LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2093, 8 November 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

; WARNING OVER THE WIRES i oa THE MEfSAOS THAT SO MATS SENT. Tfte 6.20 evening train, No. 39, was over I an hour late that night. Cause enough. Heaven knows. For twelve hours the sto;m had raged, and now, instead of showing any signs of breaking, the rain cime down in torrents from an inky sky, and the thunder rumbled ominously overhead. A bad storm to drive an engine through, as anybody would have known, and the wonder is that No. 39 was not three hours late, instead of one. Old Luke Granger, the trustiest nerviest engineer on the road, rounded the curve just below the Red Ravine Station at twenty-six minutes past seven. I breathed a sigh cf relief when I saw the headlight cut a bole in the darkness. The station bridge might have given way in a storm like that, and I was beginning to get nervous over the thought. Somehow everything made me nervous that night. It was just the kind of weather when things look all ont of gear, any way. Then I suppose the knowledge of that money package being due and its failing to come on the 11.30, as it should have done, had its effect on me. I didn't relish the idea of keeping 13,000 dols. in cash until the next day. Eldridgo and Ricketson had been down themselves to meet the morning train, and if the package had come I could have turned it over to them at once, .and that would have been the end of the matter. But it didn't co:re. That's a way tbings have in this world when you most want 'em. There wasn't a soul at the station that night except myself, and there were only two passengers who got off the train. I speak of 'em that way, not meaning to be disrespectful or make light of solemn thiogs; only it's habit, I suppose; for most people would say there was only one passenger that got off at Red Ravine, seeing that the second of 'em was carried out of the express-car in a wooden box. Usually, when a body was coming on, £ got word of it beforehand, but this one took me quite by surprise, and added not a a little to the nervousness I already felt. ' Who was it ?' I asked, as the box was carried into the station. The passenger who had got off the train, and who was a stranger to me, answered my inquiry : 'The body is that of my sister-in Jaw,' said he. 'She was the niece of Thomas Eldridge—doubtless you know him. Her death was very sudden. She is to be buried in Mr Eldridge'a lot here.' ' Then I suppose the body Is to be left in my charge an;il to-morrow ?' said I. ■Yes,' answered the stranger. * Do yon suppose I can get to Mr Eldridge's myself to-night r' ' Well,' I replied, 'it's a good four miles, and in such a storm as this—' 1 I'll wait until to-morrow,' interrupted the stranger. ' There is some sort of hotel here, isn't there ?' ' Yes, a good one. You'll have to foot it though; but it's only a matter of a quarter of a mile, and you cau't miss your way, for the road np the hill leads straight to the house.' Here I made my way out on the platform again, and made my way to the express csr, where the money package, which all along I had secretly hoped wonldn't come, was delivered to me by the messenger. As he gave it to me, he said : ' You'll want to keep a sharp eye on that, Billy. There's enough ia it to make one of your Red Raviners put -a bullet through your head, and never give yon the chance to object.' ' I'll look out for the Red Raviners, and (ha package, too,' said I, confidently enough. But, if the truth had been told, I didn't like the suggestion which the messenger had made. The train moved quickly, and I swung my lantern, as was my habit, by the way of bidding good night to old. Luke Granger. Then 1 went into the little station house with the package clutched tightly under my rubber coat, expecting to find the man there who had come on with the body. But he was gone, being anxious, no doubt, get to the hotel as quick as possible. No. 39 was the last train which stopped at Red Ravine until 6.10 the next morning. So my work for the night was done, and I had only to lock up the doors, see that things were all right about the place, and sit down to my newspaper in the little room which served as my sleeping quarters. Twenty years had passed since I first found myself installed at Red Ravine as telegraph operator in the railway station. Being content with the humdrum sort of life, and faithful to my duties, I had come by degrees to attend to all the work which the place required. That is, I was the ticket agent, the baggage-master, and the keeper of the station, besides acting for the express company and continuing my charge of the telegraph key. These combined labours made it pretty close work for me, but they all yielded a very comfortable income ; and, as I was troubled with no unsatisfied ambition, I counted myself well fixed. As I have intimated I slept in the station, partly to keep guard en the company's property, and partly from ehoice ; for being a bachelor and without kin, I had nothing to attract me elsewhere. My duties had grown a sort of second nature, and I had lived in the little town so long that the younger generation had come to speak of me as ' Old Eilly.' l'hat was, I suppose, because my hair was getting gray and my joints a trifle stiff. The Red itavine Station was a wooden building, about forty feet long by twenty wide. It was divided into two apartments, the larger one being for freight and baggage, and the tmal'er one for passengers. My own little room was only a piece partitioned off from the freight quarter, and ten feet square, and connected by a door with a box of an office