Mexico weekly ledger., 1886-12-09
AN OPERATORS STORY.
How He Saved a Railway Train
from Wreck and Robbery.
n. s. LaMotIIe. in chicaso Current

One afternoon last September, at the
Glen Mountain House, at Watkins Glen,
New York, u Geographic friend told me
how he won great success in his profess
sion, as follows:
Almost three years ago l first visited
this famous watering place. l had been
working a ~circuit'' in various cities, and
dropped off here for a little recreation.
One evening, in the dining-room, amid
the ~clatter of dishes and knives and forks
my trained ear caught a meaning from the
idle drumming on the table Of knives in
the hands of two welldresscd men op-
pDsite me. To the crowd, if noticed at all,
those sounds only indicated Impotence at
the hurrying, yet delayed walters.
If it had been commonplace converse
ticn | should have needed their communi.
cation, except, perhaps, for sport to "call'
them. They licked off a phrase Or two at
intervals during their meal. Once the
head waiter noticed the Clinking of a
spoon upon a cup, and inquired if
either Of them wanted any thing.
Tor IN instant they were confused,
then one said he wanted more coffee. A
waiter replenishcd his nearly full cup.
After hat the ticks were less frequent.
OF course it was none of my business, but
/ could not help hearing the tick-talk, and
the conversation was SO curious it greatly
interested me.
nat very evening, while l was reading
in the office, the two cOnversers in ljght-
ninglingo at the table came in and lit
fresh cigars. Occasionally the hotel
s'sounder'' clicked tidings from the world
in the surrounding night. The death of a
mar Of National prominence was heralded
by the instrument. Before the hotel oper-
ator informed the by-standers of that i'm
portant news one Of the stranger operators
said to the other: Hes dead at last.'
"Hushi' whispered the other.
Nobody seemed to notice the betraysng
observation or its rejoinder.
As | wondered at the object in view of
that pair of mysterious couyerser5 l did
not reveal my identity, but determined to
heed any signs. Whenever they were in
the dining-r0om first | thought best not to
sit near them, and, therefore, did not then
obtain any peculiar Information.
After Il steamboat ride on beautiful Sene-
ca, | visited Ithaca, to inspect Cornell
University. When / returned to Watkins,
the landlord told me he was sorry he could
not give me my former room, because of
an extra large excursion party. He could,
however, give me one as good, which
thankfully accepted.
That night was far from being sorry
for the change of room, as l heard mysteri-
Gus raps on the wall. Somebody was sig
mailing to some one in another room. If
the message had been ordinary / should
have signaled that l was an unintentional
listener.
1t was the old jargon of unmeaning
words and phrases. From the frequent
repetition of some Of them, q few had be-
come familiar to me. As a commercial
operator, | had handled many cipher mes
sagcs. TO muse myself ! tried to solve
these. In them a leading expression had
been: ''The soup is late" Now the raps
said: THE soup is getting hot" | was
more than ever convinced there was a plot
somewhere about something. These con
ycrsations being disguised, were in them
selves suspicious. thought | had made
Gut some of the key to the cipher.
As the night was pleasant / went down
stairs and took a stroll. A few stars
peeped out. The wind sighed through the
famous gorge close by. I~sauntcred along,
cautiously however, as the adjacent chasm
would have been a convenient place for a
footpad to dispose Of his victim without
exciting alarm
Suddenly l saw a light fash out and dis.
appear above the glen. Almost without
any reason, | turned my heard and saw a
light fash from the upper portion of the
hotel. The moonless night swallowed I'D
both lights. Perhaps the light in the hotel
was accidental. May be my excited senses
were deceived about the CLEAN over the
glen. Nobody Of flesh and blood could
flash q light one hundred and lifty feet
above the little stream whose voice was
lost in the black depths below. Perhaps
1t was "a FREELY flashing its tiny lamp out in
that emptiness nearly five hundred feet
from bank 10 bank at that point.
L stepped close to q large tree, and
fhpHpht for Gpp1n tiu,A about tI,, ,,t-a....
ingredients Of that 'soup.n Rugged the
friendly pine-trce as somebody walked
cautiously past, going toward the hotel.
n few minutes after ! determined to in
veatigatc one theory.
Cautiously / sought the track of the rail |
way. Carefully / crept along the ties and
went out over the abyss. / estimated the
distance where the light flashed, and |
earnestly CROPPED for something, l knew
not what. You may think / was foolish.
was about TO go pack to the hotel when |
my right hand, beside o rail, touched a
hno wire. ] struck a match, and, shining |
the blaze, l perceived that the copper wire
gan into n p~asteboard cuff box, tied secure
~ under a c~ross-timber. The wire led in !
IL the air towards the hotel.
Thu brief light was out. There | cling. |
held up by the structure which, for all its
stone, iron, and wood, seemed to almost
sway In the gale sweeping down the
canyon. Taking out my pocket-knife, | |
grasped the wire on the outside of the rail
with my left hand, and, with nv right. |
closed over it the big knife blade. The
outer severed end | fastened around a rail.
You may be sure | carefully united that
box. was tempted to heavc it into the
gorTc, but rccollcc:cd that such a course
would Illustrate my plan to detect and con-
VIZ 1gFTH hyrT m Hnv- 1 - /
path amang eggs, / started to return.
lett that mysterious box in a summer
house TO guard against any spy noting it In
the hotel.
by urgent request, the night clerk eau
ttously admitted me to the room of the pro.
priotor. with due precaution, / confded
IN him. He went ont n gave the clerk
sore instructions in a low tone, and hand.
ed me a pass-key. 1 sly1y went to my
room.
The house was still. Suddenly there
rang out an alarm of fire. Soon confusion
relgned. Guests were rudely awakened.
ihey hurried out of windows or down
the stairs. In a few minutes every
body returned, pale, trembling and nery-
Gus h fire had been put out with not
very heaTy damage, strange to say. No
pooS' fortunately, was hurt, Every body
congratulated every body on narrow es-
capes. To this day there are, I under.
stand, only three persons who have known
the origin of that fire alarm.
10 ans outsider would 1t not have been
surprising that the occupants of rooms adj
joining mine were more dressed than any
etners OF the fleeing guestsl Further.
more, my neighhors had scarcely disap-
peaFed Tor downstairs till my pass-key,
FURNISHED by the proprietor was used. If
ever an intrusion was iustifiable that was,
Iora qnlck glance, before d hasty exit,
showed me a lighted buI1'seye lantern SET
On the carpet, and near It an open valise.
anls saiise held an electric battery. It's
wires led to another valise which ron.
sa.nea 2 reel, from which led a wire n n
-; snlassn 2 space beneath the partial
toward the railway bridge.
scarcely mad the fre-aiar1n conmotion |