The Iron Dragon Never Sleeps Read Online Free PDF

supper. “So they’re being stubborn. But they have nowhere to go. In a way they need us, too.”
    “I just wish it were over,” said Winnie. “Even the air feels tense.”
    The next morning Winnie rode Handsome out to look at the tracks. There were scattered non-Chinese crews trying to keep busy. Still, everything seemed very quiet.
    The trail took her past a trestle bridge spanning a ravine. The crisscrossed wood supports rose like the top of a cherry pie on its side.
    “Winnie!”
    She turned in the saddle. Lee was approaching. He walked slowly, and she thought he looked tired.
    “Hello, Winnie!”
    Winnie dismounted. Part of her was glad to see Lee. The other part was mad at him and all the other Chinese, who were causing problems for her father.
    “Why are you here?” she said. “I thought you were on strike.”
    “I am. That is why I can be here. There is nothing else for me to do.”
    “You should be working to settle this strike. You should be helping.”
    “I wish to help,” Lee admitted. “But my words go unheard.”
    Winnie paused. She knew what that was like.
    “My father says it’s not right to strike,” she said finally.
    Lee sighed. “Right and wrong can be hard to tell apart. Is it right that we are up before the sun and donot rest until dark? Is it right that last winter the snow fell so deep we could not walk over it? We had to dig tunnels under the snow to go from place to place. Is it right that we had to dig holes through the snow for air?” He shivered at the memory. “The iron dragon never sleeps, Winnie. It is always waiting, always wanting more. There were some days when we didn’t see the sky. But even in the tunnels we were not safe from the rumbling snows.”
    “Avalanches?”
    Lee nodded. “One of them swept away twenty men. They were buried so deep they could not be dug out until spring.”
    Winnie shuddered.
    “Again and again we have asked for changes. The railroad does not listen. Maybe they will listen now.”
    “The strike is still wrong,” Winnie said softly.
    Lee sighed. “Not so wrong as being buried alive in the snow.”
    Handsome snorted.
    “He’s hungry,” said Winnie, glad to change the subject. “And impatient, too. I brought him a treat.”
    She took two apples out of her saddlebag. She offered one to Handsome, who quickly gobbled it up.
    “Do you want to feed him the other?” she asked Lee.

    Lee took the apple and looked at it thoughtfully. He turned it over. “It is a fine apple. Very round.”
    “I guess it is,” said Winnie. She watched Lee closely. “Do you want to eat it?”
    Lee brightened. “Yes, please.”
    “Go ahead. I’ll get more.”
    Lee almost choked on the apple because he bit into it so fast.
    “Slow down,” said Winnie. “Why are you so hungry?”
    “We have had no food since Tuesday. Mr. Crocker, the big boss, cut off our supplies.”
    Winnie blinked. She knew the Chinese paid for their own food. It wasn’t fair for Mr. Crocker to starve them into working for him. That made him nothing more than a bully.
    Winnie didn’t like bullies.
    “I should go,” she said. “I promised to meet my mother.” She chewed her lip. “Lee, do you see those pines by the ridge? Meet me there tomorrow morning. Early.”
    “What plan is in your head, Winnie Tucker?”
    “Just be there,” she said. “Please.”

T HE NEXT MORNING found Eli Tucker prowling around his room. Marjorie watched him from a chair by the window.
    “Eli, you’re as itchy as a bear in a briar patch.”
    “I can’t help myself. It’s this strike, Marjorie. I hate feeling like my hands are tied.”
    “Do you think it will last much longer?”
    Eli shrugged. “The Celestials want more money and a shorter workday. I doubt they’ll get much. Maybe Crocker will throw them a bone.”
    “What do you think they’ll do?” asked Marjorie.
    “They’re caught betwixt and between,” Eli admitted. “Poor devils. I don’t know that they have much