NUMBER SEVEN.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1193, 4 November 1882, Page 3 (Supplement)

NUMBER SEVEN.

“ Yes, there’s seven of us,” said a bluff good-looking man, withdrawing his head from the carriage window, “ three trains ahead of us and three trains ahind of us, and that’s what they call the block system,” and hereupon the manjgave a short but jolly laugh, and resigned himself once more to repose. Now the way in which he took this repose was rather singular. The scene was a third-class carriage, with no arms to the scats, of course, but our friend in the corner knew how to make himself comfortable, and propped himself on the shoulder of his companion, a woman who seemed much older than himself, old enough to have been his mother, indeed. She was not his mother, quite evidently, however. The affectionate glances she gave him every now and then were not of a maternal character, and yet she was not the kind of woman one would have credited with much passionate feeling. Hard she was, and rather sour-looking,’ her eyebrows were very much raised, and the corners of her mouth strongly drawn down. But she sustained the burden of her companion’s arm with meek complacency, as if she were quite prepared to make herself his footstool if occasion required, a kind of homage that the young man accepted with the most lordly indifference. He was strikingly handsome when . you came to look at bis face, with glossy brown beard and moustache, And an air of prosperity about him, attaching itself to his massive gold chain, his diamond scarf-pin, and heavy sleeve-links.

We were halted somewhere in the country —exact spot unknown—owing to some stoppage on the line. All was dark and quiet about us, except for one red eye in the distance, which persistently refused to look any other way, and the sound of escaping steam from distant engines. And a silent tired company we were; one or two stray volunteers, in soiled and dusty uniforms, from the review, and other travellers who had become involved in the rush and crush of the day, and. themselves hours behind time, and still far away from their destination. Among these last, an elderly dame who had become quite nervous, owing to the numerous stoppings and delays, so nervous that she addressed the hard-featured woman opposite: “ Don’t you think, ma’am, that there’s danger of trains running into us while we are waiting here ?” “ The woman thus addressed cast an appealing look at her companion, who roused himself suddenly from what could only have been a cat’s sleep, and took upon himself tp reply to the question. “ Do I think there’s danger, ma’am ?” said , the handsome young man ; “ well, its difficult to say when there isn’t danger. Only my notion is that danger

comes when you least expect it. And I ought to know something about it, ma’am, for I was a signalman once upon a time.” “ Oh, you were a signalman,” said the old dame, looking at the man with interest; feeling, perhaps, a sense of protection in his presence, as a man who would be sure to know if anything went wrong. “ A signalman ; then surely you must know a great deal about it!”

“ Yes, I think we could tell them- a thing or two, couldn’t we, old lady ?” remarked the ex-signalman, giving his companion a playful shake of the shoulders, a caress she acknowledged by a soft submissive glance. “ I dare say we could, Edward,” she replied quite in a whisper, and Edward shook his head with fierceness and relapsed into silence.

