and the others in the office got accustomed to seeing him around they came to accept him in a passive, indifferent sort of a way. He was a curious case, if you like, but inoffensive—they let it go at that.
The men had their view-point. Marley didn't talk much, didn't draw out the way a new hand was expected to in order to establish his footing with the fraternity. ”

“ And as they worked, those hard-faced, grimy, sweating men of the wrecking crews, they wondered—wondered that any one had come out of it alive.
Back at headquarters in Big Cloud they wondered at it, too—and they wondered also at the cause. Every one that by any possible chance could throw any light upon it went on the carpet in the super’s office. Everybody testified—everybody except Dahleen, the fireman, and Coogan, the engineer ”

“ I glanced again at the odd volatile beauty in the woman's face and wondered what was the word Bill Coogan had said and what was his reason for saying it.
"From that day it was all luck for me," Larry Moore said, settling again in the chair, where his face returned to the shadow. "She had a head on her, that little woman. She pulled me up to where I am. I pitched that season for the Bridgeports. You know the record, Bob, seven games lost out of forty-three, and not so much my fault either. ”

“ Oh he's a powerful fiddler."
"So I often heerd, indeed," said the old man.
"He bangs all the fiddlers in the counthry."
"And is in the greatest request," added Noonan.
"Yet he looks tatthered enough," said old Coogan.
"Sure you never seen a well dhrest fiddler yet," said Larry.
"Indeed, and now you remind me, I believe not," said the old man. "I suppose they all get more kicks than ha'pence, as the saying is."
"Divil a many kicks Houligan gets; he's a great favorite intirely."
"Why is he in such distress then?" asked Coogan.
"Faith he's not in disthress at all ”

“ Coogan flashed around in quick suspicion, angered to think that for one moment he had foolishly relaxed his guard, but Ballard was serenely lighting his cigarette at that of Don Luis and the glass of Don Ramon was just descending from his lips.
When the wine was finished, Ballard insisted on ordering another bottle at his expense; this was followed by a third at the insistence of Don Luis. As the bubbles frothed over the crystal rims, Coogan, either from pure nerve or fearful bravado, raised his glass. "A toast, gentlemen:
"Here's to good health and untroubled mind ”

“ I was young an' raised rough, with fires, an' fightin', an' the divil knows what. An' I dared Tweed to his face. 'I 'll make good,' I says. 'I 'll show yeh, niver fear. I 'll show yeh,' I says. 'I 'll show yeh!"
"An' I done it. I got Barney Coogan to promise he 'd run ag'in' Tweed's man fer alderman. I got a meetin' togither an' nominated him. I woorked fer four months in the ward, with me frien's—an' I had plinty—an' Tweed bein' busy with his own campaign fer sheriff, an' Coogan a pop'lar man—we got Coogan ilicted by the lin'th av his long ears, an' the boys av No. ”

“ It was Dave Strang, foreman of the Lazy K outfit on Cibolla Creek.
"Why, yuh old son of a gun, wheah d'yuah drap from?" asked Red, with a portentous wink. Douglass had just informed him of Barton s message and his remark was for the benefit of the loungers about the stove, among whom he had reason to believe were some of Coogan's familiars. He deemed it best to have them under the impression that the encounter was one of pure chance; being an enthusiastic devotee at the shrine of "stud poker," he believed in keeping inviolate the suit and value of his buried card. ”

“ Carleton nodded his head slowly. Steps were coming up the stairs. The voice of Flannagan, the wrecking boss, reached them; other voices, excited and loud, joined in. He slapped the master mechanic on the back. “I don’t wonder it caught you, Tommy,” he said. “It’s almost creepy. But there’s no time for that now. Come on.”
Regan laughed, the same hard laugh, as he followed the chief into the dispatcher’s room. “East of No. 2 switchback, eh?” he said. “If there’s any choice for hellishness anywhere on that cursed stretch of track, that’s it. ”

“ And here's to the man who is game!"
"A toast worthy of another bottle, especially the last clause," said an approving voice in the doorway, and at sight of Ken Douglass standing there smiling, Coogan's glass crashed on the floor as his hand flew to his hip pocket.
"Easy, Bart!" There was no mirth in the eye gleaming menacingly behind the sights of the heavy .44 aligned so steadily upon the heart of the man into whose eyes had crept a superstitious terror at the sight of one risen from the dead. "Put both your hands on the table! Both, I said! There, that's more sensible! Mr. ”

“ Let the lost things come about you, set your thoughts and hear and heed.
Time has laid his burden on us – we who wear our manhood now,
We would be the boys we have been, free of heart and bright of brow –
Be the boys for just an hour, with the splendour and the speech
Of thy lights and thunders, Coogee, flying up thy gleaming beach. ”

“ His portrait in life-size was painted at the cost of his pupils by Thomas Phillips, R.A., and engraved by Samuel Cousins, and the picture was presented to him at a dinner at the Albion tavern on 20 Dec. 1828. Cogan lived many years after his retirement, his days being passed in incessant reading. Whether he walked in the streets of London or in the country lanes of Hertfordshire, a book was his companion, and at the time of his death he is supposed to have read more Greek than any of the students whom he left behind him. He died at Higham Hill on 21 Jan. ”

“ She chaperoned me here."
"Has she a key, also?"
"May I tell him why you came?"
"He put $200,000 in that safe---bribe money for a Mayor Cargan. There's a good story for your paper."
"Mrs. Rhodes is engaged to marry Mayor Cargan."
"May we not stay here to-night---so Mrs. Rhodes can meet Mayor Cargan---and save him?"
"Do you believe in love at first sight?"
"I've written about it a great many times, but never believed it before–Isn't it wonderful!"
"That's not a regular ghost–it's the hermit–Quimby told me all about him." ”

“ Well, then, Cogan that I've been telling you about was nearly always in tow of a force that seemed to be outside of himself. A storm, a high sea, or a gale of wind in his case would be an upheaval of his soul like. But in those days he hadn't come to that. Maybe he was still only half awake. Martin Jackson, sitting out on the sidewalk of his Fourth of July saloon, came nearer to making him think than all of the school teachers he'd ever seen. Maybe, too, life was too smooth in those days. However, he was always in tow of some fancy or [pg 286] other. ”

“ Cogan's grand duke turned out to be a Peruvian, a dealer in Panama hats from Lima, and he told Cogan a lot about Panama hats, which weren't Panama hats at all, and other interesting things—South America politics and bull fighting especially. He had a brother Juan, who was a famous mounted capeador, he said—that's the man who sits with a red cloak on a horse in the first part of the bull fight [pg 280] and Cogan could see that he was very proud of him. ”

“ He would reach down and prod with his horns, but, as he had a brass knob on each horn, he couldn't hurt them much that way. The fellows with the red capes practised all their tricks, the men with wooden stakes all covered with paper streamers practised theirs, and Cogan's blood was racing in his veins before they were through. ”

“ It was a condition of the marriage that Cogan should enter the more settled profession of medicine, and he accordingly matriculated at Leyden on 16 Oct. 1765, and took his degree of M.D. in 1767. Restlessness was his characteristic in early life, and he is said to have practised during the few years which he passed in Holland ‘successively at Amsterdam, Leyden, and Rotterdam.’ From the latter city he returned to London and settled in Paternoster Row, where he soon obtained a lucrative practice, especially in midwifery. ”