LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 846, 10 March 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

AT RAVENHOLME JDNQTJGN,

‘Were you ever outi a a more wretched night ip your life ?’ asked Harry Luscombe in a tone of disgust, as we were trudging wearily along after a full half-hour of absolute silence.

The rain was certainly coming down ‘with a vengeance,’ as people say. We had been out all day fishing in some private waters about ten miles from home, A friend had given us a lift in his trap the greater part of the way in going, and, wo had arranged to walk back) noyur dreaming that the sunny day woufd resolve itself into so wet an evening. Fortunately, each of us had taken a light mackintosh, and we had on our thick fishing boots, otherwise our plight would have been much worse than it was.

‘ Wretched uight!’ again ejaculated Harry, whose pipe the rain would persist in putting out. ‘ But surely we cannot be far from, tho Grange now?’ I groaned. ‘A good four miles yet, old fellow,’ answered my friend. ‘We must grin and bear it,’

ten more minutes we paced the slushy road in moist silence.

‘ I wouldn’t have cared so much,’ growled Harry, at last, ‘ if we had only a decent lot of fish to take home. Won’t Gerty and the governor chaff us in the morning !’ I winced. Harry had touched a sore point. I rather prided uayself on my prowess with rod and line j yet here was 1, after eight hours 1 patient flogging of the water, going back to the Grange with a creel that I should blush to open when I got there. It was most annoying. By and by we came to a stile, crossing which we found a footpath through the meadows, just faintly visible in the dark. The footpath, in time, brought us to a level crossing over tho railway. But instead of crossing the iron road to the fields beyond, as I expected he would do, Harry turned half round and began to walk along the line. ‘ Where on earth are you leading me to ? ’ I asked, as I stumbled and barked my shins over a heap of loose sleepers by the side of the rails, ‘ .Scesfc thou not yonder planets that flame so brightly in tho midnight sky ?’ he exclaimed, pointing to two railway signals clearly visible some quarter of a mile away. ‘Thither arc wc bound. Disturb not the meditations of p gtcat mind by further foolish questionings.' I was too. damp to retort as I might otherI wise have done, so I held my peace and

stumbled quietly after him. Little by little we drew nearer to the signal lamps, till at last we stood close under them. They shone far and high above our heads, being, in fact, the crowning points of two tall semaphore posts. But we were not going quite so far skyward as the lamps, our destination being the signalman’s wooden hut from which the semaphores were worked. This of itself stood some distance, above the ground, being built on substantial posts driven firmly into the embankment. It was reached by a flight of wooden steps, steep and narrow. We saw by the light shining from its windows that it was not without an occupant. Harry put a couple of fingers to his mouth and whistled shrilly. ‘Jim Crump,’ he shouted, ‘ Jim Crump—hi ! Where are you ? ’ ‘ Is that you, Mr Harry ? ’ said a voice, and then the door above us was opened. ‘ Wait a moment, sir, till I get my lantern. The steps are slippery with the rain, and one of them is broken. ’

‘You see, my governor is one of the managing directors of this line,’ said Harry, in explanation, while we were waiting for the lantern, ‘ so that I can come and go, and do pretty much as I like about here.’ ‘But why have you come at all?’ I asked.

‘ For the sake of a rest aud a smoke, and a talk with Jim Crump about his dogs.’ Two minutes later we had mounted the steps, and for the first time in my life I found myself in a signalman’s box. It was a snug little place enough, but there was not much room to spare. There were windows on three sides it, so that the man on duty might have a clear view both up and down the line. Five or six long iron levers were fixed in a row below the front window. The due and proper manipulation of these levers, which were connected by means of rods and chains with the points and signals outside, and the working of the simple telegraphic apparatus which placed him en rapport with the stations nearest to him, up and down, were the signalman’s sole but onerous duties. Both the box and the lamps overhead were lighted with gas brought from the town, two miles away. ‘ I have been wanting to see you for the last two or three weeks, Mr Harry,’ said Crump, a well-built man of thirty, with clear resolute eyes and a firm-set mouth. ‘ Ay, ay. What’s the game now, Crump ? Got some more of that famous tobacco ?’

* Something better than the tobacco, Mr Harry. I’ve got a bull terrier pup for you. Such a beauty!’ * The dickens you have !’ cried Harry, his eyes all a sparkle with delight. ‘Crump, you are a brick. A bull terrier pup is the very thing I’ve been hankering after for the last three months. Have you got it here ?’ * No, it’s at home. You see, I didn’t know that you were coming to-night.’ Harry’s countenance fell. ‘ That’s a pity now, isn’t it ? ’ * It don’t rain near so fast as it did,’ said Crump, * and if you would like to take the pup with you, I’ll just run home and fetch it. I can go there and back in twenty minutes. It’s ageu the rules to leave my box, I know, and I wouldn’t leave it for anybody but you ; and not even for you, Mr Harry, if I didn’t know that you knew how to work the levers and the telly a’most as well as I do myself. Besides all that, there will be nothing either up or down till twelve thirty. What say you, sir ? ’ ‘ I say go by all means, Crump, You may depend on my looking well after the signals while you are away.’ Right you are, sir.’ And Crump pro ceeded to pull on his overcoat. ‘I wish I could make you more comfortable, sir,’ said Crump to me, ‘But this is only a roughish place.* Harry and 1 sat down on a sort of bunk or locker at the back of the box. Harry produced his Bask, which he had tilled with brandy before leaving the hotel. Crump declined any of the proffered spirit, but accepted the cigar. Then he pulled up the collar of his coat and went. In the pauses of our talk we could hear the moaning of the telegraph wires outside as the invisible lingers of the wind touched them in passing. ‘ This is Raven holme Junction,’ said Harry to me/

*la it, indeed ? Much obliged for the information,’ I answered drily. * About two years ago a terrible accident happened close to this spot. No doubt you read about it at the time.’

‘ Possibly so. But if I did, the facts have escaped my memory. ’ ‘The news was brought to the Grange, and I was on the spot less than three hours after the smash. I shall never forget what I saw that night.’ He smoked in grave silence for a little Avhile, and then he spoke again. * I don’t know whether you are acquainted with the railway geography of this district, but Ravenholme —I am speaking of the village, which is nearly two miles away—is on a branch line, which diverges from the main line some six miles north of this box, and after zigzagging among various busy townships and hamlets, joins the main line again about a dozen miles south of the point where it diverged ; thus forming what is known as the Ravenholme Loop Line; None of the main line trains run over the loop. Passengers from it going to any place on the main line have to change from the local trains at either the north or south junction, according to the direction they intend to travel.’ I wondered why ho >ras telling this. (To be eontinued. )