in the passengers' room, which served both for Belling tickets and holding the telegraph key. In this latter apartment was also placed the old-fashioned iron safe, in which I locked up valuable express packages, when any happened to come to Red Ravine. The village, I ought.to explain, had grown up entirely through the influence of the great ironworks of Eldridge and Ricketson. There were rich beds of ore a few miles north, and these, as well as the foundry which employed four or five hundred, were controlled by the firm I have mentioned. There had been some trouble at the works recently—a strike or something growing out of a delay in paying the men their wages. That is how it happened that the 13.000 dols money package came into my keeping for a night. Well, when I had made all snug about the station, and got off my wet clothing, I eat down comfortably with pipe and newspaper, to enjoy my customary reading. The storm outside continued to rage more fiercely, but within things were cozy as could be. I had a blazing fire in tie stove, cheerful light, easy chair, plenty of good tobacco—the one luxury In which I waß really extravagant—a fresh newspaper, and a bottle of good Holland gin wherewith to make my regular nocturnal toddy. Certainly these were pleasant surroundings for an old fellow like me, and, as a rale, they yielded as much solid comfort as a man had a right to expect in this world. But that>ight things seemed all out of gear, as I have said. My pipe didn't soothe me as wsb its wont; try as I might I couldn't get interested in the newspaper ; an uncomfortable feeling of dread—a feeling that some shadowy but horrible thing was about to happen—possessed my mind; and even when I mLsed np a toddy considerably stronger than usual, It failed to bring the relief I hoped for. 'lt all comes of that pesky money package,' I muttered to myself. 'Why couldn't it have got her on the 11.30, and saved me the jjb of keepng it over Just at that moment came a terrific cl p of thunder, and a flash of lightning vivid enough to make the lamp seem dim. I had locked up the package in the safe, and put the key—there was no combination lock—in my pocket. But I had not the largest faith in the security of the old safe. It had occurred to me often that a person could open it, even if he wasn't a skilful cracksman. It was my custom to leave my door open between my little room and ticket office, so that if the Red Ravine was called on the the telegraph key I could hear it. The instrument had been clicking away at ; a great rate for the last hour ; but as it was none of my business, I had paid no attention.

to what was going on over the wires. I judged now, from the nearneEß of the lightning and the jerky sounds of the instrnmentr, that the storm was playing the mischief with the mecssges. I passed into the ticket office, where a light was burning, and thought whether the money package would ba less exposed in the safe than it would be under the mattress of my bed; and I finally concluded that the latter place would be hardest for any possible thief to reach. So I took out the heavy brown envelope, and stowed it axay under the mattras. Then I took a second glass of toddy, which was usually against my line, but which I thought the ciroamstances warranted. Once more I sit down to my newspaper and pipe, but with no better success tbajt before. The storm seemed now to have centred right over the little etation. Peal after peal of thunder rent the air, and the lightning played about the sky like phosphorous on an inky background. If jon have ever chanced to be in a telegraph office during a thunderstorm, yon may have seen the electricity dach down the wirea in a way to make timid people nervous. Even veteran operators r like myself, wouldn't undertake to receive that sort of message. I was tempted to close the key, but the meaningless ticking had a sort of fascination for mo in the mood I then was. It was like incoherent mntterings of a maniac, where now and then, at long intervals only, could one distinguish a word or sentence. May be the extra allowance of t:ddy had made me more imaginative than usual, and given a weird coloring to my thoughts; for listening to the rapid click-click, i remembered fancying that some spirit nana had got held of the key, and was pouring out a wail of woe over the wires. I was too restless to sit still and too nervous to go to bed. Besides if even I hadn't been so upset in my mind, it is doubtful whether I could have slept through such a storm as that. To occupy myself about something, I relighted my lantern, went out into the freight room, examined again the bolts of doors and the fastenings of windows, and returned to room more worried and upset than ever. _ Just as I was entering my own nest, the light of the lantern fell squareley on the wooden box. Oddly enough, until that moment I had forgotten all about the young woman. Thinking so steadily of the 13,000 dols. had, I suppose, driven the box out of my mind. But I can't say it was any comfort to have it brought back now; for a corpse is never the most cheerful of company, and, feeling as I did then, I would a great deal rather have had no company at all. It must hare been the imp of the perverse, I suppose, that compelled me, after the box had b°.en brought back to my mind, to leave the door open so that I could Bit and stare at it with morbid curiosity. As I have already said, my sleeping apartment was petitioned off. from the freight room, and was connected with the latter by a door. The body had been placed in such a position that, when this door was open, the head of the box was in Bight. (To be continued.)