“Oh, then do tell it,” cried the old lady, “ I take such an interest in signals.” “ Well, ma’am,” began the ex-signalman abruptly, “ did you ever see a triangular junction ? Perhaps you haven’t, for there ain’t many of ’em. But there was one on our line, the Brewminster and Dowset Junction, a contractor’s line, mark you, and I was working for Macduff and Co., the contractors. The line was just finished then, so to say, and we were looking for the inspector every day to pass it. Now, perhaps, you may know what a railway inspector is. A sharpish crew, mind you, pretty bright in their ways—army gents mostly. But they know a lot*; at least, they get told a lot, don’t you see. And there’s a difference,, too, among ’em. Some’s a bit easier than others, and some’s a bit harder. And when Mr. Macduff, our head man to the contract, got a letter to say Colonel Bookem was coming next day to inspect the line, ah! he was in a right bad temper that day, for Bookem was about the sharpest of the lot and tlie hardest to get over. For our people were in a desperate hurry to get the line open. Reason why ; they could touch a big lump of money the minute the line was declared open, and money was what they wanted bad enough. And it was that very day I had to go up to the office for a bit of business of my own, and lup and spoke to the gaffer. ‘Mr Macduff,’ says I, ‘ I want seventy-two hours’ leave, if you please, to count from Thursday night’s shift.’ ‘ And what’s that for ?’ roared Macduff, scowling at me as if I had been a thief. ‘ I’d have told you, Mr. Macduff,’ says I, ‘ if you’d not have jumped the words out of my mouth. I’m going to get spliced to a little girl at Birmingham, and I can’t do it in less time than that nohow.’ And at that he grinds his teeth and looks fiercely over my head. ‘ Why can’t they invent a hautomatic signalman,” says ne, ‘as don’t want splicing nor nothing?’ Bui he wasn’t a bad sort, after all, wasn’t old Duff, and presently he looks at me again. ‘ Ned,’ he says, ‘we are going to have the line open a Monday,’ ‘ Never!’ says I, for I hadn’t a notion it would be ready so soon. * ‘ Yes, it is so,’ he said again. ‘ To-morrow’s Wednesday, and Bookem is coming down to examine the line, and we shall have the Board of Trade certificate down on Saturday, in time to open on Monday. And look here, Ned, what’s your wages now—eh? Thirty shillings, is it? Well, I’ll put you on the triangular junction, and you shall have thirty-five.’ And with that I made my best bow, and backed out of the office. He hadn’t told me I might have my leave, in so many words, but I took that for granted, and got all ready to start. “ Ah, she was a nice little thing, that lass of mine at Birmingham!” went on Edward, with a certain huskiness of speech, “ the youngest one of seven, as had all married well, all but she, and well-to-do her parents were, and sorry enough to part with her. And for to go and marry a signalman ! Why, her sisters were mad with her! There was one had married a pUddler.” “La!” interrupted a squeamish-looking young woman, who sat at the farther corner of the carriage, “ a puddler! Well, that must be a dirty trade. I’d sooner have a signalman than that.” ,

“ You don’t know what I mean, miss,” resumed Edward severely. “He was an iron puddler, and making his four-ten or five pounds a week, and naturally didn’t think much of me with my thirty shillings, and liable to be spoke to by any jack-in-office. But she stuck to me through it all, did Liz. ‘ And when you’ve got a home for me, you come and fetch me, Ned,’ says she. And a pretty little home it was, thanks to our gaffer. A bit of a cottage up in a wood just over the triangular junction. There was honeysuckle, and ferns, and all kinds of green things about it—not that I thought much of that, but she did, for she doted on all such things, and, living in a smoky street in a dirty town, it was like a fairy talc to tell her all I told her about the pretty little country cottage. I recollect the day before our wedding-day wc had a little trip together into the country. Of course there was nothing could suit Liz but green fields and trees, and every pretty little cot we come across, ‘ Are our’s anything like so pretty as that, Ned?’ she’d ask. ‘ Why, ours is twice as pretty,’ I’d say; and with that she’d give my harm a little hug. ‘ Oh, Ned, that’s too much happiness,’ she’d cry. Not that there was much danger of that, according as I’ve found it,” continued Edward, stroking his beard nervously. “You don’t want to be frightened of being too happy. There’s plenty about will take care you ain’t that. Oh, you needn’t look at mo, old lady,” seeing that his companion had turned a reproachful glance upon him—a glance softer and more pathetic, than you would have expected from such a hard-fea-tured person. “ We’re happy enough together. There ain’t any blame upon you. Only don’t you see, there’s something in the feelings of a young chap and his girl when they’re real fond of each other, as we were, that the rest of your days don’t seem to correspond to somehow.”

