The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-07-11

1T all of that pesky money
package" ] muttered to myself. why
couldn't it have got here on the 11:3o,
and save me the job Of keeping it over
night p"
Just at that moment came a terrific
clap of thunder, and a flash of lightning
vivid enough to make the lamp seem
dim. l had locked up the package in
the safe, and put the key-there was no
combination lock-in my pocket. But l
had not the largest faith in the security
of the old safe. 1t had occurred to me
often that a person could open 1t, even
If he wasn't a skilled cracksman. 1t was
my custom to leave my door open be-
tween my little oom and the ticket
Office, so that if Red Rayine was called
on the telegraph-key l could hear it. The
instrument had been clicking away at a
great rate for the last hour; but rs 1t was
none of my business, l had paid no atten-
ton to what was going over the wires.
l judged now, from the nearness of the
lightning and the jerky sounds of the
instrument. that the storm was playing
the mischiefwfth the messages. 1 passed
into the ticket-office, where a light was
left burning, and stood for some time
thinking whether the money package
would be less exposed in the safe than it
would be under the mattress of my bed /;
and l finally concluded that the latter
place would be hardest for any possible
theft to reach. So / took out the heavy
brown envelope, and slowed it away
under the mattress. Then 1 made and
drank a glass of toddy, which WAS
usually against my rule, but which l
thought the circumstance warranted.
Once more I sat down to my paper n
pipe, but with no better success han be-
fore. The storm seemed now to have
centered right over the little station
Peal after peal of thunder rent the air,
and the lightning played about the sky
like phosphorus on an inky background.
If yon nave ever CHANGED to be in a tele-
graph Office during n thunder storm, you
may have seen the electricity dash across
the wires In q way to make timid people
nervous. Even veteran operators. like
myself, wouldn't want to undertake to
receive that sort of message. l was
tempted to close the key, but the mean
ingless ticking had a sort Of strange fasci-
nation for me in the mood l then was.
1t was like the incoherent mutterings
of a maniac, where now and then, at
long intervals only, could one distinguish
a word or sentence. Maybe the toddy
made me more imaginative than usual,
and had given n weird coloring to my
thoughts, for, listening to the rapid click
click, l remember fancying that some
s%pirit-hand had hold of the key and was
pouring out a wall of wee oven the wires
I was too restless to sit still and too
nervous TO go to bed. Besides, even if l
hadn't been so upset in my mind, it is
doubtful whether / could have slept
through such n storm as that. To occupy
myself about something, l relighted my
lantern went out into the freight-room,
examined again the bolts of the doors
and the fastenings OF the windows, and
returned to my room more worried and
upset than ever. Just as / was entering
my nest, the light of the lantern fell
squarely on the wooden box. Oddly
enough, until that moment l had for
gotten all about the dead young woman.
Thinking so steadily of the $4,000 had,
l suppose, driven the box out of my
mind. But 1 can't say it was any ON
fort to have it brought back now, for a
corpse is never the most cheerful of
would q great deal rather have had no
company at all.
1t must have been the imp of the per-
verse, / suppose, that compelled me,
after the box had been brought back to
my mind, to leave the door per so that
/ could sit and stare at it with morbid
curiosity. AS l have already said, my
sleeping apartment was partitioned off
from the freight-room, and was CON
nected with the latter by a door. The
body had been placedin ST III a situation,
that, when this door was open, the head
of the box was in sight. Two or three
times l got up TO shut the door, but some
strange fatality drove me back to my
chair, and cause, me TO keep in view
the box with its sad freight. All this
time the storm ragged, the thunder dis
charged its mighty batteries, the light
ming flashed, and the mad rawlings OF
the telegraph continued. l caught my
hand trembling as / tried to refill my
pipe. Nervousness, no doubt, but pos
sibly an observer might have thought
Old Billy was frightened.
had Just risen to wind the little clock
on the shelf, when suddenly, out of the
hitherto meaningless ticking of the in
strument sharply and distinctly came to
my ear these sounds:
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