Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-11-24

Lightsp Queer where the lights came
from, unless-why, YES, almost to a
station, of course. dell must have put
q bright light in the window.
Alas! Bill had climbed back over the
tender to look at a suspected hot-box
on the after truck.
Shrek after shrek of warning from q
steam-whistle aided the flashing of the
signal lights and at last forced their
meaning upon the benumbed brain.
With a cry Of horror the engine was re-
versed, but to late to avert the crash
that followed as the two freight trains
were piled upon each other in common
wreck. .
"What possessed you to run on in
that fashion, manp Were you drunk
or crazyP" demanded more than one
rough voice as Jim stock by the track.
But he only gazed with blanched face
at the Gene before him and answered
them nothing.
Observation-Disclosures miraculously,
it seemed-no one was seriously in
jured," as the morning papers said in
chronicling the occurrence Under the
same glaring headlines they also COM
mended the promptness of the company
in dismissing the engineer whose
criminal carelessness caused the disas-
ter, and who, as nearly as could be
learned, was comfortably sleeping at
his post, and so neglectful of all sig
nals!''
These were the tidings that reached
Dell instead of the glad word for which
she had waited. -
"What they say is true, after a FASH
ion," said Jim, simply and sadly. II
was to blame for it and yet 1 wasn't,
for | was not fit to make the run, and /
told them So"
There was no one to chronicle his
years OF faithful service, or the s'crim-
NAL carelessness," if not cruelty, which
had placed him in such a position; but
these things were we'll understood
among the many workers in that rail-
road town, and they acknowledged to
each other, with ready but helpless
sympathy, that it was trough on poor
jim"
Rough it surely grew as the long days
came and went and the hope Of rein
statement grew DINNER. :.Al those
missing men, who couldn't be found
when I needed a single nights rest,
seem to have turned up once more, and
they spare me indefinitely" he ex-
planned to Dell, with a p~retense. of
POPULARITY that scarcely covered
the bitterness. The brave little woman
tried to comfort and encourage him,
though the dancing light had gone out
Of her brown eyes, and new grave lines
were deepening about the young lips.
The little house they had planned
seemed so like the shadowy ghost of a
dead hope that neither cared to talk of
it any more. and indeed Dell's inge-
nuity found full occupation now in
combating the various wild schemes
which Jim in his desperation was con-
stantly forming. He had been away to
look for employment, but business was
dull everywhere at this season; and,
moreover, grown up in that railroad
town, where all interest and industry
conferred in the shops and tracks, he
had belonged to the line from boyhood;
he could do but the one thing, and there
was little chance for a situation else
where while the shadow of the great
corporations disapproval seemed to fol-
low him in all his efforts like a blighting
frost.
So the bright autumn leaves dropped
from the trees, leaving only brown and
barren branches; the soft haze faded
from the hills; and the narrow iron
track, stretching away over the frozen
earth toward the cold gray sky, looked
to Dell's sorrowful eyes a fitting emblem
of the dreary life-road that lay before
her.
"l'm going away Tomorrow" Jim
was saying, as they passed slowly over
the bridge and down. toward the town.
give shown idiocy enough in waiting
here for any chance or justice. I mean
to go as for west as [ can make my
way, and I'll come back when I've some
good word to bring-if that time ever
comes"
1t was useless to combat his purpose;
there was nothing better to offer. The
girls wistful gaze strayed with a dreary
| persistency to the track again. What's
hard, narrow road it was, stretching on
to it's cherries goal-the far-away win
try horizon!
Down on the walk by the round-house
a knot of loungers had gathered. Icha-
bod Turner's w%anderings had brought
him thither again-the place seemed to
hold some peculiar fascination for him
and he was discoursing on his favorite
theme. Suddenly a movement and
murmur of excitement ran through the
crowd, and it's numbers were speedily
augmented from various quarters of the
building. Swiftly and unexpectedly the
speaker had turned, and with a single
bound placed himself in the cab Of a
locomotive that had for aamoment been
left untenanted.
..It's steamed up!'' "Oa! off" "Come
out of that" shouted several voices.
But Ichabod laughed hoarsely and
waved his long arms triumphantly
above his head.
'I'm the only man on this continent
that can run an engine! I'm ordered to
take this one and 60 and turn the world
right side up! Hurrah!"
Two or three persons rushed forward,
but he caught up an iron bar and
welded it SO vigorously that they were
compelled to fall back. Then, like a
flash, his hand seized the throttle-lever,
and the dangerous steed he had chosen
1l---.- S,,r .,. oe 1:fo