“ But I must hark back a bit,” resumed Edward, after tailing a slight refresher from a case-bottle he carried in his pocket, and politely offering the bottle to the company. “It was on the Wednesday before my wed-ding-day, that Colonel Bookem came down to inspect the line. And busy enough they were, he and old Duff, running up and down the line on a little contractor’s engine, and me with them, to pull the switches and levers. And there were things here and there he found fault with, and put ’em down in a book till he got a pretty long list of them. ‘ Now don’t you think I’d better come again in a fortnight,’ he said to old Duff, ‘ when all these things have been attended to ?’ ‘ Oh, no, no,’ says Duff, as anxious as possible. ‘ Don’t do that. I give you my word of honor,’ says he, “ that all this shall be put right, and just as you’d like it within twenty-four hours.’ And Bookem looked doubtful, but he said: ‘All right, I’ll go on then.’ And just then we come to the triangular junction, and Bookem jumped off the engine and ran off to the signal box, and me and Duff after him as fast as our legs could carry us. But as we went along Duff catches me by the arm. ‘Ned,’ whispers he, quite low, but very fierce, ‘ whatever you do, don’t pull Number Seven.’ That was lever Number Seven, don’t you see, and I saw in a minute what I heard afterwards, how there was something wrong with that set of points. Now you may judge there was a pretty good row of levers in that box, and, thinks I to myself, there won’t be no great difficulty in missing Number Seven. And Duff begins singing out to me, “ Pull Number Three, pull Number Five,’ and so on, just to show the inspector how clean they all worked. An<l Colonel Bookem looks on for a minute. ‘ Now,’ says he,’ taking Duff by the arm, ‘ it strikes me that I’ve got to inspect this box, and not* you; so if

you don’t mind, Duff, I’ll trouble you to stand outside.’ And Duff couldn’t help but go, and stood there on the steps watching everything through the glass, as a cat does a mouse. Now, whether it was accidental, or whether the colonel bad overheard our little whisper, I don’t know to this day, but no sooner were we alone together than he sings out: ‘ Now, my man, pull Number Seven 1’ And I got hold of Numoer Nine, by accident, and pulled it over, and looked at him quite innocent-like. ‘ I said Number Seven,’ says he quite stern. ‘ You’re not fit for a signalman if you don’t keep your wits about you better than that. ‘ Pull Number Seven.’ I thought it was all over then. If thiit lever didn’t work he’d never pass the line that day, and Macduff and Company would be up the spout, I expect, and me out of a berth very likely. And so I put my back into that lever, more out of spite than anything else, thinking I should break it sooner than move it. But, lo and behold ! it came over as easy as any of them. ‘ That will do,’ says Bookem, and shuts up his book, and presently I heard Duff hollering for a special engine to take the colonel to catch the London train, and glad enough we were to see his back. And soon after that I met one of my mates, and he said : ‘ Well, Ned, how did you manage to pull Number Seven?’ ‘Oh, easy enough,’ said I. ‘ Ah,’ said he, laughing, * you’ve got me to thank for that. Didirt old Duff send me spinning down the line with a crowbar ? and when lw lifted his hand I hauled the points over bodily, else you’d never have pulled that lever.’

“ Well, we both of us had a good laugh over that; for there’s always something pleasing in getting over them Gov’ment chaps. And a jolly supper we got out of Duff that night over at The King’s Head, which was right opposite the triangular junction. And the landlady of The King’s Head was this good lady here”—giving his companion a friendly shake—“seeing as I lodged there for a bit, and jolly kind she’d been to me—mending my things and looking after me as if I’d been her own son. Well, and so you did, old girl,” noticing another half-appealing look from his companion : “ there’s nothing to be ashamed of in that. But when I told her that I was going off next day to bring home my little lass, you never saw any body look so queer as she did. ‘ Why, Edward,’ she cried. ‘ you never told me you were going to be married.’ No more I hadn’t; a young chap don’t tell that to all the world. Perhaps I shouldn’t have had my shirts mended so beautiful if all that bad come out. However, I must say, when she got over the surprise, she behaved firstrate, slipped two pound into my hand to help me through with, and wished me all the happiness in the world. “ Well, I needn’t tell you about the wedding, only we were married on a Saturday, and nothing would do for my little girl but she must get home to our own little cottage that night. And it’s a good long journey from Birmingham, so that the day was pretty well on before we got to Brewminster, where our line began. And such doings as there were at Brewminster, ready for the opening of the line, arches over the road, and flags hanging out, and Liz was delighted, and would have it they were all for our wedding. Well, we had our tea at Brewminster, and then I thought we shbuld have done the rest of the journey on the engine, seeing as the line wasn’t opened yet, but, as it happened, Macduff himself was going down with an engineer; and so they clapped on a composite coach, and me and my little lass we had a compartment all to ourselves, and travelled along as happy as you please. I never saw the sun to shine so sweet as it did that evening, nor the trees to look so green, and there was little waterfalls coming over the rocks, and my little darling more pleased with it all than I can tell you. But, getting tired out at last, she fell to sleep on my shonlder, only I’d promised to wake her up when we came in sight of our little cot.

“Well, I must have been half asleep myself, but I was awake enough to know as how we were just coming to the triangular junction, when all of a minute we came to a dead stop with a kind of grinding jar, and the whole carriage seemed to crackle up about us. Next minute I was out on the bank and had dragged my little lass out with me. There was Macduff raging about with his face all cut open. ‘ It’s that cursed Number Seven,’ he cried; ‘ those idiots had never put it right, and sent us smash into the goods.’ ‘ Are you hurt, Ned ?’ he cried to me. ‘ No,’ said I; ‘ I don’t feel much hurt, but will you help mo to carry my little lass, she’s in a kind of swoon, and I can’t get her round.’ Well, iny good lady here had bden on the look-out for us, and she had my little darling taken into her house, as was close by, don’t you see, and they sent an engine off to Brewminster for the doctor; but she lay there quite cold and stiff, and I was pretty near out of my mind, calling to her like one frantic.”

“ And presently she opened her eyes, the poor little dear, but there was such a solemn awful look in them as took my breath away to see. ‘ she whispers, I could just hear her, bending over her with my ear to her mouth, ‘ hold me, keep me ; don’t let me go.’ Aye, and I’d have held her if man could, but I knew she was going away from me, and I couldn’t stop her, no not with giving my own life for her, as I’d willingly have done. And there was just a flutter in her eyelids, and a long gasp of breath, and then came a rattle in her throat. »She was gone. “ That was a pretty wedding-day for a fellow, wasn’t it, mates! ” cried Edward, dashing the back of his hand across his eyes, as he looked hard out into the darkness—- “ only they say as all things is ordered for our good. And that might be; for don’t you see I might have been a working signalman all the days of my life, only for this good lady bore. For she was so kind to me, and so loving all the time I was half distracted liko with my trouble, that after a bit I asked her if she wouldn’t join in and make a match of it with me. And so we did, and now me and my good lady we keep one of the handsomest public-hbuses in London—you may guess which side the money came from, and we could go out any day we liked, and live like gentlefolks. But she’s got her heart in the business, and I don’t think she’d be happy to live retired. Would you, old lady ? ” Her eyebrows were arched still higher, the corners of her mouth drawn lower, her mouth screwed up another turn tighter. But still she had a soft glance for Edward, and whispered shyly: “ It shall be os you please, dear.” And with that the engine whistled, and wc began to move on slowly at first, and then getting into full speed; and presently we rattled past points and sidings towards a big junction. “ There’s no Number Seven here, I hope,” said the old lady, peering nervously out of the window. “ Well, ma’am, I don’t expect there is ; not one of that sort,” rejoined Edward, laughing rather dismally. “ But often enough running into a junction like this, I seem to feel my little lass’s head upon my shoulder. What, do you get out here? Good-night, ma’am.” And the old lady being gone he resigned himself to sleep upon the shoulder of his faithful partner, and was not 4o be drawn out any more that night.—From All The Year Round.

Mamma to her youngest hopeful: “ Now, darling, read a little before going away.” “ But, mamma ” “ Oh, well 1 say only A.” “ Well, I will: ‘ A,’ but only on condition that you don’t ask me to say ‘ B.’